Category Archives: emergency planning

LONG READ: 7/7 was also the day the future of communications arrived

Trigger warning: terrorism.

We have passed the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 attack on London and the day rightly was spent reflecting and allowing those involved to speak.

On the day, there were some powerful testimonies from survivors. For example, the TikTok clip of the woman whose life was saved by an off-duty police officer who was reunited for the first time in years was pure emotion. 

But also on LinkedIn, posts from former Metropolitan Police comms people recalling their day. 

The attacks killed 52 people and injured almost 800 people. 

In 2025, the 7/7 attack found me by dropping into my timeline.

But in 2005, there was no timeline to drop into. Mobile phones were for phone calls and texting and when an emergency happened people’s attention turned to TV and radio. So it was for me twenty years ago in a council press office. We followed on BBC News 24 as the timeline moved from ‘power surge’ to ‘explosion’ and then grimly to ‘terror attack.’

What I didn’t know then was that day was a true watershed moment in communications.

For the first time, the internet overtook the newsroom as the prime source of breaking news. 

It was the early crowdsourced web – Wikipedia – which emerged as the most updated source. Breaking news was not being set by newsrooms but by people on the street with camera phones. Images were coming from survivors first not TV news crews. The primary images of 9/11 four years before had come from TV news. In 2005, they started to come from people in the Tube carriages.

Let me explain. 

The timeline

It’s striking to compare how 7/7 played out to how things now routinely play out. Back then there was the luxury of time. 

8.50am – Simultaneous explosions.

9.15am – Metropolitan Police announced an ‘incident’ prompting London radio radio stations to report ‘incidents’ on the Tube.

9.28am – The first mention of the incident on the Wikinews arm of Wikipedia.

10.18am – The Wikipedia page that captures the incident is created with the first of thousands of edits.

10.30am – Gold Control starts at Metropolitan Police signifying a major incident.

10.40am – Government sources confirm 20 dead.

11.10am – Met Police confirm a co-ordinated terror attack.

11.15am – Met Police begin a live press conference.

User generated content 

Mobile phones in 2005 could take grainy pictures which could then be emailed and texted. Tube passenger Adam Stacey takes an image of himself trapped in the Tube tunnel with dust, light and other passengers. He sends it to Eliot Ward who then uploads it to Wikipedia and to the internet. He adds a creative commons licence allowing re-use. It becomes a defining image of the incident. Today, it looks grainy and amateurish. Then, it was a glimpse into the future just as cannon balls on a post-battle in Crimea had been in 1855. 

How did people get their breaking news in 2005?

In 2005, traditional news channels reigned supreme. TV and radio were the prime sources although BBC News and ITN were taking the challenge from the emerging Sky News.

Martin Blunt was a Sky reporter in 2005 and 20 years on he retraced his step that day in this news package. You can se it here:

What’s striking is the way the news was reported. Unattributed sources shaped the Sky News package including the suggestion that this could be a suicide bomb – or multiple bombs. 

The 7/7 attack saw a surge in visits to traditional websites with more than a billion page views across the day on the BBC website. The BBC hosted a ‘Your Photo’s page which captured first hand images. Blogs started to be published mapping the news in realtime.

When updates landed they were often on Wikipedia first

It’s hard to fathom looking back in 2025 but Wikipedia showed the first stirrings of what the social web would look like. The first update on the site was one hour 28 minutes after the explosions by an editor called Morwena who had heard about the explosions from colleagues. It’s interesting to reflect she refrained from posting until the attacks were confirmed by traditional media inline with site policy.

In the next 24-hours, there were more than 2,000 edits from 800 volunteers to update the July 7 attack page. Even a week later the page was still being updated 100 times a day.

The page also changed its title from ‘London Underground power surge incident’ to ‘London Underground explosions’ as the information clarified. Malicious edits were also an issue, Wikipedia’s account sets out with a core team of editors fighting to maintain standards.

All this is significant because the site was being updated faster than other online news sources. Also significant, The New York Times and Newsday began quoting Wikipedia as a source of their reporting. This was unprecedented.

Yet, for all the firsts that had been created, it is worth noting that a quarter of a million people saw the updates on the day. The days of social media taking over with millions of impressions were yet to come. In the wake of the Southport murders and riots, there were more than 27 millionb impressions on Twitter alone of misinformation.

This was the first major citizen journalist UK incident

As The Guardian reported five years after 7/7, this was the first realtime incident that the UK saw through the breaking news prism of citizen reporting, the internet and early camera phones. 

It was a new kind of story. Not in the sense of what happened, which was thoroughly and depressingly as anticipated, but in the way it was reported and disseminated. The mobile phone photographers, the text messagers and the bloggers – a new advance guard of amateur reporters had the London bomb story in the can before the news crews got anywhere near the scene.

The blogging platform LiveJournal also became a hub for news and personal experience. This new platform in its own way was soon to be replaced by Facebook and in particular Twitter in the London riots seven years later.

It’s interesting to read in The Guardian piece that SMS and email was the main way that the BBC got updates of the incident. There’s no surprise when you realise that SMS was the main way that people communicated with each other in 2005. Mobile networks like 4G were a long way off.

Not only that but early photo sharing site Flickr was the place online where people shared images. The site holds a place in my own heart as being the place where the Walsall Flickr group coalesced. These early social photographers would come along to several photo walks I organised.

Camera phones

The grainy image at the top of the piece was taken by a Tube passenger Adam Stacey who was trapped between Kings Cross and Russell Square. Titled ‘Trapped Underground’ the image was taken with an early camera phone and sent to his friend Alfie Dennan who published it on moblog with a creative commons licence allowing it to be reused.

Looking back its clear that people were starting to realise that a survivor could also be a reporter

The BBC itself had 50 images within the hour and almost 1,000 by the end of the day texted and emailed by people who were very often eyewitnesses.

To today’s eye, the images are low grade. They are pictures. They are not video. Yet looking back on accounts from the time its clear the surprise of commentators. Looking back five years later The Guardian commented:

“The mobile phone photographers, the text messagers and the bloggers – a new advance guard of amateur reporters – had the story in the can before the news crews got anywhere near the scene.”

Conclusion

The 7/7 attack was not the first heinous terror attack in Britain but was the very first major incident where eyewitnesses with mobile phones were shaping journalism and the first draft of history.

Just a few years later, Clay Shirky’s ‘Here Comes Everybody’ would paint an optimistic picture of how the wisdom of crowds could be connected through the social web. In 2025, the driver is not how to tap into crowdsourced content but rather how to protect people from the disinformation it can bring. 

