Peter Marland Director of Housing Jenna Condie Lecturer in Social Media: The Business Case & the Psychology

1999 The first stock transfer following the Housing Act 1996 ERCF funded (£5.5M) to address negative value of the stock and to offer a route to a privately funded sustainable solution

Stock Transfer 1999 >300 empty properties (30%) Rent Arrears >£160K (600 tenanted units) High Crime ASB very high (often not reported) Resident Dissatisfaction very high No demand for properties People waiting to move out Experiment expected to fail

2013 Empty properties 0.1% High demand for stock Allocations – local lettings policies Arrears reduced by over 50% ASB significantly reduced Crime significantly reduced Racial Harassment (almost non existent) Top 18 RSL (HQN, Inside Housing) Award winning company “Impressive customer service improvements over the last year through a commitment to continuous improvement via the Pioneer Way” “Openness and ease of access to its services”

The Pioneer Way…

Social Media Luddites Social media is No1 activity on the web You tube is the worlds second largest search engine 39m Facebook users in UK (1 Billion Globally) 50% Worlds population is <30 92% of <2’s have digital footprint FB users…25% check accounts >5 times a day 50% internet access through phones 1 Million websites integrated into Facebook Average FB user has 130 friends Can we afford to be on the side-lines? How can we influence our online reputation? Think about the business case !!!

Applying Psychology to Social Media #mediapsych

Social Groups Community zarrion101

Facebook pages as ‘places’

Places where people construct themselves in dialogue

The daily dilemmas of online community engagement

Connect with Customers Cost effective Manage our on-line reputation Raise Awareness Message customers immediately Challenges !!!

University-industry partnerships MSc Media Psychology student dissertations Measures and methods Future research projects – what next? Evaluating social media for tenant engagement

Privacy, disclosure, and safety For tenants and staff Ethics

E.g. Analysing discourse to avoid positioning social housing tenants as ‘benefit cheats’: Reflexive practice

Behaviour change e.g. energy use Digital storytelling Empowerment: person to person communication From Complaining to contributing Openness and sharing experiences Enhancing Communication Participatory Culture

Social media is more about psychology and sociology than technology Brian Solis (2007) Image: Flickr: Florin Hatmanu

Thank you Peter Pioneer-Homes AshtonPioneer