Twitter for Housing Associations

Twitter

So you have decided as a Housing Association to get online and use twitter to engage with your residents.  Fantastic news.

But how do you actually do it? How do you find your residents in the digital world? How do you become a community resource online? How do you build followers from your area?

This article is inspired by our partners who are getting online right now and starting to use twitter and is designed for any Housing Association that wants to get the most out of twitter and really engage with their residents and the community online

Let's look at three areas:

1. Build followers (relevant and in your area)
2. Become valuable to those followers
3. Create conversation

---

1. Build followers (relevant and in your area)

Building a followership

You want to build followers in your area that are your residents and key people in the community but how do you do this?

The first step to building a follower-ship is to have a bio that is relevant to what you do.  So make sure you mention the area you operate in within your bio and make it fun and engaging

The second step is to find people from the local area to follow.  One of the best ways to do this is to find people who already have a good following in your area and follow their followers.  So if you were looking for people in Watford you might look at:

Richard Harrington the Local MP for Watford  @Richard4Watford  who has 3830 followers.  His followers are going to be mainly from Watford

Or The Watford Observer @Observer_Owl which has11096 followers.  It will be mainly people from Watford following this account.  You aren't going to get many people from Basingstoke following the Watford Observer!

---

2. Become valuable to those followers

Become Valuable

So after step one you are following people and they are following you back.  Now you need to become valuable to your new followers and there are many ways you can do this. 

The key is to share information and ideas that your residents will find useful, interesting or fun.  Maybe ask some of your followers what they would like you to share online?

This blog posting gives us something to share on twitter with out followers that we hope they find valuable and useful.

Here are some Ideas:

a. become a source of information on upcoming community events
b. share how to information to help your residents
c. retweet other great content you find that you think your residents will be interested in
d. tell them what is going on with your Housing Association
e. Share local job/apprenticeship  opportunities

The main idea is to share things through your tweeting that are of genuine value to your new followers and residents.  So send three tweets a day that add value to your followers life.  Remember to have fun too!

---

3. Create conversation

Create conversation

So you have followers, you are sharing great content now you have got to create engagement.

Twitter is an incredible communication tool, but it is just that; a tool.  Just like the phone or email it is a way of talking to people.  So to create engagement you need to start talking to people just like you would do with your residents in other settings.

You might be thinking what do I talk about?  Here are some ideas of what you can talk about:

1. Look at your followers bios and comment on their interests
2. Look down their recent tweets and comment on what they are talking about
3. Ask people questions
4. Comment on news articles from the local news paper
5. Do a survey of your followers
6. Offer prizes
7. Have fun

Start conversation with your followers and have fun online, get the talking about the matters that really matter to them and you will create conversation.

---

Start using twitter

So if you do these three things:

1. Build followers (relevant and in your area)
2. Become valuable to those followers
3. Create conversation

and start using twitter every day you will build your follower-ship and start engaging with your residents on line!

If you have any questions then tweet us and ask we love to help!

@popUPbusiness
If you found this article useful then please use the buttons below to pass it on.

Speak to you on Twitter very shortly! 

Alan