Your social media needs to look more like social media
If you could start your social media channels from scratch, what would you do differently?
Would your channels look exactly the same, or would they undergo radical transformation? Chances are, they'd be wildly different - and in many ways, far more effective.
In my experience working with government and councils, the biggest social media mistake I see is this: channels are used almost exclusively as just another comms tool - more specifically, as a means for sharing news and updates from across the organisation.
That may sound harmless, even sensible, but it often leads to a feed packed with random, disconnected posts that don’t resonate with the audience or serve any strategic purpose.
And that’s not what social media is about in 2024.
Let me explain…
The traditional (flawed) approach to government social media
The way social media has generally been handled in councils and government departments typically follows this pattern:
Something changes in the organisation - a new project, a new policy, an event, a milestone, a mistake
That "something" triggers a communications response
A communications advisor refines the message to make it fit for public consumption
The social media advisor takes it, tweaks it for the platforms, and hits ‘post’ on all available channels
Job done (dusts hands while walking away)
And just like that, another message is added to the ever-growing heap of content clutter, and while it might seem efficient, it’s riddled with issues. Let’s focus on two major ones:
#1: Your content is driven by the business units
The content that populates your social media channels is actually dictated by the BUs within your organisation, and is 100% reactive. Each unit pushes its own updates without regard for the bigger picture - leading to a disconnected assortment of posts that can lack coherence.
#2: Your audience gets lost in the noise
From the perspective of your audience, this approach looks chaotic. They see a stream of unconnected updates and messages, many of which are irrelevant, and none of which seem to relate to each other or offer any value. This random output lacks the narrative, consistency, and focus needed to hold their attention or build meaningful engagement.
The traditional (flawed) approach…
Competing for attention with the best
Government departments and councils often operate under the illusion that they have a captive audience. I’ve literally heard these words uttered: ‘captive audience’. After all, these orgs serve a specific geographical area or provide a unique, essential service. But here's the hard truth: you’re competing for attention with the most powerful content creators in the world, whether you like it or not.
You may not have direct competition in terms of your services, but you are up against content creators with near-unlimited resources. Mr Beast has a team of hundreds and spends around $3 million per video. Your audience is watching videos from people like him, alongside a never-ending stream of entertainment, clickbait, and viral crap. These creators don’t have to deal with approvals, key messages, or balancing organisational priorities - they just focus on grabbing and holding attention. That’s it. And they do a mighty fine job of it.
So, while your organisation may think it's the authority in your local area, on social media your competition is everyone. And the competition is fierce.
What’s really working on social media
Think about what you personally consume on social media. Is it a scattering of disparate updates and announcements? Probably not. You likely follow accounts that are focused, consistent, and engaging - whether it’s around food, humour, travel, art, fashion, personal finance, animals, or people doing dumb and disastrous stunts. Why? Because good social media is often narrow in focus. It’s specific. It gives people exactly what they expect and love, then delivers over and over and over (and over).
Even when we follow more general, personality-driven accounts - like influencers or musicians or critics or families caring for injured wombats - there’s still a consistent theme. We connect with the people or characters involved. We understand their motivations, and we anticipate their actions. It’s character-based storytelling at its core. And it’s miles away from the scattershot approach many government organisations use.
The algorithm isn’t your friend
To make matters more complicated, algorithms on social platforms no longer show much content from people or organisations we actually follow. That whole idea shattered into pieces years ago.
Instead, the good ol’ algos serve up what they think we’ll linger on or engage with. Feeding us our next fix like the content addicts we are, funnelling our feeds into a highly tailored selection of niche posts designed to keep us scrolling longer and deeper until we start seeing the same videos we started with. It’s no longer about who posts, but what will keep us hooked (drug references absolutely intended). If your content isn’t crafted to catch attention in this environment, it might well disappear into the void.
My own feeds, for example, have been reduced to a near-endless stream of birria tacos, skateboarding, and animals doing weird stuff. The algorithm has learned that these are the things that keep me engaged (for whatever reason and whatever it says about me).
Random updates from organisations I follow? They hardly make it to my screen anymore.
Don’t try and fight the algorithm. You will lose.
Does it look like social media?
This might be the most important question we can ask ourselves. Seriously.
‘Does our content look like what we see when we use social media in a private capacity?’
And this doesn’t mean do what some one else is doing (Ryanair, Duolingo, Liquid Death, Nutter Butter etc etc etc 🥱), but thinking about why their approach works, and how it looks so different that yours.
For me, social media looks like:
Waka Kotahi and their dashcam videos (which look like all those Russian vids of catastrophic moments miraculously caught on tape)
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and his grumpy, ranty clips that dial up the snappy editing and graphics to give it that classic YouTube vibe
Anything involving Moo Deng 🦛
What it definitely doesn’t look like:
That consultation graphic thing you cooked up with Canva
Posts that start with: MEDIA RELEASE
Is there any reason why you can’t just do one or two things really well?
If every lawn-mowing, pool-cleaning, and power-washing business can amass millions of views by posting pretty much the same transformation videos, what’s stopping a council gardening, roading, or events teams taking that concept and making it their own?
Ok, so maybe that particular concept has had its day (although I still get them in my feed cos I watch crap), but the principles remain the same: every one of those businesses has chosen to create algorithm-friendly content that looks the part.
Other options might be variations of vox pops (with or without a tiny mic), or POV videos, amazing captions, or just bloody great imagery (remember that?).
Or, get your senior leaders to talk strategy or give career tips for LinkedIn video content (honestly now is their time to shine).
Or, take a page from Transport for NSW’s playbook and use your people to entertain while still delivering essential information. And over time you start to recognise and ‘know’ the people/characters, which I think is quite nice.
What about those important updates?
Now, you might be wondering - what do we do with all those meeting updates, road closures, and media releases if they’re not going on social? After all, this type of information is still essential to communicate, right?
Absolutely. In fact, meeting updates and road closures are so crucial, they’re actually much too important to be left to the whims of social media algorithms. These updates need to reach people reliably, and that means using more direct channels where you can guarantee they’ll be seen - things like email, text alerts, or even posters, letters, or face to face.
You’re not abandoning the need to inform people, but you are choosing the right tool for the right job.
So, what’s the solution?
We need to stop thinking of social media as just a megaphone. It’s not a platform to dump news and updates, and it’s definitely not a place to tick boxes. It’s more like television with an interactive feedback section.
The most successful TV shows are consistent - they do one or two things, and they do them well. The same is true for social media. To win on these platforms, you need a bit of focus. Your social media strategy should probably feel more like a script for a TV show than a community noticeboard.
(It will never be perfect, don’t worry. There will always be things to post that we know won’t work, so just getting our approach closer to where we know it should be is a victory)
So, if you could start all over again, what would you do?
Would you stick with your current BAU and keep ‘doing stuff’ on social media to keep your colleagues happy.
Or would you fight like a cornered fox to protect your feed from BAU updates and do more cool stuff that feels like it rightfully belongs on the channels you’ve been entrusted with managing?
What do you reckon? Comment below or email me@seamus.nz