Council style
On top of freelancing, lately I’ve been working at a local city council, in their communications team. I’ve been working on their social media. It’s been interesting to see what works and what doesn’t.
Thought I’d share a few reels we’ve made that I’m quite pleased with:
- One about a cycle skills park
- One about a new train station
- Drone footage of the station (although only the edit)
- One about a bridge opening (OK, a video carousel rather than reel, but not dissimilar — and a format I really like)
Video is time-consuming, but worth it when you have good things to share. We all know the socials prefer video by and large. Instagram’s newish Edits app is both powerful and quick.
I like to edit and post from the scene when possible. I feel more connected to the story while it’s as fresh and present as possible.
There's no need to lug DSLRs around any more. The shots are almost too polished for socials. You don't want bad photography, exactly. Authentic is probably the word.
Some other things I’ve learned or validated doing social media for local government:
- Being responsive is always better than planning things ahead
- Images always help, but pure photography (whether still or moving) is the only thing that works
- That is, graphics, text overlays, council logos are almost guaranteed to kill a post (show the thing is as true as ever)
- People don’t want to see people posing for the camera — especially big groups of middle-aged white men, or officials posing for photo ops
- Writing concisely, and like a human, is also a must for engagement (who knew?!)
- There’s really no story too small — just make it relevant and relatable
- Good social media comes from outside, not at your desk
- It’s best not to try to respond to everyone (going against all my instincts)
- For soul and sanity, you have to remind yourself the reasonable majority don’t comment on social media
- You have to find the courage to say no to people who want you to post things that would definitely tank
- You have to gently, gradually discourage people from proactively making things they want you to post
I’m introducing a borrowed an aesthetic from some of the Formula 1 marketing and comms teams. (McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari’s especially.) When you have an official doing pieces to camera, piggy back over the shoulder on one of those interviews, rather than doing one directly. That way the (politically-neutral) council seem apart from and not serving elected officials. It's less seedy and more visually pleasing at the same time.
All credit to the comms team, who knew what good looked like long before I arrived. So often it’s a matter of resourcing.
That said, it's baffling to me how many public sector org socials are content to flog dead horses, even when their approaches almost never work.