Reply and responding to messages
Our social media accounts are generally monitored during working hours, Monday to Friday, except on public holidays.
We try and reply to every customer query and message we receive but, due to high volumes, this is not always possible. If you matter is asking us to deal with a service request or asking a customer service query please use the direct messaging facility so we can channel the information to the relevant teams to provide the best advice possible.
We aim to initially respond to questions and requests for service within one working day. On some occasions during busy periods this may not be possible, but we will respond to you as soon as we can.
For general enquiries we recommend you contact us via our website’s Do It Online services or using our Customer Service Centre.
If your enquiry needs further investigation or is of a sensitive nature, we may direct you to other, more suitable contact channels. This is done so that your enquiry can be answered by the most appropriate officer, as well as to ensure your data is properly handled.
If your query is urgent, outside of office hours, serious or involves personal details, please visit our Contact Us page where you will find a number of ways to reach us.
Moderation
Where online communities have their own rules and guidelines, we’ll normally follow those.
Where possible, we will rely on the measures of protection and intervention which the social networking site already has in place (e.g. against illegal, harmful or offensive content), for example by flagging comments or alerting them to any breaches of the site’s terms and conditions.
What we ask from you when you are using our channels
We encourage you to use or channels to contact us, ask questions and give us your opinions on what we do. When you do, we’d ask you to stick to the following requirements so that our channels provide as good an experience as possible for all our communities:
- Please don’t use social and digital media channels to report emergencies to us such as housing, benefits advice and missed bins. Visit our website fylde.gov.uk where you can find useful information and contact details relevant to your query.
- Do not post messages or content that could be deemed to be abusive, defamatory, hateful, racially offensive, sexually offensive, obscene, inflammatory or unlawful.
- We want everyone to feel comfortable using our sites to communicate with us so please do not swear in your posts or post anything distasteful.
- Do not use our sites for posting spam or adverts for products or services you or your business offers.
- Do not post your personal details, such as your address or phone number, when posting publicly on our sites. If you have contacted us and a staff member needs to contact you in return offline, they will privately message you, if possible, asking for your contact details. Only provide these if you are comfortable doing so.
- Do not post any material that you do not own the copyright to.
- Do not pretend to be someone else.
We reserve the right to remove posts that breach these guidelines without explanation. If any user consistently fails to follow these requirements, then we reserve the right to block them from any or all of our channels. We want to reassure you however that we see this very much as a last resort and we will do our best to warn people first, so they have an opportunity to moderate their behaviour.
Defamatory comments
Please take care not to make defamatory statements when posting on our pages. By publishing such a statement, we can both get into serious trouble. We will therefore take down any statement that we consider could be deemed to be defamatory.
Blocking and unfollowing
If we block your account, this will probably be because you’ve contravened the rules of a particular social media space, or that you’ve followed or liked the council purely to promote a product or service. If for some reason we unfollow you, it might just be that we’re going through a review of accounts or simply cutting down on numbers. If you see that we’ve unfollowed you, please don’t take this a sign of personal rejection!
Liking and following
We can’t like or follow everyone as sometimes the numbers of accounts are just too high for us to manage. So, please don’t be offended if we don’t. This doesn’t mean we don’t like you or are not interested in what you have to say.
We frequently follow or like people who provide information that is pertinent to our work as a local authority (for example UK government agencies, local media, and our other public sector partners) or those whose information we can pass on for the benefit of local people.
Occasionally, we’ll also try and lend our support to local and national campaigns.
There will also be times we’ll need to like or follow an account in order to take part in conversations.
Please remember that while me may like or follow someone, retweet or share their information, it doesn’t mean that we endorse them.
Sharing and retweeting
We try and share or retweet information that we think will be of interest or useful to people and businesses in Fylde. However please don’t be offended if we don’t retweet something you ask us to. Again, the numbers can be too big for us to manage.
As a trusted organisation, any sharing of information could be seen as endorsement of a particular view, individual or organisation, and it’s important that we remain impartial and protect the council’s reputation.
Pre-election period
The council itself, as opposed to its political administration, must be politically neutral in its communications. Therefore, please do not use any of our pages to promote party political messages or other content. We will remove any comments that, in its view, may compromise its obligation to maintain political neutrality.
