Better #7

Welcome back to Better - hopefully you’re on a beach somewhere and keeping the summer vibes going as long as you can.

If you’re back in the office (or WFH), then take a 10-minute break to read this - it’s packed full of insights. Well, 11 of them anyway.

Because this month, instead of an interview, I went deep into public sector social media. And when I say deep, I mean I looked at every single channel of every single council, government department and crown agency.

Yep, I checked out more than 630 public sector social accounts, and now I’m going to share with you the top things I learned, because that’s the kind of good bastard I am.

And don’t worry, the interviews will be back from next month - believe me, there are some wonderful, extremely talented people lined up for us all to learn from.

Cheers,
Seamus 👋

Wading through hundreds of social media accounts isn’t for everyone (especially when the sun is shining). I also appreciate there could be AI tools to do this kind of task for me. But that’s not how I roll.

Because by manually going through the channels I can get an overall ‘feel’ for what’s going on, with qualitative analysis complementing the quantitative data I collect. For me, that’s critical.

The most disappointing thing I found in my travels was that there is far too much dialed-in content across public sector socials. Mediocre bollocks that no one could possibly care about.

The best thing I found was the emergence of humour across more accounts. Not enough by a long margin, but enough to give me hope that we’re starting to put more of the ‘social’ back into social media.

Here are my insights 👇

Insight #1 -
Twitter is dead. At least, it’s dead for local government, while for central government it’s hanging on for dear life. Over the past year councils have been abandoning the platform in droves, like rats leaving a toxic and infuriating sinking ship.
In 2023, 17 councils left the platform, joining a further 13 who gave up on it over the previous 4 years.
As of today, just 13 councils out of 78 are regularly using X, and to be honest a lot of that use is half-hearted dump and runs. There is almost no channel-specific content being created, and even less of the fun interactivity and banter we used to enjoy so much on Twitter back in the day.
For government departments, 12 of 31 are still regularly using X, but over the course of last year 8 abandoned the platform, including Corrections and MSD, as well as other big agencies like ACC. 
Given that X is the only platform that is designed for real-time updates and emergencies, it’s going to be interesting to see where that content ends up.
As for how people left X? Some just stopped posting, some deleted their accounts, and one even signed off by saying ‘Peace out homies’, because why the hell not?

Insight #2
Twitter’s loss is TikTok’s gain. There are now 15 councils using the platform, and the quality is generally great. It’s true that the frequency of posting is pretty sporadic across the accounts, which I guess is a sign that content creation - and particularly TikTok creation - is still far down the priority list for a lot of social and comms advisors.
Some public sector TikToks are getting huge numbers. Without including the staggering 32 million views of the Auckland Harbour Bridge lane changer from Waka Kotahi, there are now several council TikToks that have pulled in 1, 2, or even 3 million views.
And when you think about it, when was the last time you got anywhere near those kinds of numbers on any other channel?
In terms of who has the biggest TikTok followings, Tourism NZ (59.5k) is edging out Waka Kotaki (55.8k) in the battle of the big guns, while at a local government level Wellington City Council (16.1k) has clawed back a lot of ground on frontrunners Palmy North (16.4k). A race to watch in 2024 👀

Insight #3
Threads eh 🤷‍♂️ It still seems like a complete mess of a channel to me, and the few councils that jumped on it enthusiastically in July have all now quietly walked away (nothing to see here…).
Looking through the public sector Threads accounts is like discovering a land frozen in time - the last time most organisations posted was about 25 weeks ago. There’s probably a lesson there about waiting and thinking things through before jumping on a new channel, especially if you’re strapped for time and resources.
So what does good look like on Threads? For me, Channel 4 in the UK has a near perfect mix of humour, irreverence, and straight-up beef with other TV channels. This recent thread is a great example of how they roll:

Insight #4
Facebook has become an absolute dumping ground for organisations’ comms. Seriously, it’s like most Facebook strategies - especially for councils - can be summed up as ‘everything for everyone’.
Generally it’s the biggest and most established channel that organisations have, so there will be pressure on social advisors to post stuff to reach more people (which of course doesn’t work when that content is boring shite). But I also think there is just a general lack of channel strategy out there, so teams struggle to say no because they have never really defined what they should be saying yes to.
Some of the mess will also be due to organisations ditching Twitter/X, so that minor updates and timely reminders have no other place to go, so they get dumped on Facebook.
Given the importance and reach of the channel, we can and should do better.

Insight #5
The NZ Police accounts are still going great guns (boom boom). Whatever you think of their social approach (I’m a huge fan), the content is focused and strategic, and the engagement is consistently excellent.
Over 2023 they added an extra 65,000+ new followers to their main channels alone, getting them closer to a million followers (who knows how many there are if you add in all the regional accounts).
Interestingly, it looks as though they are also pulling back on X, with no tweets in November or December, following an earlier pause back in September. At the same time they are building a good following on Threads (22.7k), and are regularly posting there.
They also have nearly 5,000 followers on TikTok, despite never having posted. Watch this space?

Insight #6
Your Christmas sign-off post engagement tells a story. The ‘our team is having a well-earned break’ post is something of an annual hardy across the public sector, and how audiences react to it can be illuminating. There are tiny councils who get a deluge of good will on their posts, and huge councils and government departments who get absolute tumbleweeds.
For me, it shows the organisations which really have a relationship with their followers, because the latter are genuinely happy to thank them and wish them a well-earned break.
If your post was a damp squib, ask yourself why. And if you want some inspiration, check out the joyful and fun way Waipā District Council played it:

Insight #7
If you’ve forgotten what a shitstorm Covid comment moderation was, jump on the Ministry of Health’s X account and have a look at the responses to its recent tweets. Actually, don’t, it’s a toxic mess.
It’s a reminder of how polarised and aggressive commenters got during the Covid period, with people on both sides of the debate having a go at everyone around them at any chance they got. As a moderator, there is no way to make anyone happy, with plenty of dickheads out there happy to attack the person rather than debate the issue. Grim AF.

Insight #8
I’m not going to dwell on this, because I’m always banging on about it. But it is exceedingly obvious that most public sector organisations simply don’t have a strategy when it comes to social media. It’s just a collection of posts about a massive range of topics, with little to connect them to any kind of bigger picture. Which is about as strategic as a fart.

Insight #9
Humour works! Councils that regularly use humour to entertain their audiences are getting excellent engagement, and it’s no surprise to see Palmerston North, Wellington, Rangitīkei and Invercargill councils getting great results. In fact, Palmerston North, Invercargill and Rangitīkei are all in the top 10 for council follower growth between January 2023 and January 2024. All are regularly using humour as part of their social strategy, and people love it.
Of these, I love the way Invercargill City Council is blending informative posts with entertaining ones, using humour, pride and nostalgia as emotional levers. As I wrote about recently on LinkedIn, when was the last time you got 3,300 likes on a post, plus 800 comments and 650 shares?
I also like Ben from Comms’s slightly unhinged approach to engaging the good people of Rangitīkei (who clearly enjoy it). Honestly, silliness like the below just makes you smile and feel good:

Ok, that’s it for this edition, hope you enjoyed it and learned a thing or 11.

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I’ll see you next month for more tips and insight on how to get a little bit Better 👋