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How to use social networking sites – Only for Tenant Involvement Officers

If you don’t know your Twitter from your YouTube you are missing out on a big trick and you could end up in a lot of trouble


O.K. I think all our courses are important. They really are. But if this doesn’t attract more delegates than anything I’ve ever run, I’ll eat my hat.

Why? Well, one story I heard the other day illustrates the impact they are having on people’s lives.

A woman went on Friends Reunited. She met an old school friend. They started an affair. She is getting divorced.

How many people do you know who go on the internet to find new friends?

Just ask yourself three questions.

When people want to know something, where do they go? The internet. (YouTube could overtake Google in this area, by the way). When they want to buy something, where do they go? The internet. When they want to complain, where do they go? The internet.

YouTube, Wikis, social networking sites, photo-sharing sites, forums and bulletin boards, pod casts and videos, blogs, Twitter – they’re just some of the new media your residents are using.

These things are changing the way society operates. They’re changing the way YOU operate. They’ve already changed the way people behave. And they affect everyone who deals with people.

Fewer people are watching television, listening to the radio or reading newspapers. And if you use the local press to publicise your events to residents be careful because it is really struggling at the moment.

Traditional media are failing

These media failed to change to digital communications quickly enough. People are using the Internet in ways traditional media can’t seem to compete with. Even within these new media things zoom to prominence amazingly quickly. For instance, Twitter is talked about everywhere – but has yet to make a profit.

So - the old order has gone forever. But have you adapted fast enough to the new?

Within these new media strange things happen. The unexpected is the norm. Stories travel lightning fast. Everyone is a potential documentary maker. And criticism of organisations has never been such an easy option for so many.

But there’s a huge opportunity, too. These new media are a great opportunity. They are very cheap ways to reach your residents.

Time to rethink – are you ready?

You have to rethink how you talk to people.   It’s not easy as with these new media you have to be constantly experimenting. But once you understand and master them properly they are hugely effective. 

They’re quick, powerful, cheap. And fun to experiment with. You can have a neat idea in the morning, try it out and see results by the end of the day. You can test things. See what works, what doesn’t – and why

Here are seven other reasons why you simply must get up to speed with social media:

 You will cover all the areas I have already mentioned plus these key topics:

Your Tutor

These are some of the reasons why we have asked Ged Carroll, one of the UK’s leading experts on this subject, to put together a completely new day.

As European Public Relations Manager for Yahoo!, he created and directed European wide consumer Public Relations, buzz marketing and influencer programmes for Yahoo!'s web 2.0 businesses including Yahoo! Search, flickr, delicious, upcoming.org and Yahoo!360.

Ged’s Yahoo! 'Finds of the Year' campaign was shortlisted for a PR Week Award.

 



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