Environmental services is the service area most likely to benefit from the growth of social media, according to exclusive research conducted by Surveyor’s sister publication, The MJ.
The poll of 67 local authorities, conducted on behalf of accountancy firm BDO, suggested 82% believed environmental services had the greatest potential for improving service delivery, followed by parks (74%) and streetscene (72%).
Kate Denham, local government executive at BDO, said: ‘In the long-term, social media will pay off and make savings for councils in the same way local-authority websites did a decade ago, through greater customer engagement and real-time reporting.’
Dr Jonathan Carr-West, director of policy at the Local Government Information Unit said the report adds to existing evidence that ‘social media users are now the norm, not the outsiders’.
Winter maintenance, and so-called ‘gritter twitters’, were also researched as part of the study. An analysis of the #wmgrit tag on twitter, used by local authorities across the West Midlands and the Highways Agency, revealed participating organisations sent 539 #wmgrit tweets between 30 January and 6 February this year, reaching 128,000 people.
The total number of impressions of the #wmgrit tweet stood at nearly 1 million across the seven days.
John Serle, former president of IT society Socitm, said: ‘Customers are at last in the driving seat thanks to social media. Crowd-sourcing will reshape and reinvigorate local public services.’
Overall, more than three quarters of councils (76%) feel the use of social networks and micro-blogging sites such as Facebook and Twitter have improved service delivery.
