A SERIES of webinars is set to boost rural women's skills in social media strategy.
The National Rural Women's Coalition (NRWC) is jumping on the back of the trend of social media platforms becoming collaborative spaces for people to keep in touch, with a series of social media webinars for rural women.
The 2014 e_Leaders Social Media program is the fourth program on offer to use collaborative webinar technology and will offer 20 rural women the opportunity to take part in a nine week program that will focus on building skills in social media strategy.
NRWC vice president Dr Patricia Hamilton said this was the first time the webinars program had looked at social media.
"We aren't looking for beginners for this program, we want people who have access to a computer, the internet and a good headset," she said.
"It's free and there is no travel or babysitting fees as woman can join the conversation from their own home."
Dr Hamilton said it was important that rural woman had these skills and kept up with the times to ensure they weren't left behind.
"While woman often aren't always the front face of the farming business they are always at the kitchen table when decisions are made."
She said the e_Leaders program opened doors for rural woman and didn't just train them and then leave them to their own devices.
"We continue mentoring them after the program ends."
NRWC president Irene Mills said there had been an overwhelming response for upskilling in social media.
"So we are responding with a program that will improve outcomes for rural businesswomen and women involved in primary production or community groups in rural, regional and remote Australia."
Participants will learn how to use various social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+, to develop an effective social media plan that will build business opportunities and engage a desired audience.
Past NRWC e_Leaders participant Sandra Ireson has seen first-hand how social media has positively affected her small community of Booligal, near Hay in NSW.
She said the use of Twitter resulted in an increased exposure of the annual key fundraising event, the Booligal Sheep Races.
"We had an instance where using Twitter resulted in a major television network retweeting one of our posts and we were able to reach more than 100,000 people in our promotion," Ms Ireson said.
"I am an avid user of social media as an opportunity for the voice of rural Australia to be heard."
Applications for the free program close at 4pm on Thursday, September 25.
Visit www.nrwc.com.au