In 2005, there were traces of disinformation and the need to gatekeep. Wikipedia editors held the line that they would not post information without it first being verified. But across the available channels, there were no far-right or Russian commentators online looking to turn people against a minority.  

Looking back to 2005 and you can see the future of communications emerging. This was not a moment where switch was flicked and everyone looked online for eyewitness accounts and hot takes. But it did signal a profound change that communicators are still struggling with.

The future of communications arrived in 2005. It showed that bystanders would shape the narrative and bad actors would also try and influence the story. It showed the speed of the internet was faster than more traditional ways of communicating.

It also showed that public sector comms teams needed to be faster, clearer and more accurate and were one voice in a sea of noise.

I think we’re still wrestling with this.

Creative Commons credit: ‘Trapped Underground’ taken by Adam Stacey on 7/7, 2005.

LONG READ: How much should you still be using corporate X, formerly Twitter?

Should you still be using your corporate X, formerly Twitter? It’s a question I’m often asked so I thought I’d write an analysis.

There are a great many reasons to not use the organisation’s channel. Since the takeoever of Twitter by Elon Musk it has opened back up to some unsavoury characters. A BBC investigation reported that it was now unsafe.

Then there’s the limit on the number of tweets than can be seen which diminishes its role as an emergency comms channel at the same time as verified accounts being stopped and blue ticks sold off to all comers.

Then there’s been Elon Musk’s attack on British politics warning of Civil War in the wake of far right riots and retweeting false claims rioters will be sent to the Falkland Islands.

Enough. Surely?

I loved early Twitter but I’ve not used the platform in earnest for 12-months. I grew sick of the algorithm pushing me extremist politics and anyway, the people who had made it a great place had moved on.

As this tweet says, it’s pretty unusable.

So, would my recommendation be to close your corporate account and go full Stephen Fry to quit the platform as an organisation?

Actually, no. But do please be mindful of the abuse. This tweet from Northamptonshire Local Recovery Forum is eye-opening. If you click through and check out the comments do so knowing that they are deeply offensive. You need a set of social media house rules to show you how to handle this.

But should you still use it? It depends on your audience.

Your own personal account

There’s two questions to answer with this. Your own account and the corporate account. For your own account, hey, that’s down to you. If you find it a deserted hellscape then don’t use it.

It’s true that for comms people, the discuission has moved more to LinkedIn and Facebook groups.

This is more about the corporate account.

What X is good for

It’s very clear that journalists remain all over the platform. National reporters as well as local ones are still finding stories there and organisations are still connecting with them there.

Indeed, the UK Home Office in the days after the summer 2024 riots have been using their account as a ticker for prosections.

Like this one.

Indeed, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s video to lay down the law to those found breaking the law has been seen 3.5 million times in three days on the platform. The video went to other channels too.

I blogged recently on the impact of WhatsApp and Facebook groups on local news.

Both of these channels were responsible for the flow of information from the street and neighbourhood before the events in Southport reached a wider regional and national audience.

But how about the health of the platform as a whole outside an emergency?

One thing I do when I’m conducting a social media review is to calculate the number of dormant accounts on what used to be Twitter. I use a subscriber tool called Fedica. Helpfully, it can give you a breakdown of followers on any account and analyse if their account is active. What is dormant? It means no posts in the past six months.

As a real world experiment, I decided to run the rule over the public sector in the Black Country where I live. Where’s the Black Country? It’s that bit of the West Midlands west of the M5. Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton self-identify as Black Country.

If you’ve not been to the Black Country Living Musuem in Tipton you really should.

So firstly, I thought I’d run the council accounts through Fedica to analyse them.

Here’s what I found.

Black Country council X, formerly Twitter, accounts active followers v dormant followers

Dudley Council @dudleymbc active 26 per cent dormant 74 per cent.
Sandwell Council @sandwellcouncil 24.4 per cent active dormant 75.6 per cent.
Walsall Council @walsallcouncil active 15.7 per cent dormant 84.3 per cent.
Wolverhampton Council active 26.3 per cent dormant 23.7 per cent.

Source: Fedica.

First reaction? That’s a lot of dormant accounts.

Around 75 per cent of all four council’s X, formerly Twitter followers haven’t been active.

So, for @walsallcouncil, of the 35,000 followers this means just over 5,500 have been active in the last six months.

This makes me reflective as I set-up this account in 2009 when I was working for Walsall Council. I sent the first tweet and battled to convince people to take it seriously.

Scrolling through their timeline I can also see the number of people who have seen the tweet. Around 300 is common rising to around 750 for the more popular content.

But Walsall is not an outlier. The other Black Country councils in the region have a similar number.

But, is this just councils? How about the NHS?

Black Country NHS X, formerly Twitter, accounts active followers v dormant followers

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust @DudleyGroupNHS active 33 per cent dormant 67 per cent.
Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust active 34.9 per cent dormant 65.1 per cent.
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust @RWT_NHS active 35.5 per cent dormant 64.4 per cent.
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust active 30.7 per cent dormant 69.3 per cent.

Source: Fedica.

NHS accounts show around two thirds of accounts are dormant and are all showing similar numbers. That’s fewer than compared to local government.

Perhaps the recent pandemic is the reason for this as health news then came at a premium.

But how about blue light services such as police, ambulance and fire and rescue?

West Midland blue light services X, formerly Twitter, accounts active followers v dormant followers

West Midlands Fire @westmidsfire 22.2 per cent active 77.8 per cent dormant.
West Midlands Ambulance Service @OfficialWMAS 25.3 per cent active 74.7 per cent dormant. West Midlands Police @WMPolice 22 per cent active 88 per cent dormant.

Source: Fedica.

The police take the prize. West Midlands Police had the highest dormant numbers with 88 per cent followed by West Midlands Fire and Rescue on 77.8 per cent and West Midlands Ambulance at 74.7 per cent.

Yet while the region’s police have the highest number of dormant accounts a recent tweet about the arrest of a man with what looked like a gun at a riot in Birmingham was seen more than 77,000 times.

So, in an emergency it all starts to make sense.

Conclusion

The first thing to say is that there are some hugely talented people who work in the public sector in the Black Country. I’ve worked with several.

Indeed, I’m sure those comms people are not relying on X, formerly Twitter, to get their message out and I’m pretty sure they’re alive to the issue of falling users on Musk’s platform.

