Birmingham UK, 23rd July 2015 – Rescue Service uses social media management platform for two-way communication of incidents and safety campaigns on social media including Facebook and Twitter
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service is using a social media risk management and compliance platform from CrowdControlHQ to monitor and govern its corporate social media accounts including Twitter and Facebook. More than thirty users across Cheshire Fire and Rescue access corporate social media accounts via the platform’s central dashboard. There has been an increase in engagement witnessed across all accounts in the last two years which has seen the number of Twitter followers double to over 17,000.
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service uses social media for two-way communication with residents and county stakeholders, including other fire and rescue services, local government, plus businesses and schools in the area. CrowdControlHQ was selected for the central management of its social media activity following research and a presentation from the company.
Caroline Jones, Digital and Media Services Manager at Cheshire Fire and Rescue said,
“We chose CrowdControlHQ for the level of control and analytics it provides. We wanted a platform where we could allow multiple people to post to corporate accounts. CrowdControlHQ does that safely and securely and it gives a history of all activity, for example, who has posted to what and where, information which is important for audit purposes.”
Using CrowdControlHQ makes it possible to manage corporate social media accounts from a single point. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service chose to have just one account for each social media channel rather than each fire station or areas of the service posting to individual accounts. This means it is easier for the public and other stakeholders to receive updates by finding, following and commenting on corporate accounts rather than multiple social media accounts for different fire stations across the region.
Caroline Jones continued, “Social Media is a great way to communicate with the public. Where there are incidents throughout the day it is really easy, with the central control in CrowdControlHQ, to publish a Tweet or post a message on Facebook and to then plan Tweets for the weekend. Recently, in just 28 days we had 437,000 impressions and posted 168 Tweets. The management team takes social media very seriously and supports it as a communication channel.”
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service also promotes other services’ campaigns and champions national safety initiatives such as the annual road safety campaign using Twitter and Facebook, with links to a webpage. CrowdControlHQ is used to plan Tweets and posts in advance and then measure the success of campaigns using the analytics.
James Leavesley, CEO of CrowdControlHQ concluded, “We have seen a variety of social media strategies emerging across emergency service providers tasked to drive communications objectives. For some, the emphasis is on single channel/multi-responders, whilst others may adopt a multi-channel approach or in some cases a partnership approach. However, what consistently underpins all the strategies we see is the need for more brand representatives to get involved in delivering messages to the public, raising the reputation risks associated with delivering complex, public engagement. Using a risk and compliance platform gives organisations the confidence that they can manage and respond to social media communications effectively, consistently and in a timely manner.”
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About Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service
The Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service is led by the Chief Fire Officer and the Service Management Team. It has 25 fire stations, four community safety centres, three community fire protection offices and a headquarters based in Winsford.
The Rescue Service responds to emergency incidents – known as Emergency Response (ER) – across the four unitary council areas of Halton, Warrington, Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester. Key facts:
• 24 Fire Stations
• 4 Community Safety Centres
• 3 Community Fire Protection Offices
• 24 hour service to just over 1 million people
• 675 operational staff employed
• 223 community safety and other support staff
For more information please visit: www.cheshirefire.gov.uk
About CrowdControlHQ
CrowdControlHQ is the UK’s leading social media risk management and compliance platform built for enterprise. It is web-based software used by public and commercial organisations to support employees to optimise their social media engagement delivery.
CrowdControlHQ provides tiered access and specialist control features to help manage the reputation risk associated with the delivery of social media in complex, multi-user, multi campaign and busy customer service environments.
CrowdControlHQ was recognised by global research organisation Forrester within the World Top 10 ranking 2014 for ‘social media risk management and compliance software for enterprise organisations’, it was the only European representative featured and earmarked as a ‘Worldwide Contender’.
CrowdControlHQ was a shortlisted finalist for eight awards during 2014, including the highly acclaimed IRM Global Risk Management Awards – winning the CIR Risk Management Product of the Year (Specialised) 2014 and ACQ’s Global Award for Niche Consultancy Social Media Risk Management 2014 & 2015.
CrowdControlHQ is a venture capital backed British business servicing over 125 clients with over 10,000 users. Clients include Experian, Serco, Welsh Water, Greater Manchester Police and Arriva.
For further information please visit www.crowdcontrolhq.com or contact:
Mary Phillips/Andreina West
PR Artistry Limited
Tel: +44 (0)1491 639500
Email: mary@pra-ltd.co.uk
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