Be careful what you say - and where

Anyone in a housing organisation can potentially be ‘the weakest link’ in social media, from the top down. If you’re not crystal clear why you want to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or the like to represent your business, don’t do it. Or at least sit back and watch the action to see how it works before you start to engage people. Presumably you wouldn’t issue a press release telling people what you had for lunch, so if you’re the Facebook face of your organisation, think about the balance between individual personality and your brand.

Of course, you can try to manage the risks. Some providers have vetoed social media completely, by banning ‘inappropriate sites’ during work hours. But any employees with access to a WAP-enabled mobile phone can still tap and tag away to their heart’s content at lunchtime, or log on to their laptop and let off steam after a hard day’s graft. So if your organisation has gone down this route, make sure team members understand the perils, have access to training or support and are under no illusions where they might cross the line and trigger corrective/disciplinary action.

To manage your social media activity pro-actively, you’ll need a clear policy. This should clarify business objectives, list profile management and monitoring arrangements, detail positive practice and set out how to handle anticipated issues (such as complaints or spam).

So YouTube if you want to. Just make sure that if you do, you stay focused; and understand that even if you opt out, your name could still be on-the-line, online.

Kerry James, marketing director, The Bridge Group