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:

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:

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.

#communications #socialmedia #portfolio