Case Study: My Red Thumb
continued...
Website and Social media
The My Red Thumb website and social media presence are integral to
communicating the road safety message. Part of the KEC discussion was
around ways that could be developed and maintained to best effect. This
included the value of C.L.E.A.R. information (page 76), the importance
of updating imagery, ensuring social media posts are relevant and up-
to-date, and ensuring that they are provided via the most appropriate
platforms (see p88).
Active social media accounts refresh pretty much constantly, giving the
opportunity to keep imagery and messaging up-to-date, but websites
can become out of date, sometimes without us noticing. This can give
the impression that a campaign has ended, but it is possible to ‘future
proof’ a website by only including information that stays the same
from year to year. A link to a Twitter feed that appears as a scrolling
bar on a home page is one way of keeping it up to date that requires
minimal effort and keeps the page ‘alive’. We suggested that the focus
on handheld mobile phone use in some areas of the content should
shift to a focus on mobile phone use more generally, to ensure that
individuals do not consider it a safer alternative to handheld use. This is
entirely consistent with the examples that are already given of personal
consequences that can result from all forms of phone use, such as death
and serious injury, and not just the legal repercussions.
One section of the website very usefully contains information about the
‘ways to stop someone’ using a mobile phone while driving, empowering
individuals by providing them with strategies for challenging the unsafe
behaviour of others. We suggested that this could include a broader
range of strategies, such as technological ones (see p140) so that a
selection of methods for different circumstances is offered. The pledge
element is central to the campaign, and may be why people visit the site,
particularly in the run up to My Red Thumb Day. For this reason it should
be central to the website (and searching for it should yield useful results).
If visitors have to search for what they want, this introduces ‘friction’ into
what they are doing and means they are more likely to give up 1 .
1
Hallsworth, M. and Halpern, D., 2014. EAST Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights. Behavioural Insights Team. Available at https://www.
behaviouralinsights.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BIT-Publication-EAST_FA_WEB.pdf
106