You don't need training to use the training.

Go to the sign-in page and enter the username and password issued for the exercise. They are exercise-specific credentials — not your work account. If you've done an exercise with the simulator before, it may or may not be the same username and password.

If you have not been given a login, or it does not work, contact whoever invited you. Nobody can reset it from inside the exercise.

A laptop gives you every feed at once and is the better experience if you have the choice. A phone works properly too — the layout changes to one feed at a time with tabs along the bottom.

Nothing needs to be installed and nothing needs to be downloaded.

If you have been added to one exercise you will be taken straight into it. If you have more than one, you will see a list — open the one marked live.

On a laptop the platforms sit side by side in columns — Y, LinkedNet, InstaSnap, Friendbook and News. Each column is its own feed and scrolls on its own. On a phone you get one feed at a time, chosen from the tabs at the bottom, plus an “All” tab that mixes everything together in order. NOTE: your exercise may not include all of the platforms. If you only see some of the columns, don't worry — that's how your exercise has been set up.

These are simulated platforms with invented names. They behave like the real ones, but nothing you post here reaches any real service.

A gold badge appears when new content arrives; new posts get a brief gold wash so you can see what has just landed. Each column header shows how many posts that platform holds in total.

The search box in the header works two ways, and a small tag on it says which is active. Type, and it searches the words of every post in the exercise — including posts that have scrolled off or have not loaded yet — which is useful when a story has run for an hour and you need the original post again. Click a name instead, and the box shows only that person’s posts and any post that mentions them. The ✕ on the tag, or Backspace, clears it.

Use the post box at the top of a feed, or the Post button on a phone. Choose the platform, write, and send. Your post appears in the feed immediately and the characters in the exercise can read it — so expect an answer.

Every post has the actions you would expect. Replying threads your response under the original, which is usually better than a fresh post when you are answering someone directly. A repost can be plain, or a quote with your own words on top. A busy thread shows the first few replies with a link for the rest.

Every news story has a Share button. Choose Share on Y or Share on LinkedNet, add a comment if you want one, and the article appears in that feed as a card with your words above it.

You can attach an image to a post. On InstaSnap the picture is the post, so you will be asked to crop it to portrait before it goes up. Click any picture in a feed to see it full size.

You are posting as the account the exercise assigned you — often the company account or a named spokesperson. It is shown in the header. If you have been given more than one persona, a switcher appears there and you can change which one you are speaking as before you post.

If you gave your coordinator an email address for the exercise, journalists write to it asking for comment, and you reply from your normal inbox. Threads work the way email threads work — reply, and they come back to you on it. Every exercise email is marked: the subject starts with EXERCISE and the body carries a red EXERCISE banner top and bottom, so it can never be mistaken for a real approach.

If your organisation’s own press-office address is being used, one short administrative message arrives first asking whoever reads that inbox to confirm it. Reply CONFIRM or click the link; until then nothing can be sent there.

Role-players operating a news desk have an Inbox inside the simulator instead, reached from the header. Either way, treat anything that arrives as a genuine request for comment. How long you take to answer is part of what gets measured.

A reporter may telephone you during the exercise. You will be asked to confirm beforehand that you are happy to receive calls on the number you have given, and you can decline — nobody is called without agreeing to it first.

Answer it as you would answer a reporter. Calls may be recorded and transcribed for the debrief, and what you say on the phone can end up quoted in the coverage afterwards. That is not a trick; it is exactly what happens.

Every platform, outlet, journalist and member of the public in this exercise is invented. Nothing you write is published anywhere outside the simulator, and no real service ever sees it.

Do not paste in confidential company information, personal data about real people, or any password. If a scenario detail sounds close to something real, treat it as coincidence and stay inside the exercise.

The exercise is only worth the time if you respond as you actually would. Guessing what the trainer wants to hear teaches you nothing. Neither does treating it as a joke — although a bad decision made here costs nothing, which is the entire point of making it here.

There is no wrong button. Post the thing, send the reply, take the call. If something looks stuck, the fix is almost always to reload the page — the simulator is sometimes updated while an exercise is running, and an open page can go quiet until it is reloaded.