The recent riots sheds light on what to use in an emergency. Big numbers can still be reached when information is at a premium.

There’s talk about Twitter alternatives such as Blue Sky, Mastodon and Threads. None of them have the reach of Twitter at its peak. Of those, Threads Meta’s Twitter alternative is the strongest horse to back but some distance away from being a full Twitter equivalent in the UK.

Users on Threads are moving upwards but UK users can still be measured in hundreds of thousands.

But for Elon Musk’s platform, it’s striking that the Labour Party’s successful General Election social media constituency strategy was Facebook groups, WhatsApp and Nextdoor. Why? They correctly identified that’s not where the constituents were. Journalists and other MPs, yes. Voters in that constituency? Not really.

People have moved away from what used to be Twitter but haven’t entirely abandoned it. LinkedIn and Facebook groups are there for discussion.

So what to do with it?

If you want to reach journalists and people in an emergency then X is still relevant.

On a routine day-to-day the numbers in these examples don’t support frequent use. To reach residents its WhatsApp, Facebook groups and Nextdoor. To reach journalists its maybe a mix of WhatsApp and X.

Right now in 2024, public sector X, formerly Twitter makes sense as a prime emergency channel rather than a prime daily platform.

This may mean a recalibration of how you use the account rather than abandoning it altogether.

For more about the social media reviews I run for organisations head here.

RIOT CONTENT: Some eye-catching content before and after disorder

It’s August 2024 and a number of foreign countries are posting travel warnings after the outbreak of rioting – let’s not call it protest – across England and Northern Ireland.

What started with the murder of three children in Southport became a riot fuelled by misinformation and then disorder in more than a dozen towns.

The Civil Contingencies Act requires UK police, council, fire and rescue and NHS to warn and inform.

I’ve gathered toghether some content that has lanfded. It’s important to stress that it’s not always the eye catching that works. Yes, there’s some arresting footage of police body-warn cameras but there’s also some very straight forward meat and potato communication that scores well because it is timely.

But alonngside the messaging, don’t forget media relations.

The conviction and sentencing of those accused of taking part in disorder is now an important part of the process.

Justice must seen to be done to deter those who could take part in future disorder.

Here’s some that’s caught my eye.

Communicating the incident

X, formerly Twitter, still has a role in a breaking news situation. Wisely, Merseyside Police limited who can reply to the original message. A similar message on Facebook has been shared 350 times in seven days.

Communicating loss

After the deaths of the girls in Southport comes remembering and honouring their lives. Mersey and West Lancs Teaching Hospital NHS Trust.

And also Sefton Council on Instagram lighting up a civic building.

Communicating disorder

But as the situation spread to a far right-inspired riot in Southport and to other towns in England the situation became more charged. Merseyside Police shared some shocking bodyworn camera footage.

Communicating condemnation

In other towns there was condemnation of the trouble caused such as here, Rotherham Council. Sometimes, attractive content isn’t needed. The simple text of it works here.

Communicating arrests

Putting through the door of one of the suspects accused of taking part in the rioting in Sunderland. Face obscured to not jeopardise a future trial from Northumbria Police.

And body worn content showing the arrest of suspects – with faces obscured so as not to jeopardise their conviction.

Communicating recovery

It’s important to show the recovery phase. Here, the people of Sunderland turned out to help with the clean-up operation in the city centre after violence. This post from Sunderland City Council.

And here, Liverpool City Council didn’t hide the deep impact of the violence. Here, library staff on TikTok talk of their shock after their building was targeted.

@lpoolcouncil

Mark and Debbie who work at #Spellow Hub, express their sorrow after the destruction of their community hub. The service gives vital support to the community and the devastation caused by the appalling criminal actions of a minority has left people in shock.

♬ original sound – Liverpool City Council

Again, residents taking part in the clear-up posted by Hull City Council.

A simple picture of gifts thanking Cleveland Police officers who tackled trouble in Middlesborough gets huge reactions.

Communicating recovery from the residents

As much as the content from official channels is important – and it is – there’s certainly something to be said for sharing other recovery content. After all, this shows powerfully that the community are on the side of law and order.

Here, a Southport football player Jordan Lussey offers free coaching to kids from the town.

Don’t forget media relations

It’s also important to remember the role that traditional media plays in these moments and that their content is shared back online. Here, a Liverpool Echo piece is shared back into the Southport Community Facebook group.

And this from South Yorkshire…

And court reporting which is an important part in the process…

On the subject of media relations…

Alison Hernandez, police and crime commissioner for Devon gives a masterclass in communicating restrained anger and praise on BBC TV. It’s five minutes but worth the watch.

LONG READ: Southport and the two new pressing questions of emergency planning 3.0

As the dust starts to settle on the horrific murders of three children and rioting in Southport two important questions start to emerge for public sector communicators.

Firstly, how to communicate on a hyperlocal level in an emergency?

Secondly, how to challenge the world of disinformation that can come with it?

Communicating on a hyperlocal level

Ofcom’s Review of Local Media correctly shows the dartboard-shaped new landscape of communicating locally.

It starts with your street as the bullseye and radiates out to your neighbourhood, town or city then your county nation or region. It looks like this:

The channels radiate from WhatsApp and Facebook groups locally right up to TV and radio nationally.

In an emergency, Twitter has been the default first platform for the public sector to communicate on since 2011.

The Manchester Arena terror attack and the London Bridge terror attack, for example, were all communicated by emergency services through Twitter first and in almost real time.

Indeed, London Ambulance Service stopped answering the phones to the media and relayed their statements on Twitter as the incident played out.

But Twitter, now X, is not what it was. The limit on tweets you can see has blunted its effectiveness at reaching people. Its timeline is no longer in chronological order.

What is now happening is the local emergency and the disinformation that surrounds it is playing out first on WhatsApp and Facebook groups.

The big problem is this escapes the gaze of police, fire & rescue, NHS and council people who operate on a town, county or regional level.

It’s important to say there is no criticism in this post of those organisations responding to what was a triple murder in Southport followed by a riot then recovery. Quite the opposite, teams from Merseyside Police, Merseyside Fire & Rescue, North West Ambulance Service, Mersey and West Lancs NHS Trust and Sefton Council stood up to be counted.

Like this post.

In an emergency, information rather than click-attracting content is key.

I’m sure there will be a more detailed study into the events and lessons learned but as a blogger some things struck me.

