building an online community in redland city by Matt

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Slide Notes

In 3 years we have increased our social media followers six-fold at Redland City Council, transforming it from a neglected communications channel into a thriving online community. We have a greater percentage of Facebook followers per capita than most other councils in Queensland.

building an online community in redland city

Published on Nov 18, 2015

how social media has been used to build an online community in redland city

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

online community

Redland City: Building an

hello

I'm Matt Murray @mattbrisvegas

Hello I'm Matt Murray.

Senior Adviser, Digital Communications for Redland City Council.

@mattbrisvegas
@commsgodigital
@redlandcouncil

Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn

http://au.linkedin.com/in/mattbrisvegas/

Redland City

is in south east Queensland

Redland City is in south east Queensland.

Population 145,000.

communities

MAINLAND AND ISLAND

We have mainland and island communities: some are only 30 minutes drive from Brisbane CBD, others are relatively remote.

Brisbane is to our west, Logan is to our south west, Gold Coast is to our south.

social media: July 2012

Facebook: 6 pages
Poor content
Irregular posting
One-way conversations
Twitter: automated tweets from Facebook

Here's a snapshot of our social media in July 2012 when I started at Redland City Council.

Photo by Robert S. Donovan

social media: May 2016

facebook: corporate page plus others run by frontline staff
good customer service
vital communications channel
praise for disaster management
active online community
declining organic reach

Here's a snapshot of our social media in April 2015. How did we achieve this growth and these outcomes? Keep watching...

Photo by Stuck in Customs

review social profiles

what is their purpose?

The first thing we did was to review all existing social profiles.

In 2012-13 we unpublished 4 Facebook pages that served little purpose.

We also started using social networks as they should be used, stopping the automatic Facebook to Twitter updates as this was causing tweets to truncate.

Photo by o.tacke

corporate priorities

Disaster management / community safety
Community engagement
Customer service
Promoting events and services
Enhancing a sense of place / community spirit

Social media profiles should support our corporate priorities. If they don't, what are they for?

Here are 5 of our corporate priorities that are especially relevant for social media.

Photo by Stuck in Customs

customer service

we opened up social media for

Previously the page admins had not been very good at replying to questions or comments on social media.

When we started to reply to people on social media, it gave our community confidence that we were listening to them.

This then started the growth of social media as a customer service channel and we started logging customer services requests.

We developed relationships internally to get these requests processed.

We use of names when replying to show that there are people behind the accounts and not just a faceless organisation.

10.

customer requests

Jetty lights, boat ramps
Graffiti, vandalism, litter
Water, potholes, roads, bins
Parks, trees, walkways, bikeways, rates, water
General questions

We receive a diverse range of customer requests, many of which are questions for other agencies (Queensland Government, Queensland Police etc.)

11.

customer service team

now reply to service requests

Fast forward to 2015 and our customer service team reply to many of the questions and comments we receive via social media.

We use Sprout Social to assign and reply to tasks.

12.

improve content

Improving the content we post has been a major part of why our page has grown.

Photo by Paul Nicholson

13.

post regularly

We often attend events and take photos to post on social media. I took this one at the official opening of the Gorge Boardwalk at Point Lookout. It was used by our local paper, the Redland City Bulletin.

14.

photography

a picture tells a thousand words

Good photography is very important. I have an interest in photography and love to take photos at events or when I'm out and about.

We also source photos from our community where possible.

This photograph of a dead koala was taken by a wildlife volunteer and sends a powerful message: slow down on the roads during koala mating season.

15.

video

is increasingly important

Video production skills are increasingly important in social media teams.

16.

segments

run regular

I am a great believer in running segments on social media.

Think of the knowledge you have in your team / organisation. What photos and resources could you use?

Brainstorm a list of ideas for a series of weekly posts.

Photo by Darwin Bell

17.

#redlandlocal / #redlandsanyday

3600+ crowdsourced photos in 3 years

My colleague Julia started encouraging the public to send us their photos of the Redlands on Instagram using the hashtag #redlandlocal in May 2012.

In 2014 we moved to the hashtag #redlandsanyday to fit in with the Brisbane Marketing hashtag #brisbaneanyday.

Over 3600 photos have been tagged so far!

