UK Councils Social Media Reputation Index for September 2012
This month:
- The top 20 UK councils for new online buzz
- Spotlights story:
- The Personal Touch – video channel opportunities
- Buzz & Media Mix and Council Service Buzz
The Top 20
These are the councils that have seen the biggest increases in the volume of online buzz they are attracting. The biggest movers (subject to them attaining a minimum number of references during the month – Districts = 100 mentions, Counties and Unitaries = 300) for this month are:
Spotlight Story
The Personal Touch – video channel opportunities
We’ve noticed an increase in the amount of video media that has been coming out in the last few months and this story is a great example of where councils are using video as a PR tool to convey a more personal message to citizens.
The Leader of Erewash Borough Council, Chris Corbett, publically announced the swift dismissal from cabinet of Councillor David Stephenson following offensive remarks he made about two policewomen recently murdered in Manchester.
Cllr Corbett took the opportunity to clarify to residents that the comments in no way reflected his own or the Tory party’s (locally or nationally) and, as the father of a serving police officer, he recognised the hard work and dedication of the police and their families. This was a heartfelt message to citizens, the true feeling of which would probably not have been as evident had a written press release been made instead. It’s difficult to gauge the reaction of the public to video media and it’s a fairly safe bet that the audience numbers were low but video is a growing channel and it’s likely we’ll see more use of it in future.
All this came just a few days before the resignation of Andrew Mitchell following the drawn out controversy over “plebgate”. This has probably contributed to the continued calls for Councillor Stephenson to resign from his ward seat altogether, so maybe this isn’t the last video Cllr Corbett will be making on the issue.
Buzz & Media Mix and Council Service Buzz
Next, this month’s total references to ‘Councils’ online and we see a slight decline in overall mentions in our control group. Heading into the autumn and winter months we’ll be looking to see if we experience a similar increase compared to last year as weather impacts on transport, schools and waste.
There were no major shifts in the Media Mix summary this month as we return to base trends following the big summer stories.
Below is the Council Service Buzz for September. Planning and Libraries continue to lead but the most notable change is a drop in benefit and housing service mentions.
Notes
PublicServiceMonitor images and chart data may be used provided PublicServiceMonitor is credited accordingly.
For a more comprehensive service description please look at www.publicservicemonitor.com/about
Monthly Buzz Index methodology – Details can be found here
About PublicServiceMonitor – PublicServiceMonitor trawls the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week, searching through news, blogs, forums and social media sites. It reads through all of this information and summarises what’s being said about UK councils, and can even tell you whether the sentiment is positive or negative (similar to the election worm we have seen at #leadersdebate). The service was launched in December 2009 so is still quite early on, but by measuring a benchmark group of councils on a consistent basis we hope to be able to provide some national trend information relating to what people are saying about their councils – and how they choose to say it.
