This online research is based on the answers of a sample of UK local councils and was completed in June 2011. It explores how councils use and understand Social Media. It was previously published by LGCommunications.

2. Local Councils’
usage and understanding of
Social Media

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Have councils adopted social media?
The simple answer is ‘Yes’. Social media adoption is well on its way and there’s nothing
that can stop it.
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.

6. 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.

7. 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%

8. 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 .

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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%

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. This research was compiled by
CrowdcControlHQ
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