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Guide for safe and successful posting

The team at Neighbourly is here to help and assist your community group or organisation at any time. However take a read of the notes below as they may help make your Neighbourly experience a great one.

Community Toolbox

Use these tools to make your experience on Neighbourly even better:

  1. Encourage your own members to get involved

    If your own members are active on Neighbourly, they’re the ideal people to further promote your group or organisation. It’s completely free to invite your members to join Neighbourly.

  2. Understand your goals

    Being clear about why your organisation is featuring on Neighbourly will help you decide what you post and how often you post.

    For example, if your group is looking for new members you may need to start by educating the neighbourhood about what your group is involved in before you make a plea for sign ups.

    Likewise, if your organisation has a great website stacked with information, you may just want to use Neighbourly to make sure the local community knows where to go to access this resource. In this case you may just make a weekly post regarding an interesting component of your website to hopefully get neighbours interested.

    The team at Neighbourly is always available to talk about your goals if you need any guidance.

  3. Provide value

    You need the community to see value in reading about what you have to say. Including interesting facts and resources that can help them directly is the way to do this.

    Try to stay away from political grandstanding where possible.

  4. Keep your contact details, about us section and cover image updated

    These features may be where members of the community first have contact with your group, so creating a great first impression is important. Likewise, if your contact details change make sure you update them on Neighbourly.

  5. Post regularly … but not too much

    Posting at random, or not regularly enough, can mean that the majority of your neighbours are not exposed to your messages.

    Likewise, if you post every day but your posts are not always entertaining or informative, members may also stop paying attention.

    Your group should only use Neighbourly when you have something you want or need to say, so don’t feel pressure to post more than you feel comfortable. We suggest one post a week at a minimum as a great way to establish a presence on the website and in the community.

    If you are having issues thinking about what to post check out our suggested posts pages.

  6. Respond to as many comments as you can

    In a perfect world you will respond to every message sent to you but we do understand many groups are run by volunteer labour. Nonetheless, you will be surprised by how much valuable feedback and engagement you’ll receive if you do make an effort to reply to all comments made to you.

  7. Negative feedback can be turned into a positive

    It’s very hard to please everyone and from time to time even the best groups will receive negative feedback.

    The key to dealing with negative feedback is how you deal with it which means in the first instance being prepared to step up and accept it. If dealt with correctly, negative feedback can often very quickly be turned into a positive.

    If you do feel comments are in any way malicious or untrue then we are prepared to step in and help. All you need to do is contact us.

Here are our tips for dealing with negative feedback on Neighbourly include:

  • Respond no matter what. Inactivity will give the impression you're trying to sweep it under the rug.

  • Use four simple words. There are four words that work really well online. They are, 'I'm sorry' and 'thank you.' It's amazing what happens when you admit your mistake and apologise.

  • Contact all involved parties privately. This will make users feel special. However if you take this path make sure you do mention this on the original post.

  • Deflect to a more positive discussion. The majority of community groups are involved with amazing initiatives and you should be proud to point these out to the community you service.