Semaphore Signals

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy


Its becoming a perennial problem, retrieving data from old storage media.

I suppose its not new, think the Cascajal Block, Rosetta Stone, papyrus, Roman stone tablets, wax cylinders, typed documents, One Inch tape reels, DAT tapes, Eight Inch, 5 and a quarter, 3.5 inch and zip disks.

The CD/DVD has just persevered so far. All of these historic formats pose different problems, yet all can (at a pinch and with some time expended) pretty much be turned into something readable by humans or trawled via a search engine.

Popularity of the Internet Archive (at https://archive.org ), shows to me the value of getting all that data accessible.

Having our data in old historic media formats, does pose a problem and particularly I have seen many organisations, successfully digitise historic formats and realise space savings, often enough to add a gym for staff. (Do ask me about that one!).

Bringing ourselves pretty much up to date, we are using cloud hosted apps, such as Twitter, Facebook and others to have interactions, that should probably have an audit trail to assist and protect all parties. These apps do allow reasonable tracking of conversations, not for sinister purposes, but to reasonably solve issues.

Putting my cards on the table, I hear of a number of issues where this is not the case, which is very disappointing and not what I generally see. In fairness I am generally working with organisations, looking to improve processes and systems, so I rarely encounter this with social housing landlords, in my working life. I have done my best however, where I encounter this, to point residents in the right direction. It’s the right thing to do.

Some apps these days do not allow access to a clear audit trail. More and more apps are brought into CRM interactions and this area is ever changing. Customer service bods need to be constantly aware of what’s popular.

The Signal Messenger App, is one such (https://signal.org/en/). Since 2018, encrypted end to end messaging. Signal has another interesting feature, that it can self-destruct messages send to users, from five seconds to a week once read. Once messages are gone, they are really gone, forever. So even beyond GDPR. Without taking this into account, much of a valuable audit trail can be lost.

Keen scholars of GDPR will be aware that wilful manual deletion after a freedom of information request is made, is a criminal offense under the FOIA. However, if a message or data was already deleted, or deleted automatically, no crime has been committed. 

From an organisation viewpoint therefore, a separate audit trail would be needed from Signal, if in use.

Spookily enough,  I was interested to hear that Signal was becoming popular with our current batch of newly installed Tory MP’s in the UK. It allows a bigger group than WhatsApp, and I would think the automatic deletion of messages might be a definite advantage, in the current Corona Virus environment and Brexit progressing before the end of the year.

Usually, sensitive documents and media can be restricted for 30 years, before release. It would be very convenient that some decisions are labelled ‘restricted’, about the pandemic response etc. Am I the only one suspecting in 30 years time there might just be a folder, named ‘Signal’, completely empty.

If there is ‘nothing to hide’, lets hope that an audit trail is maintained…. 

