This is the presentation I gave on 7-Mar-13 at the National Federation of Housing's Marketing and Communications Conference - please contact me if you have any questions or comments.

1. Section Divider: Heading intro here.
National Housing Federation
Communications and Marketing Conference
7-Mar-2013
[D3] Engaging with tenants
Ben Brown
Head of Projects, Online Centres Foundation

2. It’s not about technology, it’s all
about people

3. 16m adults are not frequent and
competent internet users, many
of whom live in social housing

4. Many non or infrequent internet
users live in social housing

5. Social Housing: You care about
• Social Justice: equality, improving lives
• Financial Security: keeping your businesses
afloat
therefore you need to think about
digital inclusion

6. The prize is worth it...
£1.7bn - £1.8bn a
year
Estimate savings moving services
offline to digital channels
Government Digital Strategy, 6 November 2012

7. The prize is worth it...
82% of internet users say they have saved
money in the last six months by using the
internet
with 46% saying they’ve made significant
savings
Source: Ofcom UK Adults’ Media Literacy Report, 2011

8. Applied to your business:
1,000 people x 2 contacts saved a month
= £133,800 a year
Costs per Saving if
contact (SOCITM shifted online
research 2012)
Face to face £8.62 £8.47
Phone £2.83 £2.68
Online £0.15

9. Comparison before users lives – before and after
UK online centres
Feel less concerned
I do not feel concerned about my levels
and after using the
of qualifications, training or skills
about skills, work
n=75
100%
internet and health
80%
60% I do not feel concerned
I communicated as much
about my work position
as I would like to with friends
n=51
40%
Communicate 20%
more 0%
I communicated as much I do not feel concerned about
as I would have liked my health
with my family n=75
Feel more connected to
local community
I felt part of my local community
"Yes" Before "Yes" After
“Does the internet improve lives?”
Freshminds April, 2009

10. 5.2 million households in the UK without
internet access: Why?
• MOTIVATION: 54% said they did not have a
connection because they felt they didn’t need
one
• SKILLS: 22% cited a lack of internet skills
• ACCESS: 15% reported equipment costs were
too high; 14% said that the cost of connection
was too high; < 1% reported a lack of
broadband availability in their area as a reason
Source: ONS “Internet Access Households & Individuals” 2012

11. Need action in each of these areas
What can be done for free?
- signposting, free online
resources, volunteers
What can be done with
partners?
- Local UK online centres,
JCP, local employers
What needs investment to
make happen?
- Staff to organise
volunteers, computers in
foyers and common areas,
set up a ‘UK online centre’

12. Understand your audience,
tailor your approach
ONLINE ONLINE
BUT AND
DISENGAGED ENGAGED
Valuable critic Champions
OFFLINE OFFLINE
BUT BUT
DISENGAGED ENGAGED
Goldmine Early target

13. “Nobody learns to use the internet
so they can pay you online...”

14. “Nobody learns to use the internet so they
can pay you online...”
• Reasons
• Sending and receiving email (73%),
• Researching goods and services
• Reading the news.
• Social networking site (48%). For those aged
between 16 and 24, the percentage was 87%, making
social networking the most popular online activity for
that age group

15. “Nobody learns to use the internet
so they can pay you online...”
Consider:
• How does your offer to residents match their expectations?
• Do your brand values match the actual experience of your
residents? (touch points)
• Do you put the ‘social’ into social media?

16. Some inspiration from your peers

17. Wakefield District Housing
• 80 volunteers (employees & tenants) have helped 640+
tenants to get online so far this year
• All Board, Executive Management and SMT meetings
are now digital through the use of iPads
• Top 3 tiers of management use their iPads to support
mobile/flexible working, moving towards paperless
• Field staff to use tailored mobile apps (by March 2014)
• New ‘responsive’ website for any internet-ready device,
including mobile phones and games consoles
• Wireless WAN (2013), all offices & independent living
schemes

18. Click to watch video

19. Peabody Trust
• Have a cross organisation Digital Strategy led by CEO
• UK Online Community Capacity Builders in 2010
• All its sheltered schemes have pcs & internet access
• 45 trained volunteers (Digital Champions) support
learners on a 1-2-1 basis, learning at their own pace
and focus on areas of their interest
• Formal ICT training programme, branding this Net
Worx in 15 locations (20 by March 2013)
• Peabody has made a commitment to get 80% of their
residents online by March 2013

20. Peabody’s revenues team
will deliver roadshows
with its Digivan.
Roadshows will target
residents affected,
providing information and
support.
Digital Champions are
being trained to offer
support with opening
bank accounts online
and searching for jobs.

21. Family Mosiac
• A digital strategy agreed: focuses on Care and Support
• 200 connections supporting wi-fi hubs in care & support
centres – touching 5,000 service users
• Currently asking “how to assess and feedback benefits?”
• Next step: More broadband to support issues around
DWP and Universal Credit
• Real good news stories: a young service user in has
created www.livingaloneonline.co.uk
• “...there is a huge opportunity to improve lives...”
• “...starting small is better than doing nothing..”

22. Mobile/tablets part of the mix
• Breezie – trialed in
Barchester Homes,
linking older
people in care
homes with their
family via a new
tablet interface

24. Birmingham City Council
• Launched new mobile apps, integrated into back end
systems so that citizens can access services on the
move and provides greater incentives to go online
• Universal credit pilot: all new housing tenancy
agreements within pilot area will be online using
digital logbooks as primary point of contact and will
provide the primary route to access benefits
• Plan focuses next on telecare and telehealth, and
delivering personalized and targeted services

25. How UK online centres can
help

26. Not owned, managed or funded by us
Centre search and free phone number search
(one database for UK)

27. No such thing as a typical centre.
All centres do something else (and support digital skills).
Most centre partners run outreach sessions in care homes,
pubs, clubs, village halls.

28. www.learnmyway.com
www.learnmyway.com

29. Supporting Volunteers and Digital
Champions
Supported and trained
over 3,000 volunteers
per annum
Online “Become a
Digital Champion”
course
“Supporting your
community to get
online” workshops
“We held a Supporting your community workshop at our City Library,
We had lots of opportunity to network and gain fresh approaches to
volunteer working – would highly recommend and very much worth
organising for our staff and volunteers " Sarah Graham - Project Officer Newcastle Libraries

30. Supporting your business
Also:
Also:
--Strategic support
Strategic support
--Training for staff (webinars
Training for staff (webinars
and/or face to face)
and/or face to face)
Contact
Contact
ben@ukonlinecentres.com
ben@ukonlinecentres.com
for more info
for more info
www.digitalhousinghub.ning.com
www.digitalhousinghub.ning.com

31. Seven Point Plan
1. You will be a digital business in 3 - 5 years - the question
is how and how fast
2. This is a digital strategy that drives digital inclusion:
achieving efficiency and quality for everyone
3. Think about your existing headline KPIs and how digital
is going to help you to achieve those
4. Understand your digitally excluded residents and target
them
5. This is a change programme not a technology project
6. You need action in all three of the main barriers to take-
up: Motivation; Skills & Confidence; and Access
7. Start quickly - make small changes as soon as you can,
and don’t delay. Small actions help big change happen.

32. It’s not about technology, it’s all
about people

33. Thank you!
ben@ukonlinecentres.com
@digihousing on Twitter
www.ukonlinecentres.com
www.learnmyway.com
http://digitalhousinghub.ning.com/