The timeline for Southport

Firstly, let’s look at the timeline to see how it measures up against the Ofcom dartboard.

At 11.50am on Monday July 29, a man armed with a knife attacked children at a venue in Southport. 

Jamie Lopez, a reporter for the subscription news service The Lancashire Lead, recalls how the information vaccum was filled with rumour:

“I was born and raised in the town and on Monday spent hours waiting in fear for official news to come through. The WhatsApp groups and Facebook comments were filled with terrifying stories of what may have happened and just how many people were affected.

“Most of those suggestions had lots of details wrong but ultimately the key point remained true – children and adults had been stabbed by a lone attacker who’d embarked on a spree of unimaginable terror.”

The subscription news email The Post also pointed to WhatsApp as being the key channel. It reports the anxiety of a Southport parent as the news spread.

“All of a sudden I was getting all these messages flashing through on my phone, on WhatsApp and things,. No one really knew what was happening or where it was — at first we were worried it might be some of their friends.”

So, misinformation and confusion on WhatsApp and Facebook groups first as the incident played out. It started off as being hyperlocal.

Just over an hour later came the first statement on the Merseyside Police website.

At 1.07pm police confirmed a major incident, casualties and a man arrested with a knife seized. An order to ban drones from the area was made and published at 4.18pm the same day.

By 5.25pm police confirm a 17-year-old from the Banks area of Southport has been arrested that the incident was not being treated as terror-related and urge people not to speculate.

Stop speculating?

Far right social media had gone into overdrive. They immediately blamed Islamic terrorism with unfounded allegations the attacker was from Syria and had come to the UK illegally. See here, here and here.

Far right agitator Tommy Robinson was telling his 800,000 X followers this was the fault of illegal immigrants. Andrew Tate falsely claimed the culprit was an undocumented Muslim who had arrived on a boat.

At 7.18pm a more detailed statement was given on the incident by Merseyside Police. Tragically, this was a Taylor Swift-themed event the children had been attending, they say.

By Tuesday, the death toll had risen to three by 12.12pm with an update from Merseyside Police and Sefton Council were forced to combat online rumours it was going to kick off again.

And then the riot

A vigil for the children was held that evening but a crowd then started attacking a mosque in the town. Camera phone footage posted by people in the mob then started to be widely circulated. By 8.35pm a statement outlining arrests was made. Fifty police officers were injured.

On Thursday August 1 the court appearance of the teenager accused of the murders reported by the Liverpool Echo.

The Guardian report that an incorrect name had been circulated by far right influencers with videos topping 800,000 views in less than a day. 

By the morning of Wednesday July 31 Nigel Farage MP had got involved. He posted a video questioning what information was being withheld rather than asking the question in Parliament and getting an answer.

Legitimate questions, commentators said, but he could have got answers had he asked his questions in Parliament.

What was being hidden?

In the UK, the law forbids police immediately identifying a 17-year-old but in the world of conspiracy ‘they’ don’t want you to know who it is because ‘they’ are hiding something.

A court order was later made to identify the accused as Axel Rudakubana who was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff.

So, it wasn’t a Muslim immigrant who came illegally on a boat at all.

Organised disinformation

The News Agent news podcast produced an excellent investigation into the background of misinformation (accidental) and disinformation (deliberate) around the Southport incident.

I strongly urge you to take a few minutes to catch-up on this if you work in the public sector. It sets out the far right conspiracy playbook that if you spend any time online you’ll see.

One of the means of conspiracy, the podcast reports, is ‘they’re not telling you stuff’. They’re hiding it from you.

Who?

‘A shadowy cabal, the Deep State, the woke.’

It sounds crackers but it clearly has traction.

This isn’t unique to Southport. This practice, the programme reports, is well established to encourage division and hate.

Marc Owen Jones, an academic who specialises in disinformation, was interviewed on the programme after posting a thread on X, formerly Twitter, which showed 27 million impressions speculating that the attacker was a Muslim, migrant, refugee or foreigner.

The academic calls the key people who spread disinformation ‘disinfluencers’.

What makes you laugh or makes you angry gets the most clicks, he says. Clicks attract influence, attention and money, he says.

Authoritarian regimes who don’t like the West are often ultimately behind many of these attempts to encourage polarisation, he says. The Daily Mail linked a site with links to Russia as being a key driver of disinformation in the days after the incident.

This may or may not be be the case but this probably won’t help the police, NHS or council communicator faced with an unfolding incident on the ground.

In addition, BBC Verify published an investigation into the online activity that shows an organised at attempts to encourage organised protests. In several places this led to violence.

The ugly side of Facebook groups

I’m a member of hundreds of Facebook groups across the UK. In part, this is a legacy of work I did during COVID to support councils across the West Midlands and from work I’ve done with the public sector across the UK. Occasionally, content from them drifts to the surface.

Fired by revulsion and anger at the Southport murders the misinformation about the identity was being circulated in groups such as the Cannock Chase Discussion Group which has 9,500 members.

The Sunderland Have Your Say Facebook group’s 35,000 members were also alive with misinformation days before violence was to flare there.

Elsewhere, a TikToker from Hartlepool spoke about a Facebook group message organising a ‘protest’ at the town Cenotaph warning her Muslim friends to stay away.

It is striking that misinformation such can gain traction hundreds of miles away from the actual incident.

This is some community groups and not all.

The positive side of Facebook groups

For the more positive side, the Southport community Facebook group with 35,000 members reflected the mood of the town.

Horror then shock then a determination to come together by clearing up the damage.

Heartening.

And also…

But also…

So, the Facebook group can be a compelling part of the recovery just as much as they can be a source of speculation.

Indeed, content created by the public sector was shared into Facebook groups such as this Mersey Care NHS Trust post which captured the mood of remembrance and reflection.

The role of WhatsApp, Nextdoor and Facebook groups

The incident in Southport falls squarely into the findings of the Ofcom Review of Local Media. 

It played out on WhatsApp and Facebook first. This is a danger point. Rumour fills the vacuum. Once the official statement has been released the message used to be immediately amplified by traditional media. The only vacuum was word of mouth. Now, that’s not the case.

I’d add the community-based network of Nextdoor into this street-by-street mix.

Emergency planning v3.0 and spreading the message on Facebook and WhatsApp

Emergency planning is the duty on the public to warn and inform in an emergency.

This is something that police, fire and rescue, council, NHS and others have a legal duty to plan for.

