The use of social media in impact assessment: experiences among national infrastructure developers in Denmark

Figures & data

Table 1. Extent of use of different social media platforms among the four developers.

	Developer A	Developer B	Developer C	Developer D
Facebook	Always	Sometimes	Sometimes	No
Twitter	Always	Sometimes	Sometimes	No
LinkedIn	Always	Always	No	No
YouTube	Always	Sometimes	Sometimes	No
Instagram	No	No	No	No

Note: Question: ‘Which social media platforms do you use in the infrastructure planning? (Please consider both the process and implementation).’

Table 2. Uses of social media platforms among the four developers.

Social media platform	Respondent	When is it used in the planning process?	Primary objectives	Activity: Average monthly posts
Facebook	Developer A	Generally not project specific	Limited interaction with users, but occasionally answering direct and not personal questions. Information about what they are doing and branding. Monitoring agendas in the public by following citizen groups – not systematically.	8
	Developer B	Construction phase or generally not project specific	Uses it to enter into a dialogue with the citizens in the construction phase. Publishes competitions, technical news, and everyday stories.	17
	Developer C	Construction phase or generally not project specific	Posts news about projects, asks the public questions. Only direct questions from the public are answered.	14
	Developer D	Hearing phase	Follows certain citizen groups in certain projects to gauge the mood in the public, but not systematically.	0
Twitter	Developer A	Operational phase	Aimed at politicians and press. Communicates major events, delays, and the like.	23
	Developer B	Operational phase	Information regarding delays and the like.	417
	Developer C	Operational phase or generally not project specific	Uses it as a place to brand the company and tell the good stories, or offers specific information regarding projects. This happens through ‘super spokespersons’. Also information regarding traffic, delays, and accidents.	121
	Developer D	Operational phase or generally not project specific	To reach journalists and politicians – not used by citizens. Promotes new initiatives, projects etc. And uses it for crises communication regarding blackouts and the like (used rarely).	17
LinkedIn	Developer A	Generally not project specific	Uses it for recruitment. Employee profiles, working environment.	1
	Developer B	Generally not project specific	Uses it for recruitment.	9
	Developer C	Generally not project specific	Uses it for professional postings and pictures and features of employees.	11
	Developer D	Generally not project specific	Uses it for recruitment.	13
YouTube	Developer A	Construction phase	Publishes information regarding projects.	1,4
	Developer B	Construction phase or generally not project specific	Publishes information regarding projects and features involving staff members.	1,7
	Developer C	Construction phase or generally not project specific	Used for branding, information regarding their work, information about specific projects in the construction phase.	0,8
	Developer D	Hearing phase and operational phase or generally not project specific	Internal communication. Requirement in EU-sponsored projects to report on results. Recruitment videos. ‘How do we do…’ – a supplement to their words in the public participation processes.	0,8
Instagram	Developer A	Generally not project specific	Branding and pictures taken by employees and others.	6
	Developer B	Generally not project specific	Recruits famous ‘Instagrammers’ to take pictures of the infrastructure. Used to promote the esthetical dimension, is aimed at the young and staff.	3
	Developer C	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Developer D	n/a	n/a	n/a

Note: The activity is measured by the average number of posts per month during the existence of their profile (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook) or during the past year (LinkedIn).

Table 3. Frequency of aims with social media in the infrastructure planning among the four developers.

	The primary aim	A secondary aim	Not important	Don’t know
Provide access to information regarding the process	3	0	0	1
Be visible	3	0	0	1
Provide an opportunity to ask us questions	2	1	0	1
Collect local knowledge	0	3	0	1
Supplement public hearing	0	1	1	2

Table 4. Number of followers on each social media platform.

	Developer A	Developer B	Developer C	Developer D
Facebook	1,066	19,561	13,213	n/a
Twitter	1,408	6,322	52,000	1,604
LinkedIn	19,948	27,328	3,770	12,485
YouTube	440	530	436	288
Instagram	535	1,541	n/a	n/a