When looking round the Community recently you may have noticed a new ‘chat with us’ button appearing when looking at our ‘Ask an Expert’ section or our ‘Help pages’. This is our new Webchat feature and we are really pleased to let you know that the Community team will now be available to live chat with Community users Monday – Friday 9am-5pm to help answer your technical questions. For more information about webchat and how it works, please click here to read our recent blog.
We thought, therefore, that it would be great to start a new Community News blog series showing you the faces behind webchat. We have started our ‘A day in the life of...' blog today with Community team member Rachel, who is here to tell you a bit more about what she does day to day to help support those affected by cancer. We’ve asked Rachel to answer a few questions this afternoon to give us some more info.
So firstly, what is an Online Community officer?
An online Community officer works as part of the Community team. We are responsible for everything that goes on on the site, from moderation, to helping to support members with anything they may be going through, to writing new Community News Blogs. We aim to make sure the Community is a safe and supportive place for anyone affected by cancer.
What does a normal day look like for you?
My job role changes day to day, but the first thing I do every morning is check our Community inbox and also have a look to see if there are any private messages that have been sent to the Moderator – Macmillan inbox.
If it’s my turn to manage webchat, I will also log onto webchat and answer any direct messages that may come through there. I might also start work on a new Community newsletter, put together a new blog, or even get to work organising our next Community Champions’ meet up.
At lunch time I might try to get some fresh air by going for a nice walk (if it’s not chucking it down with rain!) My flat overlooks a canal so I love walking down and seeing all the house boats, and if I’m lucky, maybe spotting a heron!
Every day is a bit different and there are 5 members of the Community team who are all working together to try to support our members and volunteers as best we can. Our members are our top priority so our workload is very driven by members who may have been in touch on that particular day for support.
How can people contact you for support?
There are lots of different ways you can contact the Community team for support, firstly you can always email community@macmillan.org.uk. Our team works 7 days a week and will always try to respond within 2 working days.
You can also send a private message to our Moderator – Macmillan account which is also checked by a member of the team every day.
If you need help navigating the site, or encounter any technical issues, you can also now live chat with a member of the team via our webchat facility Monday – Friday – 9am- 5pm. To connect with a member of the team, simply select ‘Online Community help' from the dropdown menu.
What do you like most about your job?
I would say the thing I find most rewarding about my job is being able to directly connect those who need support with others on the Community who know what they’re going through. I’m such a huge advocate for the site and the power of peer support. Having someone reach out to the team looking for support and being able to tell them all about the site and know that if they join a group and start talking about how they feel, one of our wonderful members will be there with a very warm welcome gives me a great sense of pride in the site.
Last but not least, what’s your coffee break drink of choice?
I’m such a tea person, I have far too many cups every day! I also take my tea embarrassingly weak and when I worked up in the Macmillan office in Yorkshire my milky tea would often be met by a raised eyebrow from my Yorkshire colleagues who believed in proper strong Yorkshire brews!
If you would like to chat to Rachel or any member of the Community team about any questions you might have about the site, why not send us a message over webchat? We will be bringing you more faces from the Macmillan Support Line over the next few weeks so do keep an eye out to learn more about some of the Macmillan advisers you could be speaking to on our Macmillan webchat.