Photo by johnnymip

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what do they tell us?

crowdsourced photos:

Our crowdsourced photos have been a popular ongoing segment, only promoted through our social channels.

The photos tell us what people love about the Redlands and what they value.

19.

most viewed

crowdsourced photo so far

The photos promote what a fantastic place Redland City is.

This is the most viewed / shared photo so far. Timeliness is often a factor in popular posts.

20.

Redland City is the

best place to live, play and do business in SEQ

They promote the message that Redland City is the best place to live, play and do business in south east Queensland.

21.

flashback friday

using historic images on social media

In2012 I started a historic image segment, asking people to guess the location and date of the photos.

For more information about running this segment see

http://www.commsgodigital.com.au/2013/07/flashbackfriday-using-historical-i...

22.

most popular

sometimes the most unlikely images are the

Have a look at the age range of your followers. The ideal age for photos is when they were children. There were a lot of memories shared about the opening of this shopping centre.

23.

conversations

historic images can open up

Historic images can open up conversations about not only the past, but the future.

This jetty was torn down in 1989 as it was deemed dangerous. People then started asking why we don't have a jetty in Cleveland now. The following week our local paper run a campaign to bring back a jetty to Cleveland.

24.

environmental segments

Weed of the week
Melodious Magpie Monday
Good gardening blogs

Here are some of the environmental segments we have run.

Photo by wiccked

25.

Disaster management

social media has had a huge impact

Social media has had a huge impact on the way we communicate during disasters.

Through my time at the Queensland Government Department of Community Safety, I knew that we could improve our communications during emergencies with social media.

Photo by Johan Douma

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storm warning

we post every BOM

We post every BOM warning of the storm season, day or night.

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emergency information

the public value

People value this information - the first storm warning of the 2013-14 summer was seen by 15,000+ people, more than twice the size of our page likes at the time.

28.

ex-tc oswald

social media followers doubled during

We had a huge surge in followers during ex Tropical Cyclone Oswald. People wanted information about what was happening locally.

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rolling coverage

during Straddie bushfires

During the two weeks of the Straddie bushfires in January 2014, we provided around the clock updates and rolling coverage of the situation.

I have created another Haiku Deck for Social media in emergencies:

https://www.haikudeck.com/social-media-in-emergencies-how-to-presentation-D...

Please also see this article I wrote for The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2014/may/07/how-council...

30.

TC Marcia

preparedness messages

We posted preparedness messages before TC Marcia made landfall in central Queensland. Many of our messages reached audiences five times the number of our page likes.

For more info on lessons learnt during TC Marcia please read http://www.commsgodigital.com.au/2015/03/marcia-marcia-marcia-social-media-...

31.

engagement

new Coochiemudlo Jetty

We allowed social comments on the design plans for the new Coochie jetty.

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share the lollies

This phrase is borrowed from my mate Dan Slee: share the lollies, don't let the comms team hog social media.

See

http://danslee.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/traditional-digital-what-comms-team...

Photo by Nina Matthews Photography

33.

new social profiles

Redland Performing Arts Centre
Redland Art Gallery
IndigiScapes
Libraries
RecycleWorld
Animal Shelter

Here are social profiles we've started rolling out to frontline staff.

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conversations

we trust our staff to have conversations with the public

If people think you're crazy encouraging frontline staff to have social media, tell them to consider this:

We trust our staff having conversations on the phone.

We trust our staff having face-to-face conversations with the public.

Why not on social media?

Photo by KaylaKandzorra

35.

social media

guidelines for staff

We have a code of conduct and social media guidelines for people to follow.

Our are 4 pages long with 10 rules to follow. We re-worked these guidelines (with permission) from the NSW Department of Education social media guidelines.

https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/technology/communication/socmed_guide.p...

36.

MOWERS I LIKE TO FIX

Photo by stevendepolo

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social media forum

We've started a social media forum to share knowledge

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play and learn

what works and what doesn't work?

Create yourself accounts with different apps and social tools, play around with them, learn from that experience. How can your organisation use them?

Photo by sciencesque

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trojan mice

unleash the

Trojan mice is a concept about using low-cost tools and seeing what impact they have.