Related Post: UAT - I have seen clients fudge testing and it never turns out well...
 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Wreckless Eric - Semaphore Signals.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica Cx,Civica Genero,Civica Saffron,Clearview,Clik,Cloud Dialogs,CloudDialogs,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Commontime,Community Reward Services,Company,Competitive Dialogue process,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Consultants,Contact Manager,Context,Contractor Systems,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,Crystal Reports,Customer Relationship Management,Cx, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365, ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion, Gas Tag,G-Cloud,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark survey,Housing,Housing Contact,Housing Group,Housing Insight,Housing Management,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Partners,Housing Portfolio Management System,Hub Asset Management, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,In4Systems Promaster,InfoBoss,InHouse,InMotion,InMotion2015,InMotion2016,InfoBoss,Infoflow,Information,Information Technology,Information@Work components,Informix,Innovation, Informetis,Inphase,Inside Housing,Insight,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Invu,Ireland,Irish,itLab, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera, Landlord,Ledgers,Linkedin,Liquid,Locality,Localz, M3,MAVIS,MD,MDM,MI,MIS,MIS-AMS,MISCS,MRI,MS Dynamics,MS Dynamics CRM2011,MWL,Management,Management Server,Manifest,Measuring,Mebus,Microsoft Dynamics 365,Microsoft dynamics GP 2013,Miracle,MobileIron,Mobysoft,Monopoly board images and pictures,Montal,Mr Void,MriEngage,MrVoid, NDL,NINTEX,NINTEX workflow,NPS,NPS ASSIST,NPS Housing,NPS Job Manager Mobile,NROSH,Natural,Neighbourhoods and Communities,Nintexworkflow,Northgate,Northgate Codeman,Northgate Public Services,Notice, OA,OGC Buying Solutions,OJEU Limits,ORS,Ohms,OmFax,Omniledger,One,OneAdvanced,OneServe,Open source,OpenContractor,OpenHousing,Opti-time,Options,Optitime,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,OutSystems, PIMMS,PIMSS Data,PM,PRINCE2,Paloma,Pamwin,PanConnect,People Value,Peoplevalue,PfH,Pick,PlanForm,Planned maintenance,Plenfific,Plus,Portfolio Management System,PowerObjects,Pro,Pro-Points,Prodo,Progress,Promaster,Propoints,Proval,Providers,Pyramid, QL,QuantSpark,Qube,QLX,Qlikview,QueryView,Queryview reporting,Quiss, RM865,ROCC,RPs,RSL,Rave,ReAct,Reality,RedkiteCRM,Red Olive,Registered,Registered Social,Rent Increase,RentSense,RentSenseLite,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,RobotAutomation,Rocket, Salesforce,Salesforce.Org,SAP,SASSHA,SDM,SHBVN,SM,SOTI,SP,SQL,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting,SQL Server,Saffron,Safron,Saturn,Scenario,Scotland,Scots,Scottish,Scout,Sequoa,Serengeti,Serros,Server,Service,Services,Servitor,Sharepoint,Sim,SimPro, Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Housing ICT,Social Housing Software Applications,Social Media,Software,Software solutions,Spotlight Service,Spotlightservice,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic,SunAccounts,Sunguard,Surveys, Swordfish,Sx3,Symatrix Human,System alignment,Systems,Systemwise, T-Files,TEAMS,TED,TFiles,TP Tracker,TSG,Tagish Casework,Tagra,Task,Technologies (India) PVT Limited,Telecetera,Template,Terminal Services,That,Three Star,Today,Tony Smith,Tony Smith That Housing IT Guy,TonySmith that housing IT,TonySmithHou,TonySmithHousing, ,TonySmithHousingITguy,Total,Total Mobile,Totalmobile,Trace,Tribal,Twitter, U2,UC,UK,UK Housing,Ukhousing,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,United Kingdom,Universal,Universalcredit,Universe,Unrest, Valueworks,Van Stock,Vantage,Vantage Sentinel,Version,Virtualisation,Visualmetrics,Voice,Voice and data,Voluntas, Wales,Welsh,Wheatley,Windows Server,Workflow and,Work Hub,Works Connect, XML,Xen App,XenApp,Xmbrace, ...
. . . . . . . . . . .

Big Mouth Strikes Again

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy


Who could have missed 'The Donalds' use of Twitter, to enact international diplomacy last week?

Now it's a different way of dealing with the Chinese and many others around the world. a little perplexing, particularly as Twitter is banned in that country. How do you deal with that, if that actual news is blocked?

We might be in the new era of megaphone diplomacy, and social media is increasingly becoming that conduit for it.

There cannot be many people who have not tried to complain on Twitter, I know I have with various degrees of success. Of course, many people use the wrong channels at the wrong time and Twitter can be one of them. There is a lesson there for us all, particularly if there are many more things you could have tried prior. You know, like maybe talking to someone or logging a fault. Also, in case you have not noticed, a Twitter account with 25 followers, will always receive far less of a rapid response, than someone with 12,500 followers.

