Community Page – Trials & Tribulations

On Monday 3rd of March 2014 I had had enough of negative criticism and posted the bellow. Seeing that this blog is all about the Out and About journey it seemed appropriate to show the Ugly Side of running a Community Page and how you can never please everyone. The support from the 25+ comments was amazing & I’m so grateful that the page helps out so many.

VERY IMPORTANT PAGE UPDATE…
Lately there seems to be a bit of “chat” about how negative Out and About is ( usually by people who are not following the page it seems). I need to set the record straight.
Out and about with kids in Hawkes Bay is not a name and shame page. I will never name and shame a person or a business. It is not what I do. I do not go and and try to cause problems within the community or to cause friction at all. I don’t need the stress or the have the time and moreover I DON’T BELIEVE THAT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!! There are by the way a lot of pages that do do this ( name and shame and talk about really weird and wonderful things)..…and do it openly.
Lots of issues are covered here at Out and About.all sorts of things come up from time to time and this is the nature of a community page. I do not post all things that are asked of me. I cannot vet every comment people make etc but if you have a problem with my page…contact me….or at least follow it and see for yourselves that there are positives going on too – things that should benefit the community that we all live and work in…. Crikey it’s all about supporting parents to be great and strong and caring and kind to each other and their children. About raising great wee citizens…. about growing great families and strong and nurturing communities. Out and About is about encouraging each other to do things better, to be kinder, to spend time with your children. To give back to your community. I am not about ruining careers or businesses or families. I feel that it is important to get this message out there as you cannot make a judgement on something you do not know about. Follow the page…see for yourselves. Please do not form opinions of what I am doing and talk about it negatively in the community if you do not yourself belong to the page. I am very upset about the recent negatively that I have had to deal with and after two weeks. I take on board what some of you say. Seriously I do.
We live in 2014. Social media is where a lot of people turn and yes there can be negatives ( nothing is ever 100% perfect)…but I see a whole bunch of positives…let me list some…

-Mums taking other mums on in ante natal coffee groups
-Walking groups and exercise groups have been formed
-Promoting family events in the community
-Supporting Plunket
-Running a Christmas campaign to support the Salvation army and together donating 1000’s of items
– Helping families find childcare
-Helping families find homes, rentals, friends
-Supporting Mums with post natal depression, breastfeeding issues (sending them to the right organisations to get help).
-Helping get mums through long nights of teething and colds and nappy rash and the like…
-Supporting local mums and dads by promoting local markets and events and allowing people to plug their Local businesses…
-Helping families connect with music groups, dance lessons, sports groups, swimming coaches etc etc

My list could go on. Yes we chat about the little things and the big things but overall it’s me trying my best to “do it right” (in my own time for free).
I love promoting and plugging people and businesses and always always with a positive spin!! ALWAYS..after all we are all trying to do our best.

So if you think this page is ruining lives and careers – please PLEASE get your facts straight, at least come to me about it! Chinese whispers are not the way for me to hear about these so called things that “out and about” is doing to ruin people! I am so over the negativity when seriously I can see is SO MUCH GOOD! Seriously totally confused as to what we do so wrong! Like I said this is all Chinese whispers so who knows maybe it’s just that! If anyone would like to meet with me to discuss this I am more than approachable….

I needed to get this across..and if you have a friend or a colleague who talks negatively about us..please show them this post. If they do not follow the page I do not believe they can make an informed or valid “opinion” of this page or what I do.

And like I always say….”please read my disclaimer”.

Thanks for reading.

xx Gabby

Getting negative feedback can be really disheartening, but knowing how much good the Facebook Community Page does encourages me to continue.

In the comments: How do you best deal with negativity? What would you do if you were in this situation?