If traditional media releases are emergency planning v1.0 and social media then using Twitter has been v2.0 then the evolution of WhatsApp, Facebook groups and Nextdoor would be a v3.0 iteration.

This is the phase the puublic sector must now adapt to.

How to plug into WhatsApp and Facebook groups?

I was working in local government around 2010 when the English Defence League came to Birmingham. The first time they came they spread rumours of a white youth being stabbed by an Asian gang. It was pandemonium. The second time they came the police were ready for them.

The second time, a senior officer active on Twitter was scanning for misinformation and then shooting it down in real time.

If there’s a rumour of a stabbing who are you going to believe? An account you don’t know or a police officer you follow?

This incident was a breakthrough moment for me.

A similar Eureka moment is needed with the latest evolution of Emergency Planning, the v30 which has WhatsApp, Nextdoor and Facebook groups.

Ideas for WhatsApp

In peacetime, the lesson from the first WhatsApp Channels are that images with text are sharable and do best on the platform.

So, would a pre-existing WhatsApp Channel that can share an image with text with a request to share into subscribers groups be an idea?

Absolutely.

Indeed, Liverpool City Council used their WhatsApp Channel to spread a video appealing for calm.

The value of using WhatsApp to send a message to particular community leaders in a specific language also presents itself. The good part of a fractured media landscape is that it’s fractured and you can reach your audience with some research.

Could this work in the first minutes of the incident? Potentially and the recovery phase, too.

Ideas for Facebook groups

The lesson from the General Election in Facebook groups is similar to WhatsApp. That’s sharable images. So what would that look like? Key points from the statement as Sefton Council did when encountering online rumour? Images of community clean-up with text, maybe?

Within 15 hours this post from Sefton Council showing a landmark lit up in pink in memory of the attack wqas shared more than 130 times and 300 engagements. That’s a positive number however you look at it.

A strategy of posting and forgetting probably isn’t the most effective way to use Facebook. Being proactive and sharing to groups is definitely the way to go. I’ve heard of some police forces having an email list of Facebook group admins. I’m not sure that’s the most effectiove way to talk to them but the idea of taking them seriously I absolutely love.

Ideas for Nextdoor

This is harder to review since what a council posts to Nextdoor is invisible if you are not in that particular community.

But the partnership agreement with Nextdoor by a public body allows a message to be sent to EVERY subscriber. This is a hugely helpful step in an emergency. One downside if you go down this path is that you can only see messages which land on your page. You can’t see the discussion that falls outside it. In a situation like Southport that’s probably not helpful.

Report, report, report

If you see misinformation and disinformation hit the report button on social media. I don’t see much hope with doing this on CX, formerly Twitter but I’ve anedcdotally heard of Facebook taking complaints more seriously.

Conclusion

‘All politics is local,’ is a commonly heard phrase that was first heard in the 1930s.

All emergencies are local, too. But as my first news editor once said local can be a very elastic term.

There’s no question that the new landscape that gives a local voice to local issues needs to be one that the public sector needs to understand.

It needs to grasp the hyperlocal landscape of WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups and Nextdoor.

But running alongside is the second challenge that is more insidious and that’s how to challenge misinformation.

Should resource be allocated to monitor and tackle this? I’d say so. But that’s easy for me to say because I don’t work for one of the public bodies that dealt with it. Being several steps removed to see the absolute need to tackle that rumour.

I’d be interested in seeing the debate around these questions.

I remember hearing Carolyne Mitchell, the Scottish communicator, say that it is better to sort things out in peacetime rather than when cars in the street are on fire.

In a week when cars in the street have been set on fire I’m reminded how very true this statement is.

LONG READ: What we can all learn from the #GrabBag hashtag blow back

In late 2019, we live in interesting times.

So far this year we’ve had flooding, extreme heat and dams that almost collapse.

In the rest of the year we have the prospect of snow, ice and the impact of a possible ‘no deal’ Brexit with government modelling of food shortages, medicine shortages 

Trust is low with around a third of us trusting government officials and journalists with politicians generally trusted by a fifth of the population.

So, how do you get across the need to prepare for possible future emergency?

With great difficulty it seems.

A tweet from Police Scotland appeared to set off a mix of alarm and mirth with the  #GrabBag hashtag trending and BBC News picking up the baton online and in broadcast.

A number of police and councils have also used the hashtag along with #30days30ways to ask people to get ready in peacetime ahead of any emergencies ahead.

The aim is positive but in an atmosphere of mistrust, it can very easily go off target.

With some possible alarming days ahead its worth taking a pause to reflect on how we can pull this stuff off. It’s long been a frustration of mine that emergency planning is always 9th on the ‘to do’ list, never rises above that and gets ignored until its too late.

The #GrabBag content

Here’s a quick look at the content in and around the #GrabBag hashtag.

And also…

And…

But any good analysis should look at the data, too.

So…

The #Grabbag numbers

Using Ritetag analysis, the hashtag had reached large numbers with almost 4,000 tweets.

The hashtag had also spiked impressively in the analysis.

However, the big problem with hashtag analysis is drilling down into sentiment. The US-based algorithm is incapable as yet of spotting sarcasm leading to a manual analysis of what people were really saying.

It’s safe to say the hashtag didn’t really perform as intended.

Sarcasm, worry and brand jacking emerged, the analysis suggests, and the original purpose of the hashtag was obscured.

The #Grabbag key words

The most frequently used positive terms were fine…

The most frequently used negative ones less so…

But what were the trends to a UK audience? I went through and counted a cross-section of around 150 to give a snapshot of the underlying sentiment.

The #Grabbag sentiment

Counting through the content, the sentiment was overwhelmingly parody with supportive tweets being outscored four to one.

The original tweets with the original purpose had been swamped by people who were either pouring scorn or were entertained by the idea of a #grabbag full of gin. Hey! Big LOLs! There’s an argument that any publicity is good publicity. I’m not convinced by that argument.

But there was also a more worrying undertow, too. Did the Police know something they didn’t? Shouldn’t people be more responsible? Who was responsible for all this? This is 2019, we’re talking about. There was even a flavour of newsjacking with big brands trying to cash-in.

Conclusions

So, armed with all this, what does it tell you?

Well, first up, I’m not going to suggest anything stupid like stopping tweeting. Police and local government people who tweet have my undying admiration. I used to be one. Whoever launched the hashtag should be applauded for trying to tackle a serious issue. But the episode does provide some teachable moments that we can learn from.

