Bangkok floods on social media: what Wisesight's own data shows

Wisesight, the Thai social-listening company, published an analysis on 26 September 2026 showing that its Zocial Eye tool captured 126,524 social media messages about the flooding in Thailand between 16 and 26 September 2026 (2569 in the Thai calendar). Wisesight's main finding is that as the rain and flooding began to disrupt daily life, users stopped simply following the news and started trading information they could act on straight away: which spots were under water, where to park a car, and which hotline to call.

This post goes through the figures Wisesight reported in its own article on the Wisesight website, then sets out, as clearly labelled analysis, what a brand's social team might take from them. Some trade-press coverage, including MarketingOops on 27 September, reported higher totals (167,607 messages and about 40 million engagements). This post uses only the figures Wisesight published itself.

What Wisesight measured, and over which dates

Wisesight's article says the data comes from Zocial Eye by Wisesight and covers 16 to 26 September 2026. Over those eleven days the tool found 126,524 messages related to the flood situation it was tracking. The article does not say which keywords defined "related", which platforms were in scope beyond the two it names (Facebook and X), or how it counts an engagement. It also does not publish a margin of error. Those gaps matter for anyone reusing the numbers, and they are covered again further down.

Several of the breakdowns use shorter windows. The topic split covers 22 to 26 September. The platform split is based on hourly data from 24 to 26 September. The hourly baseline is 16 to 21 September. Reading a figure without its window is the easiest way to misquote this study.

Flood-spot reports were the largest topic from 22 to 26 September

When Wisesight grouped the messages posted between 22 and 26 September 2026 by topic, reports of where flooding had occurred came first. The full list Wisesight published is below, in the order and with the counts given in the article.

The top three topics are all about situational awareness: where is it flooded, what is coming, can I get through. Wisesight notes that the other topics grew as the situation became more serious. Parking was the smallest category by volume, but Wisesight says it had the fastest growth rate: on 25 September 2026 parking messages were 127 times higher than on a normal day.

Parking became information people needed immediately

Wisesight looked at the parking conversation on its own and counted 690 unique messages, excluding duplicates. The organisations or places mentioned most were Central with 121 messages, MRTA/MRT with 93 and Future Park & Zpell with 89. The next group named in the article was Fashion Island, The Mall/EM District, Robinson, Lotus's and Impact, without individual counts.

Wisesight singled out Future Park & Zpell because posts about it opening its car park for free generated a combined 74,120 engagements. The article does not say how many posts that figure covers or on which platforms they ran.

These are small message counts next to the 126,524 total. What the parking data shows is the kind of question people were asking once the risk was close to home. Wisesight's phrase for it is that questions became more specific to real-life decisions.

Posts named streets and districts more precisely

Wisesight reported that flood posts increasingly named exact roads. The streets mentioned most were Chaeng Watthana (90 times), Sukhumvit (78), Phahon Yothin (70), Ngam Wong Wan (47) and Srinakarin (40). Lat Phrao was the district named most often in situation reports, at 215 mentions.

The same section tracks situation reports on X. According to Wisesight, they rose from about 15 posts a day on 17 September 2026 to 626 posts within half a day on 26 September 2026.

Official hotlines were shared more as things got urgent

Wisesight found that people increasingly shared phone numbers and channels for getting help. The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation's 1784 line was mentioned most, in 420 messages. It was followed by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's 1555 line (290 messages) and Traffy Fondue (290 messages).

Other numbers shared, according to the article, were 1669 for medical emergencies, 199 for fires, 191 for police, 1130 for the Metropolitan Electricity Authority and 1586 for the Department of Highways. Wisesight did not publish message counts for these.

Two more figures from this section: messages about emergency numbers in the first half of 26 September 2026 were about 18 times a normal day, and posts mentioning Traffy Fondue drew the most engagement in this group, about 172,000. Wisesight sums up the shift as information moving from "what happened" to "who do I contact".

Facebook stayed the main venue while X grew late

Using hourly data for 24 to 26 September 2026, Wisesight found Facebook carried about 71% of all messages and remained the main place for the conversation. X's share, however, rose from about 6% in normal times to 24% on 26 September. At 09:00 on 26 September, X alone carried about 1,856 messages in one hour.

Wisesight reads this as a sign that when conditions change quickly, some users turn to X to report and follow what is happening in the moment, while Facebook keeps the larger base of conversation. The article gives no share for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LINE or Pantip, so this post does not estimate them.

Volume went from hundreds to thousands of messages an hour

Wisesight's hourly count across all channels shows how fast the conversation moved:

• From 16 to 21 September 2026 the average was about 117 messages an hour.
• At 10:00 on 23 September volume first went above 500 messages an hour.
• At 14:00 on 25 September volume rose by about 50% within a single hour.
• At 10:00 on 26 September it peaked at about 6,400 messages an hour, roughly 55 times the normal level.

