The last few years have seen an absolute turbo-boost for digital communications. I’ve been saying this to my colleagues for a while now (so much in fact, I’m sure they’re sick of hearing it) but to give one example our combined Facebook and Twitter reach in 2019 was 18 million, in 2020 that went up to 89 million (largely thanks to an exploding whale) and in 2021 it was 32 million. I’m sure you’ll have seen a rise in your audience accessing your messaging and services via digital means too.
by Nick Fromont
We all knew that digital communications was becoming more and more prominent in our day-to-day work before March 2020. However, Coronavirus and the ability to get vital messaging directly to people as we all stayed at home via these channels meant digital moved front and centre a lot quicker than some may have expected.
We’re now almost a year on from the dropping of Covid restrictions but the appetite from our audience for digital communications continues to grow. So much so that it feels like, for Doncaster Council’s digital approach at least, we’ve now reached the next phase of our digital strategy.
A few years ago, we essentially used three main digital channels to communicate with our residents; our website, Facebook and Twitter. We dabbled in a few other platforms such as Instagram or Snapchat but ultimately our efforts focused on those three channels with the hope that as many of our audience as possible would find the messages on there.
In just a few years that approach has evolved to a completely different beast altogether. As of July 2022, we now have over 20 digital channels we are using to communicate with our audience; from social media channels to websites to email marketing platforms. We can no longer just dabble with platforms like Instagram, there is an expectation from residents that they can find us on their preferred social media channel and we need to make sure we’re there to be found!
This is where we see the new phase beginning; our digital journey 2.0. As I mentioned above, previously our digital approach was very much posting content could onto a small number of channels and hoping our messages were seen. We understood our audiences on those platforms and were able to tailor messages to obtain maximum exposure and engagement but there were still gaps in our demographic that simply were not being reached.
Our new approach is to try to take our messages directly to where we know the audience is.
Got a target audience of 15-34 year olds?
We’ll use Instagram and TikTok and quite possibly miss Facebook and Twitter out completely.
Looking to reach a specific area of our city?
We’ve set up a community Facebook page called ‘Your Life Doncaster’, which has joined a number of local Facebook groups right across the borough. We can now post directly into a Facebook group and reach the village that message is targeting.
Want to share some big news relevant to everyone in your area (such as Doncaster recently being given city status!)?
Then we use all of the digital tools at our disposal, but make sure to tailor the approach and content depending on the channel. It’s no longer a case of copy and paste from platform to platform, we make sure to create specific content to better engage with each specific audience.
Here are a few other tips I’ve found helpful on the journey so far:
Everyone has their speciality – know them and use them! As hard as I try, it can be difficult to keep on top of all the new channels, functions and happenings in the digital world. It’s important to trust your colleagues who may have a much better understanding of certain channels than you do. A prime example of this is our TikTok channel – I don’t use it in a personal capacity, so I’ve handed the reins over to colleagues who use the channel and understand it much better than I do. They’re able to jump onto trends, create brilliant content and engage with the TikTok audience. The proof is in the pudding – we’ve had numerous videos with views in the tens of thousands and our followers are approaching 5,000 after launching the channel less than a year ago.
Take the whole comms team on the digital ride with you! Whilst we’re a digital team working within our overall comms team, we don’t produce every piece of digital content we put out. We want the whole team to understand what we’re trying to achieve and buy into the process. We encourage our colleagues to come to us with ideas for content across our channels and we work together to find and create the best options for their campaigns and calls to action.
Set out what you’re trying to achieve with each digital channel! We have a live document which details each digital channel we have a presence on, the typical audience on that channel, the type of message that engage best on there and what we’re trying to achieve overall. This is shared with all comms colleagues to help them shape their comms plans and also better advise the services on what they can expect.
At Doncaster Council we’re only at the start of our digital journey 2.0, and there’s a long way to go. Many organisations will be on the same journey as us (some will be further down the road) and there’s some amazing content across the digital channels to be found, so be inspired by others and let that help shape what you want to do!
I know what you’re thinking (and no doubt experiencing yourself) and yes, this does mean more effort and resource from you and your team. However, if executed properly, it’s worth it! You’ll see the difference not only in your reach and engagement figures, but more importantly by better understanding the audience for a call to action and taking the message directly to them, you should see an increase in your results overall!
Nick Fromont is digital communications business partner at Doncaster Council. You can say hello on Twitter at @NFromont
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