The public sector should still tackle the big issues

The temptation after adverse publicity is to go into a bunker and maybe delete your account. ‘No,’ and ‘no’ to that. There is a need to communicate in the places where people are. Besides, its a legal obligation for the public sector to warn and inform.

When things go awry I think Cadbury’s and Easter

Every year the meme re-surfaces that Cadbury’s have banned the word ‘Easter’ from their Easter eggs. It spreads across the internet like wildfire. It’s political correctness gone mad. Angry people bombard Cadbury’s with messages to say how outraged they are.

The only thing is that Cadbury’s haven’t banned Easter at all.

The chocolate manufacturer when this first happened where faced with a choice. Either ignore it or talk back. They chose talk back. Like a giant version of whack-a-mole their team mans the ramparts to try and tweet back to people who complain online.

Active rebuttal in the manner of Cadbury’s when things have gone a bit awry is something to deploy. If the message out there is that the police want you to pack your bags because… something BAD is about to happen that feels like something to address.

Equally, it wouldn’t go amiss to respond to some of the parody tweets with a degree of wit and humour.

Yes, this means more resources.

Yes, it helps to direct people towards your message.

Get by with a little help from your friends

The public sector is great but often vital campaigns are launched in a corner of the internet. With #GrabBag, I didn’t see the combined might of the public sector combining. It would have been good to see partners, friends and the rest of the organisation come to the fore to amplify any explainer tweets.

Tapping into your internal comms and companies

If we don’t trust government officials, who do we trust?

Well, it turns out we trust our employers far more. Perhaps surprisingly, even those who think the system is failing them put their trust in their employers. The Edelman Trust Barometer puts 69 per cent of those with a cynical outlook as still trusting their employer.

That’s a massively powerful figure and one that invites a real re-calibration your message. Have a loudhailer. But add companies’ internal comms channels to your loudhailer. It’s also enlisting your own internal comms too for public sector organisations are not just big employers but they’re big local employers.

Thanks for reading. You can find me @danslee on Twitter and dan@danslee.co.uk by email.

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LONG READ: I read 147 Facebook updates across seven pages to see how the Whaley Bridge dam crisis was communicated on Facebook

Earlier this year a dam burst near the Brazilian town of Belo Horizonte and within minutes 40 were dead and 300 missing buried under thick brown sludge.

In the UK, its been almost 100 years since loss of life from a dam burst from any of our  almost 3,000 dams.

In August 2019, it nearly happened.

Heavy rain at the Toddbrook Reservoir saw the dam overspill and the 170-year-old dam wall start to disintegrate.  There were fears it would lead to the wall collapsing and a million gallons of water flooding down onto the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge below.

An emergency operation kicked in with 1,000 people evacuated from the 6,500 population.

The plot was quite simple. Firstly, ump water out of the dam to ease the pressure on the damaged wall. Secondly, repair the damaged wall. So, fire crews crews pumped water out of the reservoir and the RAF brought in a Chinook helicopter to bring in bags of material to help shore-up the crumbling wall.

But how did people stay in touch?

And how did organisations reach people to get a message out in the seven days when the town held its breath?

How was there not mass panic?

The answer was a range of bush telegraph, word-of-mouth, phone, radio, TV and social media.

After seven tense days the dam wall was repaired and the water was pumped out, the was no collapse and the evacuated were allowed home.

Now the dust has settled I took a look at the role Facebook played in the operation to see what lessons I could learn. Turns out there’s a stack.

It was an incident played out on Facebook both corporate pages but also on station accounts and the community-run Whaley Bridge community page whose admin was a vital part of the local news network.

Traditional news sites covered the incident but I focused on fire, police, council, ambulance and the community Facebook page.

Yes, people in an emergency want to be kept updated through the corporate Facebook page

Mapping the main four corporate Facebook pages, Derbyshire Police, Derbyshire Fire and Rescue, Derbyshire County Council and East Midlands Ambulance service there were 147 individual updates which were shared 21,000 times with more than 9,000 comments and shared more than 19,000 times.

Often times, as a trainer of communicators I’m looking at ways to turn heads and get people interested. In this incident, there was no need. There was a captive audience of 6,500 Whaley Bridge people. The challenge was to get information out.

Of the four corporate pages, the most commented, shared and reacted to was the Derbyshire Police corporate page. This was no surprise as they were leading on the evacuation. Throughout the seven days they kept a running commentary with regular updates on the position of the repair and pumping as well as the evacuation plan and reassurance that those evacuated homes were being monitored. Other agencies concentrated on what they were doing and there was a level of sharing the police general updates.

The Derbyshire Police page was an information lifeline

From a distance, there was a number of things that worked.

Time stamping each update worked to build-in obsolescence. So, an update at 3pm was marked as 3pm on the image. In a fast-developing scenario this felt like a useful tactic to do.

Writing in plain English for Facebook. Each update was clear and concise. Each gave  the impression the content had been specially shaped for Facebook. Each had a calm and informative tone of voice. This was not a press release cut and pasted but something for Facebook itself.

Updates had new first-hand content. People wanted to know what the issue was and what success looked like. Knowing that reducing the water levels was all-important images of the water level being reduced were important.

Replying to comments. With more than 7,000 comments over the seven day operation the comms team had their hands full. But commenting helped warn, inform and reassure the public. They were also able to respond warmly to messages of thanks.

Openness made a bank of goodwill. The operation didn’t go smoothly. There was an evacuation of 1,000 people and then the halt to the operation which let some people home to gather pets and medicines. That could have gone badly. What played out on Facebook was praise for the emergency services that helped them.

Updates were in real-time and regular. There was an appetite to update Facebook regularly. The impression given was that Facebook was a prime channel rather than an unmonitored after-thought. When there was an update it was posted. But the gaps were not too long.

 

But some of the best content came from devolved station pages

Sharing the sweets is something I’ve long argued for. By all means have a corporate page giving the official line but if you give the people on the ground the trust and training you’ll be surprised at what you find.

Here, there were two station Facebook pages, the Melbourne On-Call Fire Station page and the Staveley Fire Station page. More than 30 updates were shared from the scene and shared more than 500 times across the community.

This incident confirms the important role a responsible community-run Facebook presence can have as a force for good. It’s a reminder that one of the main places people get local news is local Facebook.

Eye-witness content underpinned the corporate message. Both stations created good eyewitness content at a time when the immediate peril had passed. Images of pumping operations and reduced water levels showed the message in action.

