Your government agency will be able to reach a wider variety of consumers and experiment with new content forms if it makes the decision to take its initial steps into a new social media platform.
However, this comes with its own set of obstacles, chief among them being the question of how to build a following from the ground up. It is necessary to have a detailed plan in place before attempting anything in the realm of social media for the government.
Learn all you need to know, from the pre-launch phase all the way through advertising and optimising your content, by reading a step-by-step guide.
Create a strategy for your use of social media
Take the time to develop a plan that will assist you comprehend the following aspects of a new social media site before you go in headfirst.
Your desired outcome via social media
How you intend to evaluate the performance of the team.
Which audience (or audiences) are you hoping to connect with?
When you do things in this way, you can be certain that the outcomes you produce will contribute to the larger goals of your organisation.
establishing objectives: “It was essentially all about spreading knowledge about the advantages of nuclear energy.” We believed that there was a significant knowledge gap in that area, and we really wanted to focus on spreading the word about the advantages of nuclear power, which is today the nation’s greatest source of clean power.
When it comes to measuring performance, “We really wanted to look at engagement as our top goal in terms of responses, shares, and who are the actual individuals connecting with our social media material.” The number of comments and shares received was given higher priority than the number of likes or other passive responses.
Determining the audience: “We’re looking at Gen Z and Millennial types, aged 30 to 45, or even younger.” In addition to the various tiers of audiences that we are considering, such as business and trade groups, news reporters, news outlets, and legislative stakeholders, they have similar views about climate policy or renewable energy.
After you have worked out all of these high-level specifics, it should be (relatively) easy for you to select the social platforms that are the most appropriate for your social goals and audience.
Next, it’s time to get a little bit more specific by thinking about the kinds of material you’ll be able to generate, the assets you currently have at your disposal, the tone of voice you’ll adopt, and what actions your rivals are doing.
At this point in the process, your analytics platform will be your most trusted ally.
Figure Out Your Approval Process
You are aware of the kind of stuff you will upload as well as the location where you will put it. But how exactly does it function in actual use?
In the case of the government’s presence on social media, teams frequently have to make due with less resources. It’s possible that you just have one or two individuals working on content creation, account management, graphic design, video editing, and other tasks. To make matters even more difficult, the content review processes at many organisations include a significant amount of back-and-forth communication. Therefore, your procedure of approval needs to be completely transparent.
Determine Which Management Tools You Will Use for Social Media
When you have limited resources, it is in your best interest to reduce the amount of time you spend scheduling social media postings and acquiring data.
Tools for managing social media are definitely worth their weight in gold for this very reason.
A collection of tools for use with social media:
Hootsuite
TweetDeck
MavSocial \sBuffer
The Creator Studio for Facebook
Studio for Twitter
Make a plan for the promotion of your page
After you have established your new social media account, you should immediately begin to spread the news about it.
The majority of government entities, fortunately, have a variety of promotional tactics at their disposal. Within the Department of Energy, for instance, the Office of Nuclear Energy was able to rely on the support of various other departments that had sizable followings on social media.
Optimize Content to Meet Audience Needs
Optimizing your content so that it caters to the interests and requirements of your audience is one of the most successful methods to establish a following for your brand.
And the most effective method to accomplish so is to truly optimise your content in order to make certain that the information that you are disseminating will be seen by the greatest number of people possible.
However, optimising your website entails more than just accurately filling out your social media profiles.
Image size is another important factor to consider. Taking the effort to scale photographs appropriately makes a tremendous impact in engagement, and each platform has its own suggested image proportions.
Repurpose Your Content Across a Number of Different Formats
If you have a tiny team dedicated to social media, you may not have the capacity to generate brand-new material on a consistent basis. In addition, various forms of content are more likely to resonate with particular individuals. Text is more appealing to some of us, whereas visuals or moving pictures appeal more to others.
Both financially and strategically, it makes sense to repurpose your material into a variety of various file types.
Conclusion
It is certain that the more resources you have, the more quickly and easily you will be able to construct an active following on a brand-new social media account.
However, this does not mean that social teams that are tiny and time-restricted cannot generate genuine outcomes.
Working smarter, not harder, is the key to success in any endeavour, whether it be the repurposing of already-existing content assets, the shortening of your approval process, or the optimization of content to better fit the requirements and interests of your audience.