{"id":40354,"date":"2018-05-02T12:20:09","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T16:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/blog\/when-severe-weather-comms-gets-you-a-hug-from-the-public\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T09:48:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T14:48:43","slug":"when-severe-weather-comms-gets-you-a-hug-from-the-public","status":"publish","type":"blog_posts","link":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/blog\/when-severe-weather-comms-gets-you-a-hug-from-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"When severe weather comms get you a &#8220;hug&#8221; from the public"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":40355,"template":"","resource_tax_market":[186,187,189],"resource_tax_dept":[196],"resource_tax_type":[164],"resource_tax_region":[],"resource_tax_outcomes":[204],"resource_tax_topic":[],"resource_tax_products":[192],"resource_tax_solutions":[209],"resource_tax_services":[],"class_list":["post-40354","blog_posts","type-blog_posts","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_tax_market-local-government-uk","resource_tax_market-central-government-uk","resource_tax_market-emergency-services-uk","resource_tax_dept-communications-public-relations-uk","resource_tax_type-blogs-uk","resource_tax_outcomes-customer-experience-uk","resource_tax_products-govdelivery-uk","resource_tax_solutions-digital-communications-uk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When severe weather comms get you a &quot;hug&quot; 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When unusual events occur, citizens, businesses, and the media turn to the public sector as a voice of authority, in search of information. And that need for new information is insatiable. You\u2019ve got to feed it.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Information voids can breed fear and uncertainty<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/blog\/communications\/7-steps-preparing-emergency-campaigns-isnt-emergency\/\">emergency or crisis situations<\/a> &#8211; including severe weather events &#8211; information voids can breed confusion, uncertainty and fear. In the absence of reliable and regular updates on a situation (and clear advice for the public), fake news has a chance to proliferate and public services leave themselves open to \u201ctrial by Twitter\u201d &#8211; especially when they\u2019re seen as not doing \u201cenough\u201d or anything at all. 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Albert shared that, \u201cOur general rule on Facebook is that less is more, but during extreme weather, it does seem that people, and the Facebook algorithm, forgive more posts. If reactions, comments and shares are what the updated algorithm rewards, we nailed it that week. We had over 10k reactions, comments and shares during the week beginning 26 February, more than 12 times the engagement of the previous week\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Some members of the public even felt compelled to share positive feedback on the council\u2019s action plan.<\/p>\n<p>Kersten England, Chief Executive of Bradford Council explained the council&#8217;s role in helping to build community resilience: \u201cKeeping everyone in the loop with as much up to date information as possible is a top priority in these extreme weather events. We\u2019re using a much wider range of channels to do so now \u2013 social media, email, broadcast, print and face to face all have a part to play. It\u2019s clear people feel better supported, much more in control and able to play their part in their and the communities\u2019 resilience as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Learn more from Bradford&#8217;s approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>To read the full story of Bradford Council\u2019s severe weather communications plan, please <a href=\"https:\/\/go.granicus.com\/bradford-ss.html?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=blog\">download this success story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Albert Freeman will be sharing more insights from Bradford Council\u2019s communications strategy at the Leeds Digital Engagement Day on 19 June 2018.<\/p>\n","button":""}}]},"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]},"centered_layout_builder_clone":{"flexible_page_builder_group":{"flexible_page_builder_fields":[{"acf_fc_layout":"wysiwyg","add_menu_anchor":false,"anchor_menu_text":"","wysiwyg_group":{"show_section":true,"alignment":"left","subhead":"","headline":"","wysiwyg":"<p>Heatwaves, storms, snow, and other extreme weather events can disrupt vital public services, make vulnerable people even more vulnerable, and put communities in precarious situations.<\/p>\n<p>One thing is for sure. 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They leveraged email bulletins, social media, their website, internal communication channels, the media, and front-line staff to warn and inform communities about the snow storm and the impact on services.<\/p>\n<p>Not only did the regular information satisfy the public&#8217;s natural curiosity during the extraordinary circumstances (top priority as always: &#8220;What&#8217;s happening with the bin collections?&#8221;), the updates signposted people to important support services and encouraged them to take actions that would help others. For example one of the key outcomes of <a href=\"https:\/\/go.granicus.com\/bradford-ss.html?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=blog\">Bradford\u2019s proactive multi-channel outreach<\/a> during the extreme weather was an increase in referrals for temporary accommodation for rough sleepers.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>More than twice as many rough sleepers were housed during the worst week of snow as during a \u201cnormal\u201d cold night.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Using the GovDelivery Communications Cloud by Granicus, Bradford quickly built an audience to their \u201cExtreme Weather\u201d email alert, attracting 6.2k new subscriptions to this topic in one week, and 1500% more subscriptions to the council\u2019s suite of email updates than in a \u201cnormal\u201d week. Albert Freeman, Marketing and Communications Officer, explained: \u201cIn a week we had 16k new subscriptions to topics across our whole account and at one point I found myself transfixed watching the subscriber numbers go up by the minute\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe daily emails we sent during that period included the latest information about delayed bin collections and other council service disruptions, gritting, advice on helping vulnerable people, and photos of staff or other local people working hard to help others. Those emails had an average open rate of 68%, compared to an account average of 38% this year to date\u201d. \u2013 Albert Freeman.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Community morale, resilience and feedback<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Albert and team diligently cross-promoted the \u201cExtreme Weather\u201d email update on social media to reach new audiences, drive up subscriptions, and bring people to the website which was kept rich with up-to-date information. Albert shared that, \u201cOur general rule on Facebook is that less is more, but during extreme weather, it does seem that people, and the Facebook algorithm, forgive more posts. If reactions, comments and shares are what the updated algorithm rewards, we nailed it that week. We had over 10k reactions, comments and shares during the week beginning 26 February, more than 12 times the engagement of the previous week\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Some members of the public even felt compelled to share positive feedback on the council\u2019s action plan.<\/p>\n<p>Kersten England, Chief Executive of Bradford Council explained the council&#8217;s role in helping to build community resilience: \u201cKeeping everyone in the loop with as much up to date information as possible is a top priority in these extreme weather events. We\u2019re using a much wider range of channels to do so now \u2013 social media, email, broadcast, print and face to face all have a part to play. It\u2019s clear people feel better supported, much more in control and able to play their part in their and the communities\u2019 resilience as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Learn more from Bradford&#8217;s approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>To read the full story of Bradford Council\u2019s severe weather communications plan, please <a href=\"https:\/\/go.granicus.com\/bradford-ss.html?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=blog\">download this success story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Albert Freeman will be sharing more insights from Bradford Council\u2019s communications strategy at the Leeds Digital Engagement Day on 19 June 2018.<\/p>\n","button":""}}]}},"post_slider_clone":{"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]}},"call_to_action":{"hide_call_to_action":false,"color":"red","custom_cta":false,"custom_subhead":"","custom_headline":"","custom_description":"","custom_link":null,"custom_image":false}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts\/40354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog_posts"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_market","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_market?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_dept","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_dept?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_type?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_region?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_outcomes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_outcomes?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_topic?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_products","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_products?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_solutions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_solutions?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_services?post=40354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}