Now, as you maybe aware at @HousingITguy, I have getting on for 17,000 followers. So you can guess on the sparingly infrequent occasions, when I have vented my spleen, I have had a fairly quick response. Spooky eh? A single tweet of mine can easily have several thousand interactions in well under an hour. As Winston Churchill once said, " A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on". Twitter and Facebook are becoming places where 'post truth' news (or half news) is taking hold. we are in strange times.

Some people are looking to have a full conversation on Twitter or social media, replacing a more conventional phone call or other interaction. Here's one I came across, just today

 

Now the above is perhaps what we could call, 'product or service queries'. However, It can be quite disconcerting and damaging, if our customers are expressing opinions, true or not so, about us online. How can we manage that?

Its often fallen to the 'Comms Team' to be in charge of social media, sending coherent messages out. But what of incoming ones? The first challenge is detecting these customer interactions, complaints, rants etc. Maybe your comms team are capable of picking these up a few times a day. I would suggest it might have to be your customer services team, who really need to develop the tools to deal with these interactions.

If a customer, resident, tenant etc has a socialmedia account, we need to have a place to record this accurately, in our CRM systems. Tweets and Facebook posts need to be easily captured just like any other customer interaction. Tackling it quickly like that, we can monitor its progress, how we fix that problem, if indeed it's a problem at all. The first step is to direct message the complainant, to turn the social media interaction into something more conventional.

Problems need to be chased down and resolved. Customers need to be reminded what the usual channels of communication are for the issue flagged up. A rash of social media interactions, point to failures in your usual channels and processes. If it were really easy to ask that question or express that opinion in other ways, such as your self-service portal, they would be doing it.

Ask yourself if your IT systems, particularly from your CRM and Housing Management System providers are up to the task. While I hear social media tracking mentioned a lot on 'future roadmaps', I see little of it reaching users. maybe it's time to challenge some suppliers, or find alternative paths to what we need.

Feel free to get in touch, if this is one issue you are seeing more of, or your organisation has put something in place to manage your customers and social media, or not, and how it works for you.   
 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://archive.org/details/@housingitguy

Related Post: Silo Thinking - Is it always a bad thing? 

