Week 8 Communities — Definition: Reflections from WellChild
WellChild have been looking at their Facebook group and how to improve functionality and engagement.
Over the last 2 weeks we have talked to MEWSo, Back Up, ACRE and IMM about their experience of the Communities Definition programme.
This week we catch up with WellChild to find out about their progress, reflections on the programme and their hopes going forward.
How’s the programme gone for you so far?
The program has been great so far. We initially thought we might have to create a custom section to hold the information we want to store in the [Facebook] group, but in reality FB has options we can utilise and in fact provides us with more than we thought it could. We’re very happy with progress, it can be difficult to keep up the pace sometimes but that’s not a negative. The constant pace pushes you to focus in the right areas and push the project forward. We were just talking about how the support from you guys gives us that confidence to move forward with the changes we’d like to make, it’s great to have that support.
What are your hopes for the rest of the programme?
We’re hoping to start implementing our changes next week and then introduce a new community engagement strategy, and probably learn a little more about insights! All while we still have a couple of weeks left of support from you :)
SIDE Reflections
Initial research into fulfilling WellChild’s requirements led to the discovery of different types of Facebooks groups and their unique features. The most relevant group types for us were the ‘Social Learning’ group type and the ‘Parenting’ group type. Social Learning enabled ‘Guides’ (previously called Units) to organise information and resources for members in one place. The Parenting group enabled anonymous posting and parenting badges such as “New Parent” or “Parent of Older Kids” to allow members to connect better.
We created a dummy Parenting group to test these features and happily discovered that Guides were also an option, meaning we were able to get the best of both groups. From here we began a number of test posts and content filling to mimic what would eventually go into the WellChild Facebook group.
It’s been great working with WellChild and being able to find solutions for all their needs right within Facebook. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken, right? This is particularly advantageous as the supportive community that WellChild has built on Facebook won’t be disrupted by radical changes or a shift in platforms. In fact, the implementation of the new Facebook features should really enhance and support the community further.
Catherine and Chloe have made a great plan of action to launch these changes next week, which I am excited to be a part of. Building on this, our next steps are to develop some social engagement strategies to really keep this community thriving
If you’d like to read more about WellChild’s project, Catherine and Chloe have also been writing their own weeknotes.