Overnight activity is also telling. Between 00:00 and 05:00 on 26 September, Wisesight counted an average of about 1,209 messages an hour, against a normal level of about 20 an hour. Across 22 to 26 September, 08:00 to 10:00 was the busiest posting window.

Wisesight's own conclusion from these numbers is that information needs in a crisis can change by the hour, so a daily total alone may not be enough for an organisation that has to communicate or respond quickly.

After the reports, the conversation became a help network

As the flooding went on, Wisesight found more conversation about helping others. Messages about pets, covering moving animals away from water, rescuing them and finding them shelter, totalled 1,391. From a normal level of about 28 a day, they reached 423 on 25 September 2026.

Messages of encouragement and thanks totalled 3,942. From a normal level of about 51 a day, they reached 1,933 within the first half of 26 September 2026.

Readers will notice these totals differ from the topic table above, which gives 1,221 pet messages and 3,635 encouragement messages. The table is labelled 22 to 26 September; the later section does not state its window or definition, and Wisesight's article does not explain the difference. Both are reported here as Wisesight published them, with their labels.

Wisesight describes the path of the conversation as: becoming aware of the event, reporting the situation, finding ways to cope, asking for help, then helping and passing on encouragement.

Analysis: how information needs shifted by phase

The rest of this section is Relevant Audience analysis of Wisesight's figures, not additional data. Putting the timestamps together gives a rough sequence. Wisesight's own summary starts with people wanting to know what the situation was, and over 22 to 26 September the two largest topics were flood-spot reports and warnings or forecasts. As water reached roads, traffic, exact street names and parking rose, with parking peaking at 127 times normal on 25 September. As the situation became urgent, hotline mentions jumped to about 18 times normal on the morning of 26 September, the same morning volume peaked near 6,400 messages an hour. Pet messages peaked on 25 September and encouragement on 26 September.

X's late rise fits the same pattern. Its share grew most on 26 September, and situation reports on X went from about 15 a day to 626 in half a day. One reading, consistent with Wisesight's own interpretation, is that people who need minute-by-minute updates move to a faster feed when a situation turns quickly. The data does not show who those users were or why they moved, so treat this as an inference.

What this means for Thai marketers

Nothing in Wisesight's data tells a brand what to post. What it does show is what people were looking for, and when. For a social team, that raises a few considerations rather than a playbook:

• Review scheduled posts. When volume is about 55 times normal and people are asking where to move their car, a pre-planned promotion can read as out of touch. Pausing the queue and checking each post is a reasonable default.
• Share useful, verified information only if you have it. The most-shared items were official hotlines such as 1784 and 1555, plus concrete help such as free parking. A brand with a car park, a delivery network or a physical location may have something useful to say. A brand without one may not.
• Staying quiet is a legitimate option. Encouragement messages were already running at about 1,933 in half a day. Adding brand messaging to that is not required.
• Watch hourly, not daily. Wisesight's point that needs changed by the hour applies to monitoring too. A daily report would have missed the 50% jump within one hour on 25 September.
• Check X as well as Facebook. Facebook held about 71% of messages, but X's share quadrupled on the most urgent day.

Any of these calls needs to be made case by case, with care for people who are affected. Using a flood as a hook for a campaign is the one option to avoid. For help planning social media work that can pause and adapt in a crisis, or building a content calendar with a clear hold process, those pages explain how Relevant Audience approaches it.

What Wisesight's article does not say

The article does not list its keywords or filtering rules, so it is not possible to know exactly which posts count as flood-related. It names only Facebook and X in its platform breakdown. It does not define an engagement. It does not explain why its pet and encouragement totals differ between sections. And it measures public conversation captured by one listening tool, not everything Thai users said or saw. None of that makes the figures wrong. It means they are best quoted with their dates and labels, as Wisesight gave them.

FAQ

How many social media messages about the September 2026 floods did Wisesight count?

Wisesight counted 126,524 related messages between 16 and 26 September 2026, using its Zocial Eye tool. Several breakdowns in the article use shorter windows, so check the dates beside any figure you quote.

Which topic had the most flood messages?

Reports of flooded spots had the most, with 11,156 messages between 22 and 26 September 2026. Warnings and forecasts followed with 10,683, then travel and traffic with 5,916.

Which hotline was shared most on Thai social media during the floods?

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation's 1784 line was mentioned most, in 420 messages. Bangkok's 1555 line and Traffy Fondue followed with 290 messages each, according to Wisesight.

Did Facebook or X carry more of the flood conversation?

Facebook carried more, at about 71% of messages between 24 and 26 September 2026. X's share grew from about 6% normally to 24% on 26 September.

Should brands post during a flood?

Wisesight's data does not answer that, and there is no single right answer. Its figures show people wanted concrete, verified information such as hotlines and parking, so pausing scheduled content and sharing only useful facts, or staying quiet, are all reasonable choices to weigh.

Wisesight's figures are a record of what people needed as the water rose over eleven days in September 2026. For brands, the practical takeaway is to plan the pause before the next emergency. If you want to set up a social process that can do that, talk to the Relevant Audience social team.