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js. , 07854655009 ,365Agile," """" ",,#UKHousing,#HousingDAY, #HomesForBritain,#InternetOfTenants, #Shout,1st Touch,3squared,Accuserv,Acutence,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,AirWatch,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos, Asprey e-state pro,ActiveHousing,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,App,Associates,ACL,Abritas,AMS,AX,aspireview,Agile365, BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning, Business Process Review,Business social networking, Blockwise, Block wise,BI,BancTec,BluTek,Bluebox, Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Cx,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS , CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,Civica Genero,Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Cashflow, COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting, Community Reward Services, Consilium, Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Contact Manager,Context,CIH,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cadcorp,Cerrus Saturn,convergeOne,CACI,CPL, CRS Director, Deeplake,Development Systems,Accuserve,Document Management,Documotive,datasystems , Microsoft dynamics GP 2013, DynamicAI, Dynamic AI, ECMK,EDRMS,England, English,EnterpriseBI,ERP Systems,ERP,Elmhurst,Estatecraft,EDM,ESRI,Exponential-e, Finance, Financial Systems, Financials, Factorwise,Facebook ,Footprint,Fusion, Getting best from,gotonysmith, Grasp,Grip,GeoSolveIT,GIS,GGP,Genero,GCloud,G-Cloud,HouSys,Housing software,HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,Housemark survey,Housing Blueprint,Housemark, HRA,housingtITguy,Housing Support Pro,HousingSupportPro,Housing Options,Hometeam, Housing Group,hotpixuk, HousingIT,hotpix,Hardware,Hitex,Housing Contact Company,Impact Response,iPayPro,implementations,iRobot,In House,InHouse,In4,InMotion, InMotion2016, InMotion2015, InMotion2016 , Exhibition, conference,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Management Consultants, Infoflow,Information Technology,Informix,inHouse,in-house workforce,Information@Work components, Innovation,Inside Housing,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Information Management Server,IMS, Invu,Ireland,Irish,Inphase , IT Budget,IT Training,iWorld, Innovation Group Apex,ITIL, In4Systems Promaster,IT,Insight, iSupport,iSupportPro, Keylogic,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,Keypera Hometeam,Keyfax,Ledgers,Linkedin,Locality,Liquid Voice,MD ,Mr Void , MrVoid, Measuring Change,Mebus,Miracle,MISCS,mDesign,mobile functionality,mobile platform,Monopoly board images and pictures, Montal,MS Dynamics,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Miracle Software,MDM,Management,CRM2013,Reporting,MI,M3,MIS,MIS-AMS,Mobysoft, Northgate Codeman,Neighbourhoods and Communities,NPS,NPS Housing,NPS CRM,NPS Job Manager Mobile, Northgate,Notice,NROSH,NINTEX,NINTEX workflow,Natural Forms,Nintexworkflow,NPS ASSIST, OA,OGC Buying Solutions,Ohms,OJEU Limits,OmFax,Omniledger,Open source software,open tender,OpenHousing,Opti-time,Oracle,Orchard,Optitime DRS,Outsource and outsourcing,OpenContractor,ORS,OneServe, PIMMS Data Systems, Paloma,performance management systems,PfH, Pick,PIMMS,pimms4communities, Planned maintenance,People Value,Plus, Peoplevalue, PM,Progress,Promaster,Proval,Pyramid,PRINCE2,prince,Pamwin,PlanForm, Propoints, Pro-Points QL,QLX,Quiss,Qlikview, QueryView,Queryview reporting,Registered Providers,Registered Social Landlord,Rent Increase Freezes,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,ROCC,RobotAutomation,Rave Technologies (India) PVT Limited, Rocket,RPs,RSL,Reality,ReAct,reidmark,RM865, Saffron,SAP,Scots, "Social Housing IT",Social Housing ICT, Scottish,Scenario, Scotland,SDM,sector,TonySmithHou,Safron,Server Virtualisation,servicing, Servitor,Sharepoint, Simdel,Simdell,SimPro,Sim Pro,Slash and Burn,Social Media,Software,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting Services,SQL reporting services,SQL Server,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic Asset Management,Sunguard 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Policy Of Truth

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK
or LinkedIn here http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

I had a great session with a super bunch of people this week, chatting about corporate use of social media. Most of it was around the nuts and bolts of getting the best from LinkedIn & Twitter. Pretty soon though, chat turned to if a 'Social Media Policy' was required.

Although we all agreed (quite sensibly), that we were all 'sensible adults' in the session, a policy of some kind was something they did need to consider. Now we all know that policies of this nature can depend very much on organisational culture. While some organisation's can get by with a single strap line, some need a twenty page policy.

A combination of Bromford Housing Group and Google's possible policy,  for example, might be easily crystallised as "Don't tweet any evil that you wouldn't shout out in our kitchen area". In reality, most organisation's might need a bit more than that.

When engaging in social media, corporately or not, we certainly should avoid tweeting or re-tweeting anything slanderous or illegal. Racist, religious or discriminatory language, slurs etc, another area to avoid as well as being overtly political. In corporate sense, most of the time, being apolitical can avoid offending any side.

Staff associating themselves with their employer should obviously indicate their views are personal and purely their own. Sensitive information, designs  and intellectual property, should stay that way and not be tweeted, or released into the open.

An employer could also insist on the right to delete (or have tweets/other social media content) deleted. A useful safety valve.  As an employee I am sure you will be bound already by your EO and other policies.

Some commonsense in there too, relating to what you should do when you *@~k up, is tremendously useful. In just 140 characters, it's an easy matter to miss-place a comma, or allow evil predictive text to throw you a curved ball.  Delete your tweet and issue a quick clarification and apology. Be very clear how you are correcting it.

97% of this lot is common sense for sure, but a short policy does help clarify. The last line  of course, should include the all encompassing, "If in doubt, don't tweet, ask"!

