DPC and Mitchell & Partners presented the eighth Digital Communication in Government Seminar on 27 June 2014.
Joined by communication practitioners from across the Victorian Government, Marcus Betschel and Trent Light from Mitchell & Partners shared their experiences about how to best use social media as part of a broader communication strategy.
3. Introduction-Aboutus
Marcus Betschel
Head of Social Media
• Specialist in Social Media strategy and channel integration
• A 15 year Marcomms expert across a broad range of sectors including
NFP and Government
• Focus on leveraging Paid, Owned and Earned Media
4. Introduction-Aboutus
Trent Light
Content and Activations Strategist
• Seven plus years experience in behavioural change and social marketing
• Expert in developing integrated strategies that target hard to reach
audiences
• Extensive Government social marketing experience
16. Socialmediaandgovernment
• Influence behaviour
• Get important information out to the community - fast
• Be involved in community conversation
• Measure public sentiment - community listening
• Increase campaign/brand awareness
• Extend campaign reach through paid advertising
• Make the most out of partnerships by providing relevant content
• Thought leadership
• Content seeding
24. • NBA has experience success from
sending Snapchats from training
sessions – the informal smartphone
captured content was engaging
because it gave fans the feeling of
being there
• Estimated 1.1million Australian users
& growing constantly
• Opportunity to capture youth market
28. Whatdowehavetolose? What are the risks?
• You can’t control the responses you receive online
• It can be difficult to have cut-through in a busy environment
• You may receive negative comments (but don’t forget the good
ones)
What are the potential rewards?
• It is one of the most targeted ways to communicate with your
target audience
• You are delivering information to them in an environment that
regularly engage with
• It is a cost-effective approach (keeps the bosses happy!)
Always remember …
• If you are strategic and prepared in your approach your risk is
much lower
• You’ll never know if you don’t try…
30. BePrepared
Develop a strategy
Conduct a social media audit
Get the right team involved
Develop a social media policy
Workshop potential social media
crisis scenarios
Get your IT procedures and
processes updated
Know the law, procedures,
policies and regulations
Ensure you have adequate
resources to engage your
audience
32. Berelevant • Be clear on the campaign voice - who is speaking? Consider who
will resonate with the campaign target audience
• Also consider the anti-campaign voice – will there be criticism and
where is it likely to come from?
• Accept that once you have started campaign you can’t control
everything that occurs
• Know your advocates and influencers and ask them what they
think of your plans
• Check hashtags and why something is trending before you
publish
34. Whatdoessuccesslooklike? • Engagement rate is the best
metric for benchmarking
performance.
• Because social media involves a
great deal of human interaction
in its entire complexity,
aggregating results to just one
digit – i.e. number of likes –
would be grossly inaccurate
• Fan growth, posts from you, your
fans interactions your users’ wall
posts, and the speed of your
response determine your social
success.
• This is measurable and can be
match back to core business
objectives.
37. Beresponsive
• Reality is that it happens –
decide what is worth reacting to
and really damaging the
reputation of your
campaign/organisation
• Be prepared to change tack
really quickly. How do you
respond? Empower the people
who need to decide on the spot
• Don’t argue – just correct
misinformation
What if your campaign is criticized or receives negative
feedback?
38. Beadaptable
• Be clear on the numbers.
Transparency and facts help
you report up the line
• Look for the opportunity to
change how things are done
or perceived
• Accept that it can be a case
of trial and error
What if you are not getting the results you had hoped for?
TL
Have seven years experience working in behaviour change and social marketing campaigns primarily for government clients
Worked on just about every social issue you could mention from smoking, problem gambling, binge drinking, drugs, long-term unemployment
Work closely with Marcus to take the basic princples of PR – getting people to talk about your campaign – and apply it to new environments
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Integration of media types
Why earned media is particularly important for behaviour change
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Old days of this ‘earned media’ space relied heavily on traditional media – newspapers, radio, television
Some stakeholder communications, but media was the influencer
Put together a media release send it out, follow up, job done and if you got your campaign name in the paper – job well done
It was very much a one-way conversation with the target audience
We all know the process – radio follows print, followed by television that night
The good and bad news is that you usually knew by 9am if that campaign had been successful or not
Around this though, conversations were happening – important conversations
However the nature of the media landscape meant there was limited opportunity for organisations to be involved in these conversations
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Let’s talk about the present – changed media landscape
Not presenting on the changed media landscape
People now have the opportunity to pick and choose the information they wish to receive
They are becoming curators of information, rather than simply consumers
We can no longer rely on people to look through large slabs of information to find what their looking for
Relevant content from relevant people is the key principle for communicating with our audience in this day and age
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This diagram illustrates the media cycle is no longer a linear process
Even traditional news outlets seed content socially
Greater opportunity for extending campaign discussion throughout the day and beyond
Integration with social media gives the campaign legs and ensures longevity
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There is a finite number of communication opportunities through traditional media
While traditional media outlets are revisiting traditional offerings, social media is always evolving
This provides the opportunity for us to communicate across a range of platforms and tailor content for each rather than have to fit with an existing model
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TL
Advertising is very much about who can pay the most and shout the loudest
What we’re finding is that people are less likely to receive mass messages
This again goes back to the point of curating information rather than simply consuming
Therefore, influence is everything
Strategy is key to determine where, why, how and who
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Listening and landscape review
Identify community sentiment
Correct misinformation
Ensure consistency of messaging in the discussion
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Eavesdroppers isn’t an official term based on research or theory, but it’s something we’ve been talking a lot about with beahviour change
Social media is not the ideal intervention point – drugs, gambling etc
The concept deals with conversation around the person we’re trying to reach
With an emphasis of spheres of influence – friends, family, support networks, broader community
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Dynamic, instantaneous nature – get information out quickly
Opportunity to be reactive and capitalise on changes and emerging issues in the environment
Without a need to buy my spots, fit into a news cycle
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Pinpoint people based on interests, who they’re interacting with and the kind of content their engaging with
The opportunity here is to use paid advertising to serve an earned invitation
“We know you’re interested in this, join the conversation here”
Indigenous bus
CALD communities
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TL/MB/TL
Social media has given everyone a voice, which you can’t necessarily control
Everyone is doing it, so you have to ensure you’re separating yourself from the pack and providing content people want to engage with
You may receive some negative comments, it’s inevitable, but you will receive some good ones as well
The key is to seeing even negative comments as an opportunity to start a conversation and correct misinformation
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- Marriage of Government, consumer and media integration
Thank you for the opportunity to present our credentials for ISA Media services
Although Mitchells have worked with the ISN for over 14years, we believe this chemistry session is an important part of the process for us
We are a business in evolution, and as such we have new people, tools and processes to introduce you to as part of this step
INTRO TEAM
We greatly appreciate the opportunity to articulate our vision for our business and how we feel we can collaborate with ISA in delivering successful outcomes for all Funds and their members