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Twitter Twitter Alerts

38 UK fire brigades join the Twitter Alerts programme as floods continue in England

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By Ishbel Macleod, PR and social media consultant

February 14, 2014 | 2 min read

As flooding in areas of England such as Surrey continues, Twitter has announced that 38 UK fire brigades have joined the Twitter Alerts programme, to help the public stay informed of news.

Twitter expanded its Alert service to the UK and Ireland in November, with 95 UK organisations now signed up. The public can sign up for notifications, and when that account tweets with an emergency message, users receive an SMS or push notification directly to their phone.

Sam Thomas, communications manager at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, said: “During any emergency, getting safety information out to the public is really important. Social media has changed the way we do that because it is immediate and reaches so many people in a short space of time.

“Twitter has become one of our key tools as it gives us a different way of speaking directly to the community to give them advice on how they can keep themselves and their homes safe. We’re pleased to be joining the Twitter Alerts programme, which will allow us to increase the visibility of critical messages in times of emergency.”

Twitter Alert messages feature an orange bell at the bottom left hand corner of the tweet to stand out.

Twitter Twitter Alerts

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