Ben Black kicks off a new WHQ series on social media with a look at how to use Facebook to communicate with tenants about welfare reform
How much time and effort does it
take to talk to 80 people about changes
the UK government is making to their
benefits? The chances are if you were
organising an event it would involve
booking a venue, having a stand made
and asking a few colleagues to spend
the day putting leaflets into the hands of
passers-by.
Facebook means you can do that from
the comfort of your own desk, iPad or
mobile phone. But is your organisation
using this brilliant tool for having
conversations with your tenants?
If not, why not?
Ignore the stories in the press about
Facebook numbers declining. Look at the
links at the bottom of the feature to show
how Facebook has been used by Torfaen
Council and Bron Afon to chat with tenants
about welfare reform. There are still a lot
of people using it as a way to keep up to
date with what’s going on. Don’t listen
to colleagues who say ‘I hate Facebook’.
This is about talking to tenants and if
they are using Facebook so should your
organisation. Forget any personal views
you may have about social media.
Useful content
Social media means you can use links and
share useful content. So it’s worthwhile
spending a bit of time getting a few
good quality links to share. For example,
questions around the ‘bedroom
tax’ can be supported by sharing
this Community Housing Cymru
‘bedroom tax’ video http://
tinyurl.com/c6kzc3o.
If you have Q&As on your
website about universal credit
include these in your responses.
The key is keeping the chat going
by using other interesting content
to help people.
Critical comments
Agree some simple rules in place for
responding to criticism. A simple rule
can just be ‘no swearing’ and remind
people that if they use bad language their
comments will be deleted. Remember
that Facebook is about a conversation
and sometime you may disagree with
a comment. A typical comment on a
public chat about welfare reform involves
‘scroungers watching Jeremy Kyle’. Don’t
worry about comments like these as in
many cases someone will come back and
respond disagreeing and opening up the
debate. The key thing is getting a debate
started as the aim is raise awareness and
answer questions.
Be human
Leave corporate jargon out of any
comments you post. Your tenants want to
talk to a human who talks in plain English.
Any gobbledygook will make you look
bureaucratic and unhelpful. If someone is
using the term ‘bedroom tax’ there is no
need to get in a debate about using ‘under
occupation’. Don’t be afraid of using the
odd smiley face 🙂 and don’t be surprised if
some tenants thank you by adding xxx.
5,000 people viewed our thread
Torfaen Council recently held a session on
Facebook and it involved 80 residents and
was viewed by 5,000 people. If that isn’t
enough of a reason to try using Facebook
read what Richard Davies, head of
revenues and benefits at Torfaen Council,
had to say:
‘The council is seeking to use all means
of communication to get the message
across about the welfare reforms and the
impact of the bedroom tax in particular.
The Facebook session was an excellent
and cost-effective way of addressing the
concerns of residents directly. It enabled
us to correct some of the misinformation
being spread about the changes and to
promote our key support services. We will
be using it again.’
Rumours can be spread online and
the council was able to correct a few
misconceptions including:
- The ‘bedroom tax’ affects those not on
housing benefit – it is only affecting the
amount of housing benefit people receive - The bedroom tax affects the private
sector – it only applies to social housing - That it’s the council responsible for the
changes – it’s the UK Government’s
reforms we have to implement - That benefits are just for the unemployed
– one in five working age benefit
claimants is in work - That the Queen should pay for her
empty bedrooms – it doesn’t apply to
pensioners!
Officers were also able to advertise and
promote their approach to discretionary
housing payments and the online/new
claims service.
Ben Black is communications and
marketing manager at Bron Afon
Community Housing.
Facebook chat links
Take a look at the Facebook
session run by Torfaen Council
http://tinyurl.com/c26usb6
Take at look at the Facebook
session run by Bron Afon http://
tinyurl.com/c7qgqfp