Related Post: When on Social Media, are we making the most of it?

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.


Depeche Mode - Policy Of Truth.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here
Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js. , 07854655009 , ," """" ",,#UKHousing,#HousingDAY, #HomesForBritain, #Shout,1st Touch,3squared,Accuserv,Acutence,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,App,Associates,ACL,Abritas,AMS,AX,aspireview, BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning, Business Process Review,Business social networking, Blockwise, Block wise,BI,BancTec,BluTek,Bluebox, Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Cx,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS , CCS IT Keystone CCSIT, Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Cashflow, COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting, Community Reward Services, Consilium, Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Contact Manager,Context,CIH,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cadcorp,Cerrus Saturn,convergeOne,CACI,CPL, CRS Director, Deeplake,Development Systems,Accuserve,Document Management,Documotive,datasystems , Microsoft dynamics GP 2013, DynamicAI, Dynamic AI, ECMK,EDRMS,England, English,EnterpriseBI,ERP Systems,ERP,Elmhurst,Estatecraft,EDM,ESRI,Exponential-e, Finance, Financial Systems, Financials, Factorwise,Facebook ,Fusion, Getting best from,gotonysmith, Grasp,Grip,GeoSolveIT,GIS,GGP, HouSys,Housing software,HG,Housemark survey,Housing Blueprint,Housemark, HRA, Housing Options, Housing Group,hotpixuk, HousingIT,hotpix,Hardware,Hitex,Housing Contact Company, Impact Response,implementations,In House,In4,InMotion, InMotion2014, InMotion2015, InMotion2016 , Exhibition, conference, Infoflow,Information Technology,Informix,inHouse,in-house workforce, Innovation,Inside Housing,Internet Portal,Internetalia, Invu,Ireland,Irish,Inphase , IT Budget,IT Training,iWorld, Innovation Group Apex,ITIL, In4Systems Promaster,IT,Insight, Keylogic,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,Keyfax, Ledgers,Linkedin,Locality,Liquid Voice, MD ,Mr Void , MrVoid, Measuring Change,Mebus,Miracle,MISCS, mobile functionality,Monopoly board images and pictures, Montal,MS Dynamics,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Miracle Software,Management Reporting,MI,M3,MIS,MIS-AMS,Mobysoft, Northgate Codeman,Neighbourhoods and Communities, Northgate,Notice,NROSH,NINTEX , NINTEX workflow,Nintexworkflow, OA,OGC Buying Solutions,Ohms,OJEU Limits,OmFax,Omniledger,Open source software,open tender,OpenHousing,Opti-Time,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,OpenContractor,ORS,OneServe, PIMMS Data Systems, Paloma,performance management systems,PfH, Pick,PIMMS,pimms4communities, Planned maintenance,People Value,Plus, Peoplevalue, PM,Progress,Promaster,Proval,Pyramid,PRINCE2,prince,Pamwin,PlanForm, Propoints, Pro-Points QL,QLX,Quiss,Qlikview, Registered Providers,Registered Social Landlord,Rent Increase Freezes,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,ROCC , Rocket,RPs,RSL,Reality,ReAct,reidmark,RM865, Saffron,SAP,Scots, Scottish,Scenario, Scotland,SDM,sector,TonySmithHou,Server Virtualisation,servicing, Servitor,Sharepoint,Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Media,Software,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting Services,SQL reporting services,SQL Server,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic Asset Management,Sunguard ,Surveys,Sx3,System alignment, TonySmithHousing, Systemwise,SM,Sequoa,Serros,SP,Scout,score,Swordfish,Serengeti,SOTI,southview,Sunguard,Service Charges,Spotlight Service, Spotlightservice, SunAccounts Template,Task,Terminal Services, tonys , tonysm , tonysmi , tonysmith, tonysmitht, gotonysmith, tableau Business Dashboards, tonysmithth, tonysmiththa, tonysmiththat, tonysmiththath, tonysmiththatho, tonysmiththathou, tonysmiththathous, tonysmiththathousi, tonysmiththathousin, tonysmiththathousing, tonysmiththathousingg, tonysmiththathousinguy, sharepoint, share point Three Star,Today,Total repairs,Tribal,Twitter,U2, tonysmith , tonysmiththat , thathousing , thathousingIT , thathousingITguy ,TED,Tagish Casework,TP Tracker,Telecetera,Tagra,Trace, Totalmobile, Total Mobile, UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,Universal Housing,Universalcredit, universal credit, universal credits,UC,Universe,Unrest, UK, United Kingdom ,Ukhousing,UK Housing, Van Stock,Voice and data,Vantage Sentinel,Version One,Visualmetrics,Voluntas, Wales,Welsh,Windows Server,Workflow and tasking,Wheatley, Xmbrace,XML ,XenApp,Xen App .

