In January 2011, the City of Brisbane experienced the second-highest flood event of the past 100 years. The Brisbane River broke its banks, inundating major roads and thousands of homes. The Independent Review, established in late January 2011 to review the response to the flood event, commended the Brisbane City Council for the manner in which it sought to provide the public with both general and detailed information.

The Review indicated that the Council used all available communication channels including print media, radio, television and the internet. It made special mention of the Council’s use of social media including Facebook and Twitter, which it said proved remarkably successful in rapidly disseminating information. The Review also noted that the increased demand for, and use of, the social media tools has continued after the flood event.

1. Context

During early January 2011, significant flooding occurred throughout Queensland, resulting in three quarters of the state declared a disaster zone. Early identification by Brisbane City Council and the Bureau of Meteorology indicated that more than 40,000 homes and businesses across Brisbane would be affected by flooding. Council needed to urgently communicate with Brisbane residents and businesses in the flood area, as well as the broader community.

The impact of the flood on the wider Queensland community had been extremely harrowing before the floods were due to reach the city of Brisbane, and Council realised that it was vital to engage with multiple publics in a quick and accurate way. As residents frantically searched for information online, the unprecedented levels of visitor numbers and website traffic overloaded websites throughout Brisbane, including Council’s website, resulting in its failure.

Due to the rapidly changing situation and the failure of some communication channels, Council’s Digital Communication Team devised and implemented a highly successful social media campaign to communicate vital flood information to the community. 

2. Opportunity

The opportunity to use social media channels was identified as a solution for disseminating information quickly to a large number of Brisbane residents. Brisbane City Council already had an established presence on key social media channels, which enabled quick communication of information across those channels. The main social media channels used by Council during the floods were Facebook and Twitter for mass information sharing and engagement with concerned residents. Council also initially promoted a sandbagging video on YouTube at the beginning of the flood event.

Within the first 48 hours of the flood event, social media channels proved to be a preferred communication channel for a very large number of Brisbane residents and businesses. Social media had the potential to reach far beyond the immediate community of Brisbane, ensuring that important messages were relayed efficiently and rapidly. Social media channels also allowed for the ability to share messages from other trusted authorities in that sphere, such as the Queensland Police Service, Energex, State Emergency Service (SES) and Translink.

Using social media during the flood event was not only integral to spreading information quickly and engaging directly with concerned residents; it was also an opportunity to obtain useable intelligence from the public that could then be fed back to the Local Disaster Coordination Centre. This was important in the volunteering stage where Council was responsible for organising volunteers to help restore Brisbane back to its former condition.

3. Development of the Opportunity (including planning, strategy and design process)

Council had engaged a full time social media strategist as part of the Digital Communications Team prior to using the channels during the flood event. This was a strategic move, where Council identified the need for strategy and planning for social media across the organisation. With this resource in place as part of a wider team who also had experience in social media, Council was prepared to immediately use these channels as a crisis communication tool. The Digital Communication Team identified the following social media communication objectives:

• Audience Reach- Raise awareness of Council’s social media channels with the aim of changing the way Brisbane residents and businesses consume information.
• Information Management- Collect, process, analyse and disseminate information to Brisbane residents in a timely manner on the impact of the flood event, what actions were needed and to use this information as intelligence for the disaster management group.
• Information Sharing- Share important information with Brisbane residents that instilled confidence and positioned Council as a central source of truth on flood related issues.
• Community and Business Mobilisation- Quickly and accurately engage with and mobilise Brisbane residents and businesses that needed to evacuate and also to coordinate volunteers during the clean up phase of the flood recovery efforts.
   

4. Implementation

To successfully implement effective communication via social media channels during the flood event, the Digital Communication Team was initially working 24 hours a day. At the beginning of the crisis, when demand was highest, this was managed by a dedicated resource already in place. This quickly increased to a team of four people (two per shift). Each team member worked remotely via online tools. This was due to a number of factors, principally that for part of the flood event people were advised not to enter the City Centre.

As the first week of the flood event progressed, the Digital Communication Team started to sign off at midnight and return at 6am. Previously the Team had been available 24-7. This approach was well received by the public and allowed staff to get some rest and return refreshed. The Digital Communications Team worked closely with the Local Disaster Communications Centre (LDCC) and in conjunction with traditional communication channels. These included the marketing unit that is responsible for media releases, community service announcements and radio/TV communication.

The key feature in implementation of social media during the flood was that Council demonstrated timely and considerate responses in a tone that was conversational and friendly. It was also important to establish credibility and present an authentic reliable presence that residents trusted. Using social media channels allowed Council to do this in a highly successful way, as is outlined by the online growth during the flood event.

Facebook activity: 1,570% Increase in likes 759 likes to 12,679 likes 17,546 comments 4,641,232 post views 21,521 views on ‘Facebook Notes’ 125 Facebook Notes.

Twitter activity: 180% Increase in followers 2,955 followers to 8,291 followers 561 tweets sent throughout January 2,207 re-tweets (RT) 8,322,516 impressions 105,306 clicks on links posted on Facebook and Twitter (bit.ly) 7,258 total mentions.

5. Monitoring and Evaluation

Council’s social media channels were monitored continuously and the information was provided back to the LDCC where appropriate. Using a system of ‘hot topics’, the most common queries from the public via social media channels were fed back hourly to the LDCC to obtain the correct responses which could then be shared publicly.

