Social media policy

Introduction

We use social media to share information, engage with our customers and communities, and promote mhs homes' services and campaigns. We want our social media accounts to be a space everyone can enjoy and find useful, so please read and follow the guidelines below.

This policy sets out how we manage our public-facing social media accounts including X, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook. 

Monitoring and response

Our social media accounts are generally monitored between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. We aim to respond to enquiries as quickly as possible, although response times may vary.

Social media should not be used to report emergencies. If you need to report an emergency repair, anti-social behaviour incident or a safeguarding concern, please contact us using the appropriate emergency contact channels.

While we welcome feedback on social media, formal complaints should be submitted through our complaints process so they can be properly investigated and resolved. We may ask you to move a conversation to a private channel where this is necessary.

Private messages can be seen by our Communication and Customer Teams and may be shared with other departments within mhs if necessary. We’ll only discuss tenancy-related issues with the listed tenant(s) (or someone who has been given permission to contact us). We’ll ask security questions to confirm identity.

Our accounts are generally monitored between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. We aim to respond to messages and posts as quickly as possible. Our accounts are monitored out of hours for emergencies only.

Private messages can be seen by our Communication and Customer Teams and may be shared with other departments within mhs if necessary. We’ll only discuss tenancy-related issues with the listed tenant(s) (or someone who has been given permission to contact us). We’ll ask security questions to confirm identity.

Information you supply through the private message function may be kept on your file. To see how we use and store the information we hold about you please refer to our full privacy notice.

Protecting your privacy

Social media is a great way to contact us and we welcome discussion, feedback and ideas.

To protect your personal information, please do not post account details, addresses, phone numbers, rent account information or other personal information in public comments. If we need information from you to deal with an enquiry, we'll ask you to contact us privately.

Respectful discussion

We welcome differing views and constructive feedback, but ask everyone to engage respectfully and courteously with each other.

Acceptable use

We will remove, hide or report content that includes:

  • abusive, offensive or threatening language

  • hate speech, discrimination or harassment, including sexual harassment

  • personal attacks on staff or members of the public

  • sharing another person's personal information without their consent

  • misinformation, misleading or false information

  • obscene or inappropriate content

  • unlawful or harmful content

Users who repeatedly breach this policy may be blocked. Serious issues may be escalated to the police, safeguarding teams, or legal representatives. Where content breaches our guidelines, we may hide, delete, report or retain copies for investigation purposes.

We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to abuse towards our staff.

Reviewing this policy

We review this policy regularly. 

More information

You can read our privacy notice. Please refer to the Information Commissioner’s Office website for more information about protecting your personal information online.