Eye-witness content from the frontline created content for the corporate page. In any incident that spans days people get tired and the thin red line can get tired and thinner. What you’d like to do isn’t always what you can do. So, to have fire crew creating content means you’re able to pull it and post it through the corporate page.

It showed the human face. The tired firefighters that have worked through the night gave an opportunity for the community to thank them for their efforts. What was striking was the messages of thanks and support. That must have had a value to firefighters tired after a long shift.

The Whaley Bridge community page was at the heart of it

The town has 6,500 residents and 5,600 members of the Whaley Bridge page.  So well connected was the page admin was that he was in the room when the decision was taken to evacuate.

Happily, the page admin hung back to first allow the authorities to make the announcement that 1,000 people would have to move out as the dam was at risk of breaking.

The Whaley Bridge page was at the heart of the community network posting 74 times across seven days with 12,622 reactions and 2,180 comments and 2,647 shares. Rather than being a simple sign-posting operation to forward on the official police post the admin worked to reflect the work on the ground. The tenor of the posts was supportive.

It’s possible the task could have been harder if the page admin had had an axe to grind.

This is a reminder that the Facebook admin in the community is just as important as the local reporter. In many ways, they are more important.

It was surprising, given the role that Facebook groups play that there was not an effective Facebook group for the town. But with the page being an effective and well placed source there was no need.

On-the-spot content. The Whaley Bridge page was busily creating its own content from the town and in many cases from close to the dam itself.

Evidence worked. When people wanted to see evidence of progress the pictures that confirmed this did well. While the Chinook shots got lots of attention it was the shots of the water levels being reduced that really engaged with the community.

Re-sharing some corporate content but not all. There was plenty being put out by fire, police, council and ambulance. But only a selection of it was shared.

People responded really well to the people helping them. A blurred shot of a worker making a cup of tea in the requisitioned sailing club house was the most popular piece of content. An expression of gratitude to those who were helping them it is as British as a cup of tea.

They were flooded by journalists. Looking to speak to local people the Facebook page admin was inundated with private messages from reporters. So much so he was telling them to stop messaging. In a crisis, news desk used to despatch a reporter who would be directed to the local shop or pub to gauge community feeling. Now, they also head to the largest community Facebook presence.

Video helped to reassure and scotch rumours

The story boiled down to something straight forward. Namely, that the dam wall will break unless the water level is dropped to relieve pressure and the wall is repaired. So, footage of the water level dropping through pumping and emergency repairs was gold.

The best footage was from the scene. Rather than have a talking head at HQ telling people something was happening they had action shots. This was a brilliant decision and spoke far eloquently than a senior person. ‘Don’t tell us, show us,’ was a well followed mantra in the crisis phase. Drone footage showed this well.

Facebook Live from the residents Q&A. More than 40,000 people watched the session where residents could ask questions. This was a cracking idea and was responded to.

Putting up the senior people. The council had some early sub-titled video of the council Leader while the police and fire service at the end of things wrapped-up with the most senior people they had. As a strategy this was secondary.

In summary

Facebook as the largest social channel is integral to the messaging in an emergency.

Regular and timely updates to fill the vacuum are needed.

Comments need to be responded to.

The idea of don’t just say it, show it works well.

Devolved Facebook presences can come into their own for creating content that can be re-shared by the corporate page.

What came through the more than 170 Facebook posts from the incident was a feeling of community spirit and a collective holding of breath until the danger passed.

Those involved should feel a real sense of pride.

I help deliver Facebook training for people in the public sector. More here. If you’d like help give me a shout dan@danslee.co.uk.

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WINTER COMMS part 3: Eight ways to communicate with images in the snow and ice

Hey, remember when listening to the local radio station at 7.40am was how you found out about school closures? Good times. 

Today, things are much more complex. The public sector has the tools to talk to people directly. Information and also counter-argument. It is not enough to tell people with words. In the days of fake news you have to use video or images. I’ve blogged examples of video here.

But how about images?

Well, if a picture can paint a thousand words then use more of them.

An image from the frontline of a rescue

Macclesfield Police were involved in a rescue of a couple who took their baby for a ride and then got stuck in sub-zero temperature. The shot taken on a smartphone shows just what they are up against.

An image from the frontline of road conditions and a closure

A shot posted quickly by a frontline officer to the web can be shared swiftly.

 An image of stills from the traffic cameras

While the best content is outside the office there is a way to stay in the office and get something usable. Images of road conditions taken from traffic cameras acts as a warning. And you get to stay in the warm.

An image of text

For all engaging image can attract attention 80 per cent of people in an emergency just want text. This screenshot does just that and drives traffic.

 An image of conditions to drive traffic to the link

Snow and ice on the ground show the conditions people are up against.

An image of conditions as a warning not to travel

This shot of the North Yorkshire moors to anyone with common sense shows a picture of an impassable road. It works well on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNorthYorkshireWeatherUpdates%2Fphotos%2Fa.332763830176487.78723.306728236113380%2F1583408328445358%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500

A collection of images for reassurance

Shots of ambulance crews facing the odds reminds people that the service is still there and working hard.

 A sharable infographic

The irony of this NHS image is that it is shared on a council website. Which is the intention of making something sharable.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FOfficialDevonCC%2Fposts%2F10156496155392590%3A0&width=500

LIVE TALES: Live streaming and Hurricane Irma

There’s always moments when a new digital platform comes into its own. 

In 2011, it was Twitter that really came into the mainstream during the London riots. It was where middle managers in the organisation and the public could find out what was happening.

Twitter and Hurricane Irma

In 2017, Twitter is the bread and butter of emergency communications. The US Government department FEMA have been using it and have been using this and the web to shoot down rumour.

In 2017, live video and Hurricane Irma seems to have made a similar transition.

Both platforms allow you to use your phone as an outside broadcast unit and stream to the internet.

Both platforms end up feeding in the media by providing eye-witness reporting from the scene. In an environment where fake news has undermined trust in text, video is hugely important for communications people.

Case study #1: Behind the scenes news room tour

A journalist takes a tour of the TV news room that is keeping people informed of what is taking place.

Case study #2: The calm before the storm

Residents took to walking around deserted streets to show what was happening.

Case study #3: The eye witness

Views from the balcony showing the hurricane as it is striking.

Case study #4: The professional storm chaser

In the US, storm season is met with enthusiasts chasing down tornados and extreme weather. People like Jeff Piotrowski have been using Periscope to connect with people and give a realtime sense of the storm.