Trojan horses are big and lumbering and it's hard to change their direction.

Trojan mice are nimble and you have no idea where they'll end up.

Have ideas, deploy low-cost tools, see what impact they might have. Do lots of them. If they work, fantastic. If they don’t, learn from them.

Have a read of Euan Semple’s brilliant book “Organisations don’t tweet, people do”.

Photo by jronaldlee

40.

wordpress

responsive: mobile & tablet friendly

Our WordPress news site is low cost, yet has had a big impact.

News readership doubled after we deployed it. People now comment on our news items allowing a two-way communication mechanism.

Photo by raindog

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bambuser

how can we use this?

I started playing around with Bambuser after seeing how West Midlands Fire used it.

We ended up using it during the North Stradbroke Island bushfires to great effect.

You can read more about the process I went through with this tool in my blog Super Subs: who's in your social media reserve team

http://www.commsgodigital.com.au/2014/07/super-subs-whos-in-your-social-med...

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social hub

bringing together social feeds

A social hub brings together our social feeds and can also bring together feeds from Twitter lists and hashtags.

See

https://www.tintup.com/redlandlocal

and

https://www.tintup.com/redlandcouncil

43.

flickr

creative commons

We post many photos on our Flickr under a creative commons licence.

44.

outcomes in 3 years

Facebook: 1500 to 9600+
Twitter: 1000 to 3200+
Praise for disaster management
Engaged online community
News site: doubled readership
3600+ crowdsourced photos
Better skilled staff

We've had some fantastic outcomes in 3 years.

Photo by Susan Ujka's Collection

45.

What works?

Photos
Job ads
Disaster management info
Storm warnings
Community information

What works well on our page?

Photo by Susan Ujka's Collection

46.

we need more time

future challenges

My team doesn't just manage social, we also manage the website, intranet, enewsletters, photography and video!

Photo by johndmccloy

47.

upskill staff

future challenges

We have some very talented staff in our communications team, we need to upskill them with more digital skills.

Photo by Jeff Kubina

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SOCIAL MEDIA for all

future challenges

We are trying to roll out social media access for all staff.

Photo by kevin dooley

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Facebook declining reach

future challenges

How can we combat declining Facebook reach?

Photo by Robert S. Donovan

50.

Facebook posts

think creatively with

Make sure posts are optimised for Facebook. Do we encourage people to share them or tag their friends? Are we tagging other pages?

On this post we listed streets for bin day changes - people saw the list of streets and tagged their friends who lived there.

51.

may the 4th be with you

Hazardous waste surrender day

Think of different ways to promote events.

This hazardous waste day tied in with "Star Wars Day".

52.

better measurement

future challenges

We do a good job at measuring with Facebook Insights and Sprout Social.

Photo by Leo Reynolds

53.

bit.ly

we track links on social media with

We also track every link on bit.ly.

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outcomes?

how can we track

How can we track outcomes though?

If we promote a koala tree planting, how can we measure how many people turned up?

We've just agreed some measurements with our Art Gallery for their Facebook page. They will track how many people attend opening events and workshops after seeing them on social media.

Photo by wwarby

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commsgodigital

blogs about public sector #comms #socmed

If you work in public sector comms / digital / social media, please check out my digital communications blog

www.commsgodigital.com.au

If you would like to share your experience or case study, please get in touch!

hello@commsgodigital.com.au

@commsgodigital is also on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/commsgodigital

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http://commsr.us/LGProSM15

prize giveaway!

Book prize giveaway!

http://www.commsgodigital.com.au/giveaways/2360

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thank you

you've been ace ;)

Hope you enjoyed this presentation!

Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments.

OTHER HAIKU DECKS

Setting up social media: 10 things your organisation needs to consider
http://commsr.us/1kbYWiX

Social media in emergencies -how we communicated during the Straddie bushfires
http://commsr.us/1wp5lkL

Matt Murray

Senior Adviser, Digital Communications for Redland City Council.

@mattbrisvegas
@commsgodigital
@redlandcouncil

Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn

http://au.linkedin.com/in/mattbrisvegas/

Photo by Lenny Pichette Photography

Matt Murray

Haiku Deck Pro User

http://www.commsgodigital.com.au

Slide Notes