The document discusses using Facebook groups to facilitate community engagement for residential developments. It provides examples of how community Facebook groups were used to address issues like parking, security, and building reputations. The groups allowed residents to communicate problems, share experiences, and lobby organizations to resolve issues more quickly than traditional methods. Organizations need buy-in, training, and adaptable processes to engage effectively on residents' online platforms.

1. Just do it! Facebook for community engagement
Tom Gaskin, Senior Resident Engagement Advisor

2. Paper Mill Yard Facebook group
 New build, mixture of privately owned/rented, general needs and shared
ownership
 Limited opportunities to form relationships with residents
 Lots of shared problems e.g. parking, poor TV reception, vandalism,
cleaning, security etc
 Third party managing agent weren't very responsive
 Setup a community Facebook group
 Informal alternative to residents’ association
 Communicate with residents and share experiences – ‘moans and groans’
 Setup in an hour, promoted with flyers
 Within 3 days, group had over 40 members representing 23% of the
development

4. Discussions
 Parking
 Poor TV reception
 Anti social behavior
 Bike theft
 Drug dealing
 Service charges
 Flexible
 Comment at any
time
 Regular
contributors / lurkers

6. Multimedia – high impact / evidence

8. Lobbying tool

9. Missed opportunity
 Staff observed discussions but didn’t engage
 Residents began to get frustrated with lack of progress
 Organisations requested summaries of key issues
 Dealt with through traditional methods
 Very time consuming
 Meetings with housing association and managing agent
 Report back to residents via group

10. Community benefits

11. Outcomes
 Managing agent went into administration
 New agent appointed
 Facebook group helped raise awareness of key issues
 Issues promptly resolved e.g. new security measures, parking policy
 Much nicer place to live
 Rebuilding the development’s reputation
 Requests to delete group - Group went private
 Facebook changes meant residents had to rejoin
 Less moans… less conversations

12. Key learning
 Go to where your residents are and adapt – don’t try and move them
 Engage on their terms – online outreach
 Need organisational buy in, policy, strategy, staff training
 Support residents to manage online communities – develop skills and
promote resources available e.g. funding for promotional materials, meeting
venues
 Consider adapting processes – customer feedback, complaints, repair
requests
 Conversations wouldn’t have worked on a corporate / organisational page
 Joint approach - Engage partners and internal teams e.g. neighbourhoods,
communications

13. Larner Road Regeneration

14. Larner Road
 622 flats, almost all in tower blocks
 Poor local reputation, partly justified
 Difficult and expensive to manage
Approach
 Move everyone out
 Demolish
 Rebuild –mainly family homes
 Build a sense of pride
 Let everyone else know – Larner
Road is changing
© Copyright Nigel Cox and licensed for reuse
under this Creative Commons Licence

15. Purpose
 Involve people who don’t come to meetings
 Share information
 Squash rumours
 Residents, neighbours and other community stakeholders
 Honesty and respect
 Building Trust
 Genuine dialogue
 Reduce any opposition
 Minimise distress
 Build positive enthusiasm and support

16. Options
Twitter
 Too abrupt for building relationships and showing empathy
Blog (Posterous)
 Orbit would have more control but would have to be more proactive with
content.
 Residents need to make the effort to find it
Facebook
 Residents are already using it daily.
 More democratic

17. Facebook page
 167 likes
 Basic design
 No custom URL
 Combination of page
and staff posts
Reach
 70% female
 Good age spread
 33% aged 25-34
 3% - aged 55-64

18. Practicalities
 Admins need professional Facebook accounts
 Don’t accept friends!
 Post as self
 Open or closed?
 Monitoring out of hours
 Which staff?
 Who would you send to address a resident meeting?
 Training and support
 Time – it may be more effective than meetings
 Executive support

19. Style
 It’s a conversation
 Good-humoured but not flippant
Like a resident meeting but
 It’s conducted in public
 There’s a record
 Press can see it
However
 There is time to think (use it)
 You can ignore people
 You can delete offensive posts

20. Etiquette
 Courtesy and respect
 You can complain
 You can’t insult individuals or be racist etc
 You should try to focus on what you want to happen
Why people are rude…
 Anxiety
 Inarticulacy
 Drink
 Playing to the audience

21. Dealing with inappropriate comments
 Empathy
 Modelling good humoured responses
 Challenging – suggesting alternatives (either in public or private)
 Deleting – always say you’ve deleted and why. Can invite to resubmit
another version
 Banning (last resort)
 Unless really offensive or a persistent offender, we tend not to delete. It
stands, with our response, as a example to other users of the standards we
expect

23. Orbit South Bexley Facebook page
 Neighbourhood area page
 Closed page
 Building staff confidence
 Community notice board
 Events, information and
advice
 Local courses
 Warm Home Discount
scheme
 Welfare reform
 Celebrating success –
granted Injunction

24. Debate
 How do you decide the best approach for your organisation and residents?
 How local can you go?
 How do you find and engage residents who are active online?
 How important are page likes? How do you measure success?
 Is it best to engage as the organisation or as an individual?
 How do you maintain professional boundaries?
 How can we share resources?

25. Contact
Tom Gaskin
Senior Resident Engagement Advisor, Orbit East and South
Tel: 01603 283326
Email tom.gaskin@orbit.org.uk
Twitter: @tomgaskin
Web:
www.orbiteast.org.uk www.orbitsouth.org.uk
Involved Residents’ blogs:
www.oeinvolvedresidents.org www.osinvolvedresidents.org