What character traits make someone a good webcareer?
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 4:23 am
Everyone will notice the impact of social media
Carin sees it as her main challenge to make everyone from top to bottom aware of the fact that social media is here to stay. Sooner or later it will have an effect on everyone: “By knowing a bit more about it with training, coaching and success stories, people are prepared to deal with it in the right way.”
There are no rules of what is allowed/not allowed. According to Carin, it is common sense: “Use your common sense and think: what would you not say in public in a crowded bar? Broadly speaking, we are not a municipality that prohibits things very strictly. We advise more to consult a colleague when in doubt, which I still do myself. And in my view of the medium, you cannot get by with standard answers. I am working on a new policy vision after a year and a half in this position, because everything changes so much in a short time.”
Webcare example from the municipality of Eindhoven in response to a tweet from a citizen
Webcare example from the municipality of Eindhoven in response to a tweet from a citizen
And what do you recommend to keep your knowledge up to date in the rapidly changing social media world?
“Investing an awful lot of time in reading! Blogs like Frankwatching indeed, following the right people on Twitter, a number of Dutch sites (Marketingfacts, Likeonomics , PowerPR , Twittermania , 42bis ) and of course the big English-language news blogs. I also follow offline seminars myself, but I try to limit that. They are very expensive and I do spend government money when I go there.
Fortunately, I am increasingly asked to speak, which allows me to attend south korea mobile phone number list other parts of a conference myself. We also became a member of Academy Zuid , where we as a team bought a seat for 20 workshops and 2 conference days. And finally, I am a fan of Social Media Club 040 – I always attend. It is also partly just old-fashioned networking.”
“Social media is something that you have to like and as a coach I want to make people who like to do something with it better at it. I like to move people, but I can’t force others to adapt their own procedures to these new media. I try to show with internal success stories or examples from their own field that our service provision is improved by it. And yes, it may be a bit of extra work, but you get a lot of satisfied customers in return. Don’t be mistaken about how citizens approach the municipality… on social media people are more generous with compliments than offline. I show that and that makes people happy.”
“In webcare in general, I find personality very important, so I don't understand why there are organizations that only have a logo as a profile picture and don't work with initials or names. I think a personal style is allowed. Of course you take the identity of your organization into account. But on the phone you also hear my voice and my personality, so that should also be possible via webcare. Make it especially human, you can do that very well via such a medium.”
Visual intro courtesy of Fotolia
Carin sees it as her main challenge to make everyone from top to bottom aware of the fact that social media is here to stay. Sooner or later it will have an effect on everyone: “By knowing a bit more about it with training, coaching and success stories, people are prepared to deal with it in the right way.”
There are no rules of what is allowed/not allowed. According to Carin, it is common sense: “Use your common sense and think: what would you not say in public in a crowded bar? Broadly speaking, we are not a municipality that prohibits things very strictly. We advise more to consult a colleague when in doubt, which I still do myself. And in my view of the medium, you cannot get by with standard answers. I am working on a new policy vision after a year and a half in this position, because everything changes so much in a short time.”
Webcare example from the municipality of Eindhoven in response to a tweet from a citizen
Webcare example from the municipality of Eindhoven in response to a tweet from a citizen
And what do you recommend to keep your knowledge up to date in the rapidly changing social media world?
“Investing an awful lot of time in reading! Blogs like Frankwatching indeed, following the right people on Twitter, a number of Dutch sites (Marketingfacts, Likeonomics , PowerPR , Twittermania , 42bis ) and of course the big English-language news blogs. I also follow offline seminars myself, but I try to limit that. They are very expensive and I do spend government money when I go there.
Fortunately, I am increasingly asked to speak, which allows me to attend south korea mobile phone number list other parts of a conference myself. We also became a member of Academy Zuid , where we as a team bought a seat for 20 workshops and 2 conference days. And finally, I am a fan of Social Media Club 040 – I always attend. It is also partly just old-fashioned networking.”
“Social media is something that you have to like and as a coach I want to make people who like to do something with it better at it. I like to move people, but I can’t force others to adapt their own procedures to these new media. I try to show with internal success stories or examples from their own field that our service provision is improved by it. And yes, it may be a bit of extra work, but you get a lot of satisfied customers in return. Don’t be mistaken about how citizens approach the municipality… on social media people are more generous with compliments than offline. I show that and that makes people happy.”
“In webcare in general, I find personality very important, so I don't understand why there are organizations that only have a logo as a profile picture and don't work with initials or names. I think a personal style is allowed. Of course you take the identity of your organization into account. But on the phone you also hear my voice and my personality, so that should also be possible via webcare. Make it especially human, you can do that very well via such a medium.”
Visual intro courtesy of Fotolia