Social media: mundane to inspirational

Digital engagement for Bolton at Home can mean anything from online repairs enquiries to our staff chatting with customers through Facebook. We offer our staff training on using social media and are encouraged to use it to communicate where it fits with their job role. For more formal corporate services we have an IT and customer access strategy which is at introducing how we embed digital services across the business.

Challenges faced are similar when introducing new ways to engage to both staff and customers. Customers will generally only get involved when they need something – to campaign against bedroom tax, to contact someone when they have no phone credit or to make a complaint.

Soup and social media was a lesson in how slow the process of introducing these channels to some groups might be. Sitting in Breightmet UCAN centre as the staff dished out cups of wholesome soup the idea was that I speak to people about how they can engage with us through social media. As I’m beginning to learn through our staff who regularly work with ‘the community,’ things are not always straightforward. After a long and interesting walk through the life history of one resident she enquires ‘So what are you doing here?’, and manages only a faint amusement that my job even exists in response.

One of the issues we face is that the use of digital channels is so broad. It’s one thing being forced to use Universal Job Match and another believing Twitter can help you make an impact on government policy. Our approach to both staff and customers has to encompass all these needs. For some customers being able to report a repair through Facebook is a matter of convenience but part of what our Community Development Officers is around capacity building and supporting customers in using the channels they need to create change in their neighbourhoods.

I spoke at another event in Breightmet, ‘How many women does it take,’ and this took a completely different stance. Here the emphasis was on how social media can give anyone a voice. Talking the women through examples such as Malala Yousafzai, the Arab Spring and the post-riot clean ups in Manchester, began to get the message across that you can tweet to your MP, councillor or even the Prime Minister and that adding your voice to that of others gives it more power.

However, this workshop did throw up one of the main concerns our staff has around social media use. In a later session women were encouraged to ‘rant’. And asking tenants to rant will usually result in some negative feedback. One of these rants that we published on our blog one was entirely focused on the damp problem in her house and the effect on her children. It would be tempting not to publish this and avoid the negativity but it is important to use these opportunities to build trust.

We published this rant just as we leave our Facebook wall open for people to comment. As I’m sure is the case in many other organisations, Facebook is often used to post complaints and I receive lots of requests to take these down. We remove any references to staff, other customers or any racist or homophobic remarks but it is important that this forum, as with our other channels, remains uncensored.

Social media is scary for organisations because it’s about transparency and dialogue which go hand in hand with a reduction in control. Staff and customers need to feel that the flexibility is there in terms of what they can and can’t say. Social media is about individuals. It’s about listening, talking and building relationships in a new way and this can’t happen in a heavily controlled environment.

At this stage, whilst we develop our presence on these channels, we need to be open to listening to what our customers want and accept it might not always be the same thing we’re planning for. Digital engagement can be everything from the mundane to inspirational and I’d like to be able to offer it all.