Social media and UK local councils

Local Councils’usage and understanding

of Social Media

Findings in brief.This exploratory online survey was taken in June 2011 on sample of UK local councils.

Many local councils have established Facebook and Twitter presences. YouTube channels are also popular. Councils see social media channels as primarily a good way to communicate with residents, while Twitter is considered appropriate for communicating with the Media and LinkedIn is the main venue for reaching other government employees.

Most councils have an established social media presence but they aren’t using it to its full potential. This can be linked to employees’ reluctance to engage in social media dialogue, to lack of resources and to resistance from senior management.

Despite these obstacles, local councils are aware of the benefits of social media as channels for easily disseminating information, engaging younger audiences and generally making local councils more accessible.

Findings in brief.

Most councils have between 2 and 5 people manning their social media presence and all of them expect these numbers to rise in the near future. Responsibility for social media usually sits in the marketing and PR/Media departments. The biggest threats of social media as seen by council employees are negative feedback from the public and losing control of data and messages.

Traditionally, press and television were the main channels that needed to be managed in a crisis situation. The scenery changed dramatically in the last years and local councils are aware of it. They perceive social media as being equally important as broadcast media. In a crisis situation.

Despite this correct understanding, not many councils have in-house ground rules and social media crisis management plans.

The simple answer is ‘Yes’. Social media adoption is well on its way and there’s nothing that can stop it.

Have councils adopted social media?

In June 2011, 80% of responding Councils already had a Facebook account and 20% were planning to start one in the next 12 months.

88% responding Councils had a Twitter account and the rest were planning to start one in the next year.

70% of responding councils had their own YouTube channel and the rest were planning to start one in the next 12 months.

Engaging with stakeholders.Councils have a clear idea about which are the best channels for engaging with their various stakeholders. Over 90% of respondents consider Facebook and YouTube to be the best place to reach local residents. 87% of respondents see Twitter as being equally efficient for both residents and Media. LinkedIn is unanimously agreed to be the best place for reaching colleagues and other governmental employees.

Experts or just doodling?While 37% of respondents evaluate themselves as ‘just getting started’, most councils have an established social media presence but aren’t exceedingly active and don’t have high levels of engagement. 54% perceive their organisations’ social media stage as ‘established but not setting the world on fire’. Only 9% are ‘social media pioneers’ with many fans and high levels of engagement.

54%

37%

Dialogue vs broadcasting.Using social media just as a channel to broadcast messages defeats the object of social media “engagement”. Success in social media is mainly attributed to how much an organisation interacts and engages with its fans and followers. The percentage of councils that don’t ‘set the world on fire’ with their social media is closely linked to how ready they are for dialogue: 81.8% of respondents consider they are ready only to issue a set number of one-way messages and 75.0% consider they don’t have the resources to engage in open dialogue through social media .

Understanding the value of social media.

As the top 100 brands have proven, in the business world two-way social media engagement translates to financial success*. For local government institutions, proper social media engagement can mean an improvement in service delivery and cost reductions coming from switching to this more cost-effective channel rather than traditional media such as newsletters or printed materials. Social media engagement also has a positive impact on an organisation's image, as it means better transparency as well as accessing the new generation of digital natives.

Our survey shows that local councils are very much aware of these facts: sharing information across multiple channels and providing better service delivery is the main benefit of using social media according to 79.3% of respondents. More open and accessible government at grass roots and reaching a new generation of digital natives were the other two main benefits indicated by 50% of respondents .

*http://www.slideshare.net/PingElizabeth/engagementdb-social-media-engagement-study-of-the-top-100-global-brands

Greatest obstacles in social media implementation.

For Local Councils, the three greatest obstacles faced when planning for social media are: competing priorities (lack of time / budget) - 58.3%; lack of understanding from upper management - 45.8% and concerns raised by the IT departments - 33% . When the survey was taken, legal issues represented an obstacle for only 8% of respondents. Based on trends of the business world, both resistance of IT departments and legal concerns tend to increase as social media usage increases.

Who’s responsible?For 71% of the surveyed organisations the existing social media accounts are managed by 2-5 administrators. 17% have large teams of 10-20 administrators. All respondents expected these numbers to grow in the next 6 months. This growth is also a potential reason for future legal concerns, as coordinating and managing social media accounts can quickly spiral out of control.

Who’s responsible?For most organisations, responsibility for social media is split between the marketing department and the Media/PR department. Only a small number of councils have a specialised social media team (4.3%). Surprisingly, few IT teams get involved in social media (13%). This can lead to potential tensions between the PR employees managing content and IT departments in charge of internet safety.

70%

40%

Top risks of Social Media.The biggest threats of social media perceived by council employees are negative feedback from the public (33.3%) and losing control of data and messages (25.0%). This seems to be linked to the fact that most respondents don’t feel equipped for dialogue in social media. Beyond perception, social media is a great channel for receiving feed-back and it shouldn’t be feared. Examples from the business world show that prompt response to negative feed-back can turn a potential crisis situation to the organisation’s favour*. A much deeper threat which wasn’t perceived by respondents is the lack of clear objectives and strategy, which can lead to social media chaos and loss of control over data and messages.

33.3%

25.0%

* http://www.slideshare.net/elishatan/social-media-crisis-management-three-case-studies

Social Media crisis management plan.

In a crisis situation, social media can be a steep slope. While traditional broadcast media is complied by strict regulations, in social media negative comments and feedback spread and multiply from one channel to the other without much verification. A simple rumour which isn’t dealt with in time can snowball with alarming speed and hit an organisation at full force. 38% of respondents to our survey see social media as posing the greatest risk to their organisation in a crisis situation. An equal percentage of respondents perceive traditional broadcast media as presenting the biggest risk in a time of crisis.

Again, despite this perception, only 21% of the councils had clearly designed crisis management plans. For most of the others, there was no plan set in place; arising issues were reported to line managers on an ad-hoc basis.

Conclusions.Local Councils have a clear understanding of Social Media and its benefits but they still have a long way to go before true social media engagement is adopted. Their Social Media involvement is well under way, but at this point the process is slowed down by two factors:

• Internal concerns and obstacles rising from lack of coordination and strategy regarding social media communications.

• Employees’ lack of confidence in their ability to engage in meaningful two-way communications on social media.

If these issues aren’t addressed by proper training and clear policies and plans, they will only escalate as the number of social media administrators will rise and the use of social media increases across the organisation.

COORDINATION, CONTROL and EXPRETISE are the key words for the future of Local Councils’ social Media Engagement.

This research was compiled by

CrowdcControlHQ

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