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Social media – Every picture tells a story

Pinterest and Instagram… aren’t they just for wedding planners and coffee lovers? In fact, says Bethan Davies, they are about so much more than these generalisations suggest and could revolutionise marketing strategies for housing associations across the country… read on to find out why

DO YOU REMEMBER the days when we used to take photographs on our disposable cameras, take them to the shop to develop, wait a few days, go back to collect them, sigh because half your auntie’s head has been cut off, put them in a box and never look at them again?

Now, with smartphone cameras and the ability to upload your images straight on to your chosen platform, there is an endless world of possibilities. People love sharing images on their personal social networking sites, but there are also countless opportunities for housing associations to use this technology to transform tenant and stakeholder engagement.

Why are images so effective? If I told you that I’d redecorated my kitchen, you probably wouldn’t be particularly interested. However, if I showed you a photograph of my new kitchen, I’d get more of a reaction. People are generally more interested in seeing photographs than in hearing anecdotes. A photograph transports you to a place or experience and helps you to identify with the topic, as well as providing a visual representation. It might be a cliché, but a photograph really is worth a thousand words.

Pinterest is one of my favourite visual social media sites. Although Pinterest is a foodie, interior designer and wedding planner’s dream, it’s useful for a multitude of different fields. Your Pinterest profile is made up of different ‘boards’, and each board focuses on a self-chosen topic.

You then ‘pin’ images to your boards which link back to the website they’re hosted on. As a housing association, you could use Pinterest to update tenants and stakeholders on local community regeneration schemes. You could have a board for each town/village within your area, or a board for each community issue. Pinterest is a great platform for infographics so you could make use of these too, as well as promoting fundraising initiatives and linking to your fundraising page to generate additional web traffic.

Pinterest showcases your images and infographics in an attractive and accessible format, as well as promoting your website. People can quickly find out what they need to or what they’re interested in by following relevant boards. A few housing associations are already making use of this social network such as the Seren Group and Tai Calon, but it certainly hasn’t yet been used to its full potential. Interest in your business will grow when people ‘like’ and ‘re pin’ your images, and you’ll soon see a rewarding return on engagement and investment. As you can see from the way the Seren Group has used Pinterest, you could use the site to showcase ideas for a new development as well as to promote the development when it’s launched. You could even create a board where you ask people to vote for their favourite scheme name or design as this would get tenants involved.

Instagram is another fantastic visual social networking site. Although it’s a simple concept, it’s an extremely addictive one. Take a photo, make it look pretty, add relevant hashtags, upload. Instagram has fantastic potential for businesses and the retail sector in particular has embraced these opportunities. There is potential

for housing associations to make use of this brilliant tool and Coastal and Bron Afon’s social enterprise café have already got involved. Instagram is particularly useful if you produce food in any of your community enterprises. Who doesn’t love photos of food? Bron Afon’s Bron Appetit Café is using Instagram to promote its culinary delights and it’s certainly making a difference to visiting numbers. Using the #Cwmbran hashtag really localises images and ensures that they’ll reach the relevant target market.

Other ideas for Instagram include running a monthly competition asking tenants to take a ‘selfie’ in one of your community hubs or in their new home. Tenants then upload this to Instagram, using a particular hashtag set by yourselves, and you’ll choose the best photograph and offer a small prize. Or you could simply use Instagram to demonstrate a typical day in the office, to show off
your latest development or to share event snapshots. Your most avid followers will ‘regram’ your photographs, which means that their followers will see them too. This will build your follower base and create a buzz around your brand.

Photographs are the quickest and most visual way to communicate and they’ll get people talking about your organisation.

It only takes ten seconds to let tenants and stakeholders know about your latest initiative, and a further two seconds for them to share with their networks. Why not give Pinterest and Instagram a try to see how they can revolutionise your tenant and stakeholder engagement strategies? You’ll soon be as addicted as I am!

Bethan Davies is communications officer at Community Housing Cymru Group @Beth_CHC


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