 

 

 

LONG READ: 14 comms lessons from the Manchester bomb attack

There’s a school of thought that public sector comms people are a bunch of non-jobs who are a waste of money.
Their budget would be better spent on replacing windows or filling potholes, the argument goes.

Those who make that argument? They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Empty tins sound the loudest. Where were they when a terror attack struck Manchester? They were nowhere. Wheras the Public Sector in Manchester just as the people did responded.

As Google Trends shows, the spike of searches for Manchester and Ariana Grande whose concert was attacked is marked.

Where were the Public Sector communications people?

Late at night and for days after they were communicating with the stunned Greater Manchester public of 2.8 million, 65 million UK citizens and billions around the globe.
Thoughts should absolutely be with those who were killed and affected by the explosion. Thoughts too with the police, ambulance, fire and local government people who responded first.
But as a communicator who has worked eight years in local government I’m absolutely sparing a thought to the comms people too. There are some people in the industry who would have folded faced with this challenge. That’s understandable. A terror attack is a massive event. The response from Greater Manchester Police, Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue, Transport for Manchester, the Combined Authority, both Mayor’s teams, all parts of the NHS, Manchester City Council and others was sterling. No channel seemed to go AWOL. No-one seemed to have left a scheduled tweet in place.
Professional. Informative and well judged. Not just in the aftermath but in the coming together and moments of reflection.

This is what gold standard communications looks like.

Clear, timely precise information under intense pressure for a sustained period.

Class, be like them.

When people talk about ‘non-jobs’ ask them how they’d communicate a terror attack and its aftermath. You’ll get a non-answer.

Mental resilience

However, I was reminded by Stephen Waddington’s post about mental resilience in communications. It’s a timely post that asks people to look after their mental health. In the aftermath of huge stress, I’d hope that the organisations and individuals involved bear this in mind. They’re bright people. I’m sure they will.

Here are some standout lessons

Co-operation

The Public Sector is not a single thing but a number of organisations that serve a community. In the aftermath of the attack, organisations shared vital updates. Fire shared police updates, for example. The Mayor’s office shared a newspaper’s frontpage, for example. The strength of the Public Sector is the long reach and broad digital footprint. In an emergency share it.
There’s no question that the public far wider than Manchester identified with the content and amplified it.

Communications to say ‘you can get updates over here.’

One lessons of communicating in an emergency is for the Public Sector to signpost people to where the up-to-date information is. This happened effectively in the Westminster attack and did so again in Manchester. Here, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue acknowledged the incident and pointed people to Greater Manchester Police.
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmanchesterfire%2Fposts%2F1357969944280858&width=500

Communications to say ‘we’re on it’ part I

The Ambulance Trust dealing with the attack communicated via Twitter to say they were aware and ask people not to call on other matters unless it was an emergency.

Communications to say ‘we’re on it’ part II

Police acknowledged the incident as it was breaking. This is text book stuff. By doing this they flag-up they are aware and where to follow for updates. The days of waiting to sign-off a press release at a time of emergency is long over.

Communication as a sharable image with need-to-know information

There’s every chance this image wasn’t made by the Public Sector itself. But the lesson this does show is that the key public information in the hours after the event WILL be shared as an image.

Communications as part of the investigation

Content taken at the time and in the aftermath helps police piece together what happened. This tweet encourages people to send their footage in.

A video response and information update

As the aftermath became recovery, the issue turned to transport and what would be running. Video was used here.
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftransportforgreatermanchester%2Fvideos%2F1555113811173552%2F&show_text=0&width=560

Communications as mental health support for an entire city

If more than 20,000 people were at the Manchester Arena many more would have faced an anxious wait to see if their children, family or friends were okay. Updates to say ‘it’s not okay’ were widely shared.

Communications to say ‘we’re bouncing back.’

A week after the attack, sporting events took place across the city. As this video from Mayor Andy Burnham shot and posted within minutes shows, it’s a city refusing to give in.

Communication as poetry

Tony Walsh was invited to read one his poems not just in the event after the attack but at the Great Manchester Run.

Communication as an image to convey breaking news

Greater Manchester Police staged a series of raids and arrests across Manchester in the days after the event. A simple update and sharable image kept people informed.

Communications as infographic

Greater Manchester used an infographic to explain the scope and depth of the investigation.

Communication to say ‘we’re human too.’

If it’s okay to be not okay, it’s also okay to show your staff as being human. A Facebook timeline image shows the Greater Manchester Chief Constable embracing a member of the public. It’s genuine, warm and isn’t staged.

Communications as a captured Instagram street picture

An image on the street spotted and photographed by Greater Manchester Police and shared to their Instagram feed.

Street art seen in Manchester. The bee – symbol of the city – is depicted in a heart made of hands ❤️🐝 #Manchester #streetart #ManchesterBee #Bee #McrBee #Mcr #WeStandTogether

A post shared by Greater Manchester Police (@gtrmanchesterpolice) on May 28, 2017 at 1:01pm PDT

Sharing other people’s content

Manchester City Council shared this fund raising link. It doesn’t have to be your own content. It doesn’t even have to be Public Sector.

Making a city proud

VIDEO LINK: A quick routine case study on why frontline fire content works

Why give frontline teams access to social media? Easy. Because they create the best content.

It’s long been a drum I’ve been banging and I find it odd that this hasn’t mushroomed faster.

What was the content?

Take Highgate Fire Station in the West Midlands, for example. They responded to an abandoned burning car on November 4 and posted a short video clip the next day. Just 21 seconds and features a firefighter in breathing aparatus extinguishing the blaze. They posted it to their station Twitter account. You can see the video here:

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In terms of resource, it took one firefighter less than five minutes to shoot, edit and post the content. It’s the kind of thing that back when I was a journalist the fire crew would barely mention. Why? Because they are routine to them. To the residents they serve they aren’t.

So who saw that video?

Tweetreach say that 39,000 accounts were reached by the tweet which was shared 13 times. Included in that number was the Birmingham Mail who ripped the video and created their own video which they posted on their own channels.

What equipment was needed?

A smartphone that can record video and some WiFi. That’s it.

What did it say?

On a basic level, it said that firefighters risk their lives to make the area they serve safer.  It also works to promote the work of the fire service and better connect with residents.

So, why wouldn’t fire and rescue services want more of this? In fact, why wouldn’t the rest of the public sector want to tell people about the job they are doing? And yet, so many oprganisations are still reluctant to invest and trust their staff.

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