Independence Day

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK
or LinkedIn here http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

As an English person without a vote in the Scots referendum, I cannot fail to be amazed at how the Yes & No campaign has leverages social media to get their message across. The number of Facebook and Twitter posts, with a ‘Yes’ or a ‘Naw’ in the bottom left, has helped spread a viral message, quickly and painlessly.

Although not unknown in recent parliamentary elections, the proliferation of hashtags, such as #indyref, #BetterTogether, #SaorAlba , #LetsStayTogether and #VoteYes has helped galvanise public opinion and helped get as many as 97%, in some areas, registered to vote.
In comparison, for the last election, turnout in some areas in Scotland was down to 19%.

Facebook was a big battle ground, with some of the rich, famous and righteous wading in. Here is a 2d worth from Annie Lennox - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152215730434589

All this stuff has certainly mobilised followers and helped to spread the message. What happens on-line then is taken off-line and Scots have joined meetings, marches and events, from their selected camps. Indeed, some would say that it is unthinkable these days to engage people in events such as the Referendum, without social media tools such as these.

So what could social housing learn from this? Could we and our staff be leveraging social media better? It can be easy sometimes to spot where some RSLs have just had some comms’ and social media training. All attendees join twitter with a name linked to their organisation, add their colleagues on the course to follow, some change the egg to a face, add a few tweets and go back to the day job. 

Is your organisation guilty of this?
One element of the comms training on SM, which may be missing, is advice on management guidelines. Without these, I doubt if staff can feel empowered to tweet and use our common hashtags, such as #UKhousing, #Housingcamp, #DigitalFirst or whatever, to reach the wider world and our peers.

Do a twitter person search using your organisation name and see how many eggs (not faces) and people with just a few tweets to their name, from last May (or before), with minimal followers are on there. Is it any wonder that we are generally struggling to get the #UKhousing message out?

I have noticed when assisting organisations with KPI’s and cleanly bringing data together across their organisations, for benchmarking etc, Twitter KPIs are on the rise. Would you dare measure number of staff registered on twitter for your organisation, no of monthly tweets, number of total staff followers, number of monthly re-tweets. Now, is that making you think? I hope so.

Maybe it’s time we helped our staff vote ‘Yes’, to engaging with the world on Twitter and other social media to help inform the world about ‘why social housing matters’ and ‘what we are for’.

Related Post: Social Fools, are you getting social?

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You can link with me on LinkedIn here - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy It would be great to connect !

The Comsat Angels – Independence Day.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

PS As usual, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, please get in touch and let me know!

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(not) 24 Hour Party People

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK

or LinkedIn here uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/

I know many people who read my posts here, particularly in and associated with housing, are also active on Twitter. It’s becoming an important additional means of communicating with tenants, leaseholders and other customers, which these days can no longer be ignored. With some RSLs I work with, I am spotting new KPIs, relating to number of staff on Twitter, active users, monthly tweets, new follows and re-tweets. It's good to see housing associations taking that channel seriously.

Some landlords I notice, even capture repairs & complaints via Twitter, moving them sensibly to a DM, where issues can be moved on.

