There’s two questions to ask with UK public sector WhatsApp use… how is it performing? And why on earth isn’t there more?
As a platform, WhatsApp is about as near as it is possible to get to a universal channel with more than 80 per cent of all age groups in the UK using it.
Organisations like Real Madrid have more than 60 million users and in the UK, BBC News commands a channel with 13 million subscribers.
Yet, two years after launch, WhatsApp Channels have failed to really ignite public sector communications.
Analysis shows just over 20 public sector organisations in the UK are using WhatsApp Channels. Yet, Metropolitan Police have 65,000 people signed-up for their WhatsApp Channel but have used it only once.
There is an audience who is not being reached.
The importance of the push notification
Way back as far as 2019, the push notification to the phone was being seen as a front that had overtaken the 9 O’Clock News TV bulletin as a space that is dominating the news agenda.
Your phone pings, you glance at it and read a piece of breaking news that you’ve opted into.
“The push notification is one of the only ways to cut through the noisy filter bubbles that many of us now occupy,” the New Statesman then reported.
“In our fragmented media landscape, push notifications are becoming as important as traditional TV news slots.”
Today, the BBC has eight million sign-ups to its news app that issues push notifications. That’s more than double the 3.5 million who watch BBC’s largest news audience for the 6 O’Clock News. The click through rate is one per cent. But rather than the full story, people are grazing the headline.
For news apps, around a third of people see the notification.
This is where WhatsApp comes in.
WhatsApp is the 4th largest platform for news in the UK.
Reach’s combined local and national WhatsApp Channels reaches more than three million people. Interestingly, 80 per cent of their five million clicks a month come from WhatsApp Communities rather than WhatsApp Channels. While Channels are open-ended Communities are limited to 5,000 subscribers. Fine for the Stoke City coverage from Reach’s Sentinal title but less so if you are a global football brand.
An update from a WhatsApp Channel can be made to ping like a news alert. Or people can simply use their feed as a news catch-up scroll.
Why the low take-up?
All this constructs a compelling argument as to why WhatsApp is in an important position in the landscape. It can be used for news or it can be used to sort meet-up arrangements between friends.
So why hasn’t it taken off?
As a hunch, I’d say that WhatsApp has been hit by a perfect storm of less available time, declining morale and smaller teams. The day is already busy enough. Why squeeze something else onto the to do list?
But is public sector comms missing a trick?
I’d say, yes.
Where public sector WhatsApp is
Take-up of WhatsApp Channels in the public sector is thin.
Across the public sector, there is a WhatsApp Channels for UK Government as well as Welsh and Scottish Governments. There are four police forces with a presence. Aside from the under-used Met in London, Lancashire and Derbyshire Police have accounts as does Gwent’s Police and Crime Commissioner.
In the NHS, NHS England run the NHS WhatsApp Channel and it remains to be seen if that will outlast that organisation’s demise. Elsewhere in England, Northumbria Healthcare and Great Western Hospitals have a presence. In Wales, the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have a presence.
In local government, Sheffield, Renfrewshire, Fife, Surrey, Wealden and in London Hillingdon and Richmond have WhatsApp Channels. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue and West Midlands are flying the flag for fire and rescue.
There are no WhatsApp Channels in Northern Ireland found in the sweep.
There may be more and I’d love to hear from you if you are aware of more.
How is it performing?
I’ve taken a look at a cross-section of accounts from different sectors and different parts of the world.
WhatsApp Channels can work.
Real Madrid’s 60 million followers thrive on realtime updates. News from the club or scoreflashes work well.
There is a tendency to add a link to the post to drive traffic to the corporate website. I’m not convinced that’s what people want from WhatsApp. A quick update and some sharable information is probably what people want.
In Germany, Feuerwehr Munchen – the regional fire service – send out text updates of incidents in a uniform format. Some get comparatively good engagement.
For me, the Daily Mail approach is still a strategy to pursue. Rather than have one account to rule them all you can opt into different subjects. So, the Daily Mail general account has 1.3 million followers, with Daily Mail Kardashians 1.1 million, Daily Mail Taylor Swift 249,000, and Daily Mail Best Shopping 11,000.
So, segmenting is good.
Few people want to hear about everything the organisation does. But news targeted to a geographic area or a demographic such as parents of primary-school age children would work.
And how about flood alerts?
Extreme weather?
Creative commons credit: Man sits at desk with five computers and 21 telephones by Crombie McNeill.
AI note: ChatGPT Deep Research was used to collect together evidence of UK public sector WhatsApp Channels as well as push notifications. The gathered information was read and reviewed.