Crushing Social Media

Your presence on social media

Social media is an ever-growing phenomenon. With 91.5 per cent of the Australian population using social media every month, it has become an effective - and cheap – way to ensure your organisation reaches its audience.

So, what should you take into account when planning your organisation’s social media presence?

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Why have social media?

Social media is ever-present, but it’s not for everyone.

Sit down with your team and see if it aligns with your organisation’s objectives. Whether your objectives are for increased exposure to sell your services; a wider reach for recruitment; or to better inform your audience, these objectives should determine whether you need a social media presence.

Social media is part of a multi-layered communication effort. Before you get started, work on a strategic communication plan?to see how social media will complement your objectives.

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Be present to be seen

You don’t need to be on every social media platform. Even being on one platform will help you to engage with your audience.

40 per cent of Australian social media users aged 16-64 say they actively visit social platforms to learn more about brands and organisations. That means your presence makes you visible to a larger proportion of the population.

With a seemingly constant growth of new platforms, it can be daunting to choose which accounts to set up. After all, you don’t want to miss out on a potential audience. But luckily, the average social media user isn’t restricted to just one platform. In fact, the average Australian social media user bounces between 6.1 different social networks per month.

That means you don’t have to be present across all of the major platforms. If you don’t have the resources to cover multiple platforms, or you’re just dipping your toes, that’s fine. The important thing is that you’re present on at least one, and you do it really well!

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Plan, plan, plan

So, you’ve decided you need a presence. What now?

Consistency is the key to building an audience, building an audience is essential for sharing your message.

As part of your overarching strategic communication plan, you should be constantly looking for content that aligns with your goals. Look ahead to your events, milestones, achievements, products or services to see what content you want to share. Populate these into a content plan and then spread it out evenly across the calendar to ensure you are engaging your audience with the right message at the right time. Not only does regular posting help to build an audience, it shows that your page is active, and that your services are, too.

Tools such as Asana provide a great – and free – way to organise your content. If you want to post timely content based to coincide with events, pre-write the content so it’s ready to go when you’ve got your complementary photos or video.

Scheduling tools like Sprout Social and HootSuite are useful to plan and see when your content will be posted. You can schedule specific posts for certain platforms from the one dashboard.

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Where to focus your efforts

Every platform has its strengths and weaknesses and each should be taken into account when choosing where to focus your efforts.

Each platform has its nuances. We’ve split them into two categories – information sharing and content sharing.

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Information-sharing platforms

There will be some overlap between the features of social media platforms, but in general, the three major information-sharing platforms are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

These three platforms are all complementary of dynamic videos and images, but place a heavy importance on information. Subsequently, they are preferable for many businesses and government-based organisations who need to disseminate a lot of information to their audiences.

Unlike the content-sharing platforms, text is placed above any collateral, as opposed to a caption below.

And importantly with these platforms, you can share links with every post.

Therefore information-sharing platforms are preferable if you’re intending on sharing content leading to third-party websites (such as your own website or a blog).

Facebook still remains the best way to reach a wider audience. It had 14.9 million active Australian users in early 2023. It remains particularly strong in the over-35 category, with Android users spending an average of 17.8 hours on the Facebook app every month.

Facebook has also improved its Business page experience in recent years, allowing easier switching between profiles and easier engagement from your page to other pages. Facebook also has an impressive Business Suite which allows better planning and scheduling without expensive software.

Facebook remains a good option to use for most organisations, especially those working with government, though Facebook might not fit if you’re targeting an exclusively younger demographic.

LinkedIn is all about professionalism. It’s a great networking tool and a great way to share your professional achievements, particularly in the professional services industry. The platform is also particularly strong in the 25-34-year-old age bracket. LinkedIn is also a preferred choice for businesses to post on their own profiles about their achievements, events, and work. The platform indicated that they had 14 million “members” in Australia, though specific data about active users was not available.

Twitter has a smaller audience in Australia, with 5.25 million active users as of January, 2023. But of the three major information-sharing platforms, Twitter is the most two-way.

This means if you have the resources to invest, you can engage with your audience well on Twitter. On Facebook and LinkedIn, an account’s post might start a conversation, but Twitter account allows you to play a greater part in the conversation.

All three major information-sharing platforms have their advantages, and if you have the resources, can work well in complement.

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Content-sharing platforms

We’ve defined content-sharing platforms as those unable to share a link with a post. Each post is about the content on the page, rather than trying to redirect you to a third-party site. This means content must be eye-catching from the beginning to get somebody to pause through scrolling. On these platforms, the focus is more on the content and less on the links.

These platforms also have their advantages, but are, generally, more about promoting an organisation’s image rather than disseminating information. Posts will cross over into information sharing, but they must rely on being engaging enough to encourage people to click through to their page’s bio.

Therefore, in most cases with government and government-related organisations, these platforms should merely serve as complements to an information-sharing platform. Conversely, these platforms can serve well as the primary platform for those with primarily image- and video-driven content.

Instagram is the firmly-established content-sharing platform. Instagram started out as a primarily picture-sharing platform, but has since evolved to a major player in the short-video game with Reels. The platform now has 11.65 million users in Australia.

A major benefit to Instagram is its affiliation with Facebook. The platforms’ close relationship means the Facebook Business Suite can also be utilised for Instagram, and posts can even be published on both platforms simultaneously.

Instagram is also more popular with young adults, with the 18-34-year-old brackets tending to prefer it to Facebook, so it can be a good complement to work in with Facebook.

TikTok is undeniably popular amongst younger demographics. In early 2023, it had 8.3 million users aged 18 and above, with 71 per cent of those users were under 35. The platform is also popular with the 13-17-year-old demographic, but TikTok doesn’t release those numbers publicly.

TikTok is almost exclusively a video-sharing platform, primarily short-form videos. It can be a hard market to break into without video-editing skills, but it is a platform where audiences can grow quickly – if you can crack the algorithm.

Fewer teenagers are going to Google and YouTube for information and tutorials. Instead, they’re turning to TikTok. This shift in information searching is adjusting the way younger generations are using the internet.

TikTok is a good platform to reach younger audiences, but with the Australian government banning the platform on government-owned phones, tread cautiously based on your organisation. If you’re still looking to delve into short-form videos, but are close to government work, Instagram Reels might be the safer bet.

Snapchat is another content-sharing platform that shouldn’t be dismissed, with 7.7 million users in Australia. It’s a platform to consider if you’re target audience is younger, with 58.8% of Snap users around the world sitting in the 13-25 age bracket.

Snapchat is also a leader in augmented reality (AR). The platform lets the user be creative and alter their appearance through ‘lenses’. These lenses could be anything from adding dog ears onto their face, to suddenly being at the beach wearing sunglasses or walking through a submarine to experience what it would be like to be inside one.

Snapchat is good for real-time content to keep your audience engaged. The real-time aspect means minimal design or editing skills are necessary, with photos taken on the phone perfect for use. Snap shouldn’t be a primary platform, but definitely provides a low-effort option to complement your social media presence.

Do you want to learn how to master social media for your government organisation or business? Places are limited on our upcoming social media masterclass. Sign up now: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/social-media-masterclass-tickets-600004899807

*All statistics from the Datareportal Digital 20230: Global Overview Report.

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