On a related note, in a recent article for the CLC eNewsletter and blog, Clive Shepherd, chair of the eLearning Network, outlined four areas that L&D can look at to harness the power of social networks.

Clive warns those organisations that are ignoring the social media revolution, "We have got by without all these techniques in the past, and many organisations will make a determined effort to get by without them in the future. They may do this with the best of intentions, but they will be missing opportunities - opportunities that their competitors may well be exploiting."

Should senior managers and those in L&D want to try and direct the use of social media to ensure a positive impact on learning and business performance, Clive suggests that there are at least four areas in which they can look:

• formal learning, e.g. the use of forums to discuss issues and share ideas; sharing research using podcasts and videos;
• non-formal learning, e.g. the use of communities of practice to share new ideas and debate issues; the use of micro-blogging to quickly update peers on new developments;
• on-demand learning, e.g. the use of social networks to find sources of expertise or offer your own expertise to others; content sharing (text, screencasts, podcasts, etc) YouTube style;
• experiential learning, e.g. blogging about personal experiences.

At the Third Sector Social Media Convention in June, Martin Baker, MD and founder of the Charity Learning Consortium, will be speaking about the benefits of eLearning at the Convention and will also join a panel debating social media. Macmillan Cancer Support and Breast Cancer Care, both charity members of the Consortium, also have representatives making presentations.

The Third Sector has embraced social media for learning and development, racing ahead of their corporate counterparts, as was revealed by recent benchmarking research by Towards Maturity.

Further high-profile speakers at the Convention include Jon Snow, journalist and broadcaster, Justine Roberts, founder and director of Mumsnet, and Bill Liao, Co-Founder of Xing.com.