Only this week, we hear that Bromford Group are now only recruiting people to their Innovation lab, only via Twitter. See http://paulbromford.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/why-the-bromford-innovation-lab-is-only-recruiting-via-twitter/. Not surprising from one of the housing organisations fully out there on Twitter, but imagine that, your history, views and feelings about work, innovation etc, assessed not from your CV, but from your Twitter feeds?

I was talking with some staff from one of the more forward thinking Housing system suppliers last week about this. Software solutions are out there to automatically reply and filter received tweets or ones utilising defined hashtags/search terms. For example search Twitter for 'house plumbing landlord' which will give you a feel for the vitriol that can be whipped up. If a tweet is received, it could be filtered and an alert generated to a designated member of staff. One of the points of twitter is that it is a 24 hour / 365 phenomena. Also it is not the same as a website or a sales account.

I have many followers on Twitter at @hotpixuk and in general, the most active are those from people rather than organisations. E.G. person A at the CIH or person B at WM housing. If I had a complaint for Virgin Holidays, I might tweet the company, but then a personal Virgin twitter account will reply, probably to take that query off-line. The response will be timely too, maybe in minutes, certainly within half an hour. Twitter is expected to be immediate. If not, depending on the number of followers that complainant has, or hashtag used, others will reply quickly instead.

Housing Organisations who think their Twitter account can be only 9am-5pm weekdays, particularly mentioning that on their profile page, are missing the point and a massive opportunity. Tweets are public too. Its like shouting your issue with a loud hailer in the town square. I will not name any RSL tweeters, but go check your ‘corporate’ Twitter account, see if yours states 9-5. If it does, I suggest you look into it. Even worse, do you open the day with a “Morning, how is everyone today” and close the day with a “Have a good evening, everyone” tweet.

If a number of your staff are on Twitter, are they empowered to use their initiative to respond to a tweet to help? If they are, they can quickly provide outstanding customer service. Ask yourself are your staff enabled to do this? Do they need to go through a comms team and does it take hours or days to reply? Maybe you have too many rules in place? Alternatively should you not be trusting your staff more?

This great diagram from @hackofalltrades I think illustrates the dilemma well.



As can be seen, our problems probably do not relate to social media, they may relate to our organisations. In my experience, give people the tools to excel, encourage them, and they will deliver. Let them drive the bus and we might get to a really wild new destination. If they can't or won't maybe driving or riding on our bus is not actually their bag. *More methods of public transport are available....

A Twitter-storm can easily kick off in an hour or so with a few hundred or thousand people seeing the issue. Witness how fast the Easter Creme Egg for bedroom tax advice story, at V2C got around. Search Twitter for ‘Bedroom Tax Creme Egg’ and you will see how such a vast number of tweeters got in on the act. That included Joe Halewood (prolific bedroom tax tweeter), Rick CampbellInside Housing, BT UK, ITV News, 24Dash and about a thousand more.

Business and commerce is no longer 9-5, nor is housing if you are on Twitter. If you are not equipping, supporting and empowering your staff to go beyond the 9-5, maybe just the managers and directors maybe, then you are missing a trick. If your culture inhibits you doing that, best to leave Twitter until you can go beyond the 9-5. that's what everyone will expect.

You can link with me on LinkedIn here - uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/ It would be great to connect

Related Post: I Want To Take You Higher

The Happy Mondays - 24 Hour Party People.

(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854655009

PS As usual, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, please get in touch and let me know!

