Twitter gritters: new briefing shows how councils are using the web and social media to help manage local emergencies

Councils are starting to use global social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as hyperlocal, community websites operating in their areas, to communicate with their residents and businesses when local emergencies arise.

This development is reported in a new briefing from Socitm Insight, publisher of Better connected, the annual survey of all local authority websites, which comes out on Monday 1 March.

The information in Twitter gritters: council use of digital channels in local emergencies is based on a structured survey of 125 councils across the UK carried out by Better connected's team of reviewers during the 'snow crisis' of the first two weeks of January. The sample included a quarter of the all UK councils and draws on those which subscribe to Socitm Insight's Website take-up service.

The survey looked at how councils were publishing information about service disruptions during the period of snow and ice. It looked at their use of Twitter and Facebook to communicate with the public and analysed the data from the Website take-up service to see how traffic to their websites was affected.  The survey report has been supplemented with anecdotal evidence from councils across the UK gathered from professional networking sites used by web professionals including Socitm's Web Improvement and Usage community.

Data on website usage, gathered from the Website take-up service was also analysed. This showed that in January 2010, traffic to council websites rose sharply. Over the whole month, there was a recorded an increase of 37.3% compared with January 2009, with clear 'spikes' on days when the weather was most disrupted. Further analysis suggests that 75% of the increase in January's traffic related to the impact of the severe weather.

In terms of provision on councils' own websites, there was a marked improvement over previous surveys and the quantity and quality of the information and the frequency of updates was impressive. Key relevant information regarding closures, the state of the roads and advice is now prioritised over statistics on the number of miles of gritting that has been carried out (seen on some home pages in previous surveys). Presentation of content was on some sites more sophisticated, with graphics, photographs, maps and webcams used to good effect.

As for use of social media, many more councils (30 out of 121 surveyed) now have Twitter accounts linked from their home page, but only a few seemed to be actively promoting them for following service information, although latest updates were in many cases being broadcast via Twitter. Facebook pages (13 out of 121), were not much used for promoting disruption updates. There was a vast discrepancy between the poorest and the best councils in their use of these media, with Coventry City standing out for its timely and responsive updates.

The briefing also covers the opportunity for local councils to collaborate with hyperlocal or community websites to get its information out to residents and businesses. The briefing shows examples of where council information was been re-published, re-purposed or 'mashed up' and
for the benefit of local people.

The briefing is not confined to the snow crisis: it also carries a report based on a similar approach to researching how councils in Cumbria used the web and social media as they reacted to the severe flooding that hit the county in November. This followed a survey of council website coverage of local elections last year, when it became clear that increasing numbers of councils were offering real-time results services that rivalled or bettered that of the traditional media and that social media was being used to push results out beyond those using the council website.

'Over the past year, we have observed leading councils becoming quick and adept at publishing information on their websites and getting this out to local people via social media' says Martin Greenwood, programme director for Socitm Insight. 'This is a significant change from the old methods of waiting for the public to call them - often leading to overload in the call centre - or working through intermediaries like the local news media. Councils should be looking to develop these approaches, because they will lead to better services, delivered more efficiently'.

Twitter gritters: council use of digital channels in local emergencies is available as a 16pp document in pdf format. It can be downloaded from www.socitm.net free of charge by Socitm Insight subscribers, and costs £25 for non-subscribers. The content will be incorporated into next month's Better connected report, which will be published on 1 March.

Further information

Vicky Sargent, Socitm Press Office
Tel: 07726 601 139  e-mail: vicky.sargent@socitm.net

Martin Greenwood, Programme Manager, Socitm Insight
Tel: 01926 498703 or 07967 383755  e-mail: martin.greenwood@socitm.net