Twitter gritters: council use of digital channels in local emergencies

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The survey looks 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.

Executive summary

We examine how local authorities (and in England, supported by Local
Directgov) have responded to severe weather conditions over the winter of
2009/10 by using online communications. The impact of severe weather in
disrupting critical local services is encouraging many councils to use their
websites and new forms of social media to communicate essential
messages. This is a very practical example of how technology continues to
shape the way in which public sector organisations should engage with their
citizens, customers and communities.

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.

Contents of the report

1. Background
2. November 2009 - Cumbra floods
3. January 2010 - snow and freezing weather across the UK
4. Use of social media
5. Our advice
6. Further information
   

Twitter Gritters Package

Only available as a 16 page PDF report. Insight subscribers get the report free (website download as part of the Insight subscription).  Non Insight subscribers may purchase the PDF file which will be emailed on receipt of payment in accordance with the price list below.

We hope to shortly to provide the facility to download any PDF versions from the site.

The charge for Non Insight subscribers and Socitm members (who don't subscribe to Insight) are :

Twitter Gritters price list

Package All prices displayed below exclude VAT. Add to basket prices include VAT.	Report (PDF )
Insight subscribers	Free
Non Insight subscribers - Socitm members	£25
Non Insight subscribers - all other organisations	£25
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