With the launch of the new WorldSkills Australia website, I thought it might be a great opportunity to take some time to explain how each and everyone of us can help WorldSkills Australia spread the word about skills excellence.

It’s easier than you think! All it takes is one click of the mouse and you can potentially spread the word to thousands of people worldwide via social media.

Just for a second, think of the Internet as a perfectly still pond. Each time you “Like”, “Share”, “Post”, “Tweet” or comment, you create a ripple in that pond. Some ripples are bigger than others and capable of travelling great distances. The more ripples we create on the Internet about WorldSkills Australia, the stronger our online presence will become.

It is amazing how fast and effective social media can be. It has lead to the success of many popular brands and given a voice to users who until the Social Networking revolution, could not be heard.

People often ask how they can help spread the word about the great work that WorldSkills Australia is involved in. One of the simplest and easy ways is via social networking through sharing, commenting and engaging – it is as easy as clicking “Like” in some circumstances.

If you’re passionate about WorldSkills Australia then this is a great way to help. The more people who know about WorldSkills, the more resources we have as an organisation to call on. It could lead to potential new sponsorship partners or even additional funding to help get more of our talented Skillaroos overseas.

Great! I want to help. How?

So now that you are 100% convinced that you can help make a difference by spreading the word. What are the best ways to do so?

Currently WorldSkills Australia utilises the following social networking sites:

Youtube

Used to share and distribute videos. WorldSkills Australia posts regular video blogs as well as snippets from television and current events. To help WorldSkills Australia, you could promote these videos by sharing them on Facebook, giving them the thumbs up on YouTube or commenting on the videos themselves.

Visit the WorldSkills Australia Youtube Channel

Flickr

Not many of you know about the vast number of photos we have on the social network Flickr. Flickr enables us to share all the great photos and memories we capture at events.

Flickr has been a great place to upload all the WorldSkills photos from past events and functions. They are all online and publically available on the WorldSkills Australia Flickr profile.

Browse our photo galleries on Flickr

Facebook

Facebook has to be one of the best ways for organisations such as WorldSkills Australia to spread the word. An amazing 25% of the total users on Facebook are between 18-24 years old in Australia. Not to mention the countless brands and potential sponsors who are active on Facebook every day.

Facebook works best when “Fans” are commenting, “Liking”, “Sharing” content that they have either taken themselves or that has been posted on the WorldSkills Australia Facebook page. The more comments and “Likes” that we get, the larger our “Social Reach”.

Visit the WorldSkills Australia Facebook page

Twitter

You have probably heard of Twitter. Twitter is yet another medium WorldSkills Australia uses to post short snippets of news and other updates. It might be interesting to know, WorldSkills Australia was one of the first to have the results from the International Competition posted on Twitter, seconds after it was announced on stage.

If you have a Twitter account, make sure to follow @WorldSkills_AU. You can help spread the word on Skills Excellence by “Re-tweeting” tweets made by WorldSkills Australia or tagging WorldSkills Australia in your own tweets about skills, trade and competition. You can also follow the WorldSkills Australia CEO Mark Callaghan at @MarkCalllaghan1

As you can now see, WorldSkills Australia utilises social media to a great extent. It is our hope that by educating our hundreds of competitors, volunteers and sponsors on exactly how we use social media, we can together spread the word and promote skills excellence and development in Australia.

So the next time you are online and would like to help out, why not start a conversation about WorldSkills Australia?