Council monitored both their own Facebook and Twitter channels for incoming enquiries, and monitored a number of other trusted sources to ensure they were aware of what was happening in the wider community. To make this easier, Council developed a public ‘QLDFLoods’ Twitter list that contained a number of other authorities and trusted sources, which were commenting on the floods at this time. Organisations such as the Queensland Police, SES, Translink, Energex and major news sources were contained in the list. Individuals could subscribe to this list also to ensure they were receiving information from authoritative sources.

Another way of monitoring was to continually observe a number of hashtags such as #qldfloods, #bnefloods, #thebigwet and #bnecleanup. These hashtags could then be evaluated on volume, content and allocated a certain level of priority. This approach allowed Council to evaluate and monitor information efficiently when there was a rapidly changing situation with a high amount of information flow. Council created their own hashtag, #bnecleanup, which was used to arrange volunteers. This hashtag has been mentioned 1430 times with a reach of 1,566,399 people and has been retweeted by 612Brisbane, SESBrisbane, 9newsbrisbane, volunteeringqld and others.

Facebook notes were a very important tool utilised by Council during the floods, as they enabled the Digital Communication Team to post longer information than character limits allowed. This was useful to link the note direct from Twitter. Council posted 125 notes during the first few weeks of the flood event, with most containing Community Service Announcement information or consolidated morning updates with important information.

Part of Council’s post-flood evaluation was to measure how much its channels had grown and how wide the reach was. The increase in use of these channels, combined with impressive community-wide reach showed that the content was successful and extremely useful. As well as this wider positive impact, individual cases were monitored, with numerous memorable and successful cases documented.

6. Critical success factors and overcoming difficulties

The most critical success factors of Brisbane City Council’s social media use during the January floods were being organised, having dedicated resources that understood the social media space, working in conjunction with existing communication areas and adopting a conversational, open tone with residents. It was important to develop a relationship with the community to ensure that they trusted Council as an authority in the space. It was also important to ensure that enquiries were responded to as quickly as possible, with factually correct information.

For overcoming difficulties, the main issue was the rapid speed of information flowing and managing this effectively. Due to the nature of social media, regular response times that might be found in traditional media weren’t acceptable, and it was important to streamline existing communication processes.

7. Impact

There was an immense positive effect for Council and the comments from using social media during the January 2011 floods. Council focused on four key communication areas, as well as on-going engagement:

• Evacuation Centre Locations
• Waste Disposal Information
• Health and Safety Information
• Volunteering Information
   

Council’s initial communication priority was to push out evacuation centre information. With so many residents panicked about whether they were to evacuate or not, Council’s social media channels were continually updated with information on evacuation centres, including what belongings they should take with them, locations and whether pets were allowed. The interaction with the latter information was high, with many residents worried about being able to take their pets with them to the evacuation centre. Council was able to alleviate concerns quickly by ensuring information was accurate, timely and delivered in a friendly way.

As the flood event unfolded, Council needed to provide information to residents about waste disposal and other safety tips around hazardous waste. Much of this was communicated via social media, with residents engaging in two-way conversations about when their waste services would return to normal. There were many rumours circulating, especially around water contamination. Council was able to quickly dispel these rumours via their Facebook and Twitter channels.

In the midst of the flood, the need for health and safety information was a high priority and Council continually pushed out information focusing on protective clothing, snakes and mosquitos, hygiene and so on. Keeping the public safe was an integral part of the outgoing communications and using social media to share information as it came through from the LDCC was essential.

One of the biggest social media successes for Council involved co-ordination of volunteers from early on in the flood event and the aftermath. Council social media channels were used as the main communication tool to ask for volunteers to help in clean up efforts. On Friday 14 January around 5pm, the Lord Mayor announced that there would be Volunteering Clean-Up weekend. By 6am the next day, more than 10,000 volunteers arrived at designated meeting points and had registered to help the community. Facebook and Twitter were used as primary means of coordinating volunteers at the volunteer areas and in the coming weeks, Councillors also used these channels to ask for help. On many occasions, Councillors asked for help from 100-250 volunteers with only 24 hours notice, and upwards of 700 showed up.

Examples of the effectiveness of Council’s social media channels included the case of helping a stem cell patient obtain a gas cooker. The patient was located in Auchenflower and was recovering from a stem cell operation. This required the patient to only drink boiled water, however the power was out. A friend of the patient contacted Council via their Facebook page and Council then asked for help via Twitter. Within 30 minutes, the patient received the gas cooker and the tweet had been retweeted 134 times with a reach of 103,195 people.

Another notable case was that of a young woman who was flooded at Yeronga. Her phone died so she contacted Council via Facebook asking for help. She was awaiting evacuation from the SES, which had no way of contacting her. Council contacted the SES and Queensland Police Service directly via phone and Twitter and worked with them to ensure the woman was evacuated. Within two hours the woman let Council know, again via their Facebook page, that she was safe. This was a great example of how social media can help an individual, and how authorities can work together using a public online space to ensure the safety of residents.

Apart from the abovementioned examples, many more wonderful stories exist. Council’s social media channels were used to reassure numerous individuals overseas or interstate who were worried about their relatives or homes. They were also used to connect individuals with other people that could help them, from community cleaning groups through to electricians.

Overall, considering the immensity of the event and the amount of information that needed to be communicated, Council was very proud with the outcome of their social media use during the floods. This was commented on in the independent Flood Enquiry Review Report, (Brisbane City Council. Brisbane Flood January 2011, Independent Review of Brisbane City Council’s Response, 9-22 January 2011,) which commended Council for their exceptional social media use.

For more information contact Craig Stevens, Manager of Corporate Communication at Brisbane City Council.

This case study was first published in June 2011 and was a joint effort between ACELG, Brisbane City Council and the University of Canberra.