This month we are focusing on housing organisations' use of social media. Its hard to believe that social networking sites are still only 6 years old. Whilst our teenage children could not imagine life without Facebook, a lot us, over 30 years of age are wondering what all the fuss is about.  Many organisations, landlords and tenants organisations are sadly missing out on the potential that this new platform offers.

That is why we at the Board Development Agency have taken up the baton and launched a free social networking site especially for social housing organisations. We have also produced a guide to social networking so housing organisations can be informed about and realise the potential for social networking sites.

The guide is an easy to read introduction to the main forms of social networking. TenantBook, Facebook, and Twitter are the popular sites that social housing would be interested in.  In designing TenantBook, we have sort to overcome the issues of privacy and control of offensive posting, which can be a  problem with Facebook.

Our analysis is that Facebook is used by housing organisations to mostly advertise local events. Surprisingly few tenant groups are using it as a networking forum. Like Twitter few are using it to get feedback. There are few discussions taking place at the present moment about social media. Many Housing Organisations now have Twitter accounts mostly to  give out messages about the latest news. The current use of these sites underlines the fact that social media use by housing organisations is still in its infancy.

Use TenantBook for consultations and to see how you ' benchmark' against other organisations. Use it to find out the latest issues across the sector and  like Facebook and Twitter to advertise  local news.

To find out how to make the best use of Social media buy our Guide to Social Media. We can also provide in house advice and training to meet your needs. For more information call 0844 800 6887 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it