The value of social media insights

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The Greater Cambridgeshire Shared Planning Service team sought to investigate the value of social media insights to inform their consultation topics and local plan focus areas. As part of the Regulation 18 consultation, the pilot used digital tools to gather a greater understanding of what conversations were happening on social media around planning-related topics that weren’t necessarily being picked up by the formal consultation process. 

An online, cloud-hosted platform was utilised to capture public comments and sentiments shared online that weren’t necessarily directed to those forming the Local Plan but could be of use or help make better decisions about planning. The scope of gathering insights was limited to Twitter in this instance as the project’s aim was to capture comments that were already made available for public viewing and the team wanted to ensure the project did not impose on or listen into conversations that weren’t meant to be heard. 

If you would like a plain text version of the below reports please email the team.

The Future Fox was procured to support developing a gap analysis to understand and assess what was being missed during formal consultation processes. This output was used to ensure future Regulation 18 engagement is robust, and that the council’s services truly respond to the local public.