Bobbies on the Tweet
Greater Manchester Police recently launched four Twitter accounts posting every call out they receive between 5am Thursday and 5am Friday 15th. @GMP24_1 @GMP24_2 @GMP24_3 and @GMP24_4
A great idea. This clearly demonstrates the intrinsic value of Twitter. An open platform that allows for a direct communication channel between organisations and their stakeholders which, in this case, is the government and the public.
What I think has worked well is the open agenda rather than a closed door, ‘is it a PR stunt or not?’ tactics, they have openly stated their intent. The GMP are at risk of losing as many as 3100 members of staff and want to “give the public an idea of the workload officers face” and “give politicians an idea of the kind of incidents not recognised in league tables and measurements”.
Of course, being a public service there have been the predictable ‘wasting taxpayers money’ shouts. Some have called it a gimmick which, in part it is. They have admitted that it has been done to raise awareness.
The number of blogs, news sites and tweets around the subject has surely provided enough of a return in equivalent media spend to more than justify the resource the force committed to updating the Twitter accounts. Sites such as the BBC, Mashable and Brand Republic all ran stories.
However, like many previous uses of Twitter by organisations, using a hashtag has left them open to members of the public retweeting fake tweets and hijacking the hashtag #GMP24.
Well done GMP!