File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js. 07854-655009 , 07854655009 , 07854 655009 ," ""07854 655009"" ",07854-655009,#UKHousing,1st Touch,3squared, Acutence,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,App,Associates,ACL,Abritas,AMS,AX,aspireview, BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Process Review,Business social networking, Blockwise, Block wise,BI,BancTec,BluTek,Bluebox, Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Cx,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS , CCS IT Keystone CCSIT, Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Cashflow, COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation,Consultancy,Consultant,Contact Manager,Context,CIH,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cadcorp,Cerrus Saturn,convergeOne,CACI,CPL Director, Deeplake,Development Systems,Document Management,Documotive,datasystems , Microsoft dynamics GP 2013 ECMK,EDRMS,England, English,EnterpriseBI,ERP Systems,ERP,Elmhurst,Estatecraft,EDM,ESRI,Exponential-e, Finance,Financial Systems,Financials, Factorwise,Facebook ,Fusion, Getting best from,gotonysmith, Grasp,Grip,GeoSolveIT,GIS,GGP, HouSys,Housing software,HG,Housemark survey,Housing Blueprint,Housing Group,hotpixuk, HousingIT,hotpix,Hardware,Hitex,Housing Contact Company, Housings Best Kept Secret, HousingsBestKeptSecret, Housing'sBestKeptSecret, Housings'BestKeptSecret, ImpactResponse, Impact Response,implementations,In House,In4,InMotion, InMotion2014, InMotion2015, InMotion2016 , Exhibition, conference, Infoflow,Information Technology,Informix,inHouse,in-house workforce, Innovation,Inside Housing,Internet Portal,Invu,Ireland,Irish,IT Budget,IT Training,iWorld, Innovation Group Apex,ITIL, In4Systems Promaster,IT,Insight, Keylogic,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,Keyfax, Ledgers,Linkedin,Locality,Liquid Voice, MD ,Mr Void , MrVoid, Measuring Change,Mebus,Miracle,MISCS, mobile functionality,Monopoly board images and pictures, Montal,MS Dynamics,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Miracle Software,Management Reporting,MI,M3,MIS,MIS-AMS,Mobysoft, Northgate Codeman,Neighbourhoods and Communities, Northgate,Notice,NROSH,NINTEX , NINTEX workflow,Nintexworkflow, OA,OGC Buying Solutions,Ohms,OJEU Limits,OmFax,Omniledger,Open source software,open tender,OpenHousing,Opti-Time,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,OpenContractor,ORS,OneServe, PIMMS Data Systems, Paloma,performance management systems,PfH,Pick,PIMMS,pimms4communities,Planned maintenance,People Value,Plus,Peoplevalue,PM,Progress,Promaster,Proval,Pyramid,PRINCE2,prince,Pamwin, QL,QLX,Quiss,Qlikview, Registered Providers,Registered Social Landlord,Rent Increase Freezes,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,ROCC , list of housing systems , Rocket,RPs,RSL,Reality,ReAct,reidmark,RM865, Saffron,SAP,Scots, Scottish,Scotland,SDM,sector,Server Virtualisation,servicing, Servitor,Sharepoint,Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Media,Software,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting Services,SQL reporting services,SQL Server,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic Asset Management,Sunguard ,Surveys,Sx3,System alignment, Systemwise,SM,Sequoa,Serros,SP,Scout,score,Swordfish,Serengeti,SOTI,south view,Sunguard,Service Charges,Southview, Template,Task,Terminal Services, tonys , tonysm , tonysmi , tonysmith, tonysmithth, tonysmiththa, tonysmiththat, tonysmiththath, tonysmiththatho, tonysmiththathou, tonysmiththathous, tonysmiththathousi, tonysmiththathousin, tonysmiththathousing, tonysmiththathousingg, tonysmiththathousinguy, sharepoint, share point Three Star,Today,Total repairs,Tribal,Twitter,U2, tonysmith , tonysmiththat , thathousing , thathousingIT , thathousingITguy ,TED,Tagish Casework,TP Tracker,Telecetera,Tagra,Trace, UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,Universal Housing,Universalcredit, universal credit, universal credits,UC,Universe,Unrest, UK, United Kingdom ,Ukhousing,UK Housing, Van Stock,Voice and data,Vantage Sentinel,Version One,Visualmetrics,Voluntas,Gaydon, Mobileworking, SAP, ERPSAP, SAPERP, forhousing, Wales,Welsh,Windows Server,Workflow and tasking,Wheatley, Xmbrace,XML ,XenApp,Xen App