Using WhatsApp

WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business are messaging platforms. 

• WhatsApp is a personal and private form of social media you can use to message friends, colleagues, and those you have a phone number for.
• WhatsApp Business is a separate platform which works exactly like WhatsApp but has more functionality for organisations allowing them to communicate with their customers and market their activities, products, or services.  

You can use WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business to: 

• Communicate with people quickly, efficiently and in a personalised way. 
• Send messages, photos, and videos to individuals or groups to inform them of your organisation’s news, fixtures, events, and other useful information. 
• Create groups where participants, volunteers, teams, or committees can participate in conversations by adding messages, photos and videos or ask for feedback and share information.
• WhatsApp Business also allows you to share files, lists, marketing materials and data on your profile that people might find useful such as your organisation’s address, opening hours, training locations, email address, links to your website etc.   

Get started by:

• Downloading the WhatsApp and/or WhatsApp Business apps to a smart phone or device. You can download both apps on the same device. If you have a dual-SIM phone, or a separate mobile number for your organisation, you can keep your phone numbers separate. 
• Creating and verifying an account – you’ll be given a registration code.
• Once verified, you can allow the app to access your contacts, photos, and chats.
• You can start a chat by clicking on the top right icon and selecting a contact you’d like to send a message to.

Things to consider

• As a more personal form of communication, WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business is best used with adults. 
• Messages are securely stored or can be set to be time limited and disappear after a predetermined period.
• WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business are designed to make you easily accessible. They allow people to contact you at all hours, while this enables a quick response, it can raise expectations about response times.  
• WhatsApp business allows you to manage expectations at busy periods or out of hours by enabling you to send automatic responses to let people know when to expect to hear back from you. 
• WhatsApp business allows you to create prepopulated responses linked to keywords, it can also send prewritten welcome messages which can save you time. 
• You can link Instagram Business, WhatsApp Business and Facebook Page accounts.