Better #30

Welcome to 2025…

I love that hopeful feeling that a new year naturally seems to bring.

At least, I was feeling hopeful up until last week when I read the news that Facebook is ditching its fact-checkers. I mean, What The Actual Zuck!

Yes, Facebook is still a very important tool for most public sector organisations, but man, it can suck. Like, so bad.

(And why do the nastiest, rudest people always seem to have a cat photo as their profile? Do they know deep down they’re vile and mean, so they hide behind their pets?)

Anyhoo. We can only do what we can do, and we can only control what we can control.

In the spirit of that, let’s start the year by focusing on what we can do better. I’ve written before about how your content strategy can help tame your trolls and create a more positive online space. Give it a read – I hope it’ll give you some practical tips to take into the year ahead.

Here’s to making 2025 a year of doing cool stuff, having some fun, and maybe just a little less trolling.

Cheers,
Seamus Boyer 👋

When I want some inspo, I look to the people who I really respect - the social and content pros out there doing great things for public sector organisations day in, day out.

And when I went back through my archive of newsletters, I found so much great advice that I thought I’d pick out some faves and share them with you.

I know, I know, sometimes ‘from-the-archive’ content can fall flat (I’m thinking of those awful Simpsons clip episodes 🤢).

But the following words of wisdom helped me to fit a few things together as I was doing some planning. Hopefully they will for you, too.

Enjoy.

Using humour

Caitlin Cash - Queensland Health

Our audience responds well when we’re silly, unhinged, or relatable. We strategically use humour and pop culture references to reach those people who ordinarily wouldn’t consume health comms on topics like sun safety, food poisoning or STI testing. We’ve found a healthy dose of humour enables us to share complex, scientific, or medical information in an entertaining, easily consumed way. It’s well known that humour helps to make content more shareable, relatable, unique or memorable. We know that people use socials to be entertained, so … give the people what they want!

The changing nature of social

Olivia Wix - Palmerston North City Council

Social media is just like any other customer service and should be treated as such. When we do good content on social, the volumes to our call centre drop. And an informed and engaged community is more likely to get involved in decision making. Also, the world is changing. I book all my appointments via DM or an app these days – I don’t remember the last time I called someone for an appointment. We need to respond to how the world is changing, rather than the way we’ve always done things.

The importance of TikTok

Matthew Floratos - NZTA

I often think of this as, what’s the risk of us not being on TikTok? Anyone under 35 is increasingly shifting their time to TikTok, and young people joining social media now are essentially only on TikTok and Instagram, so the risk of not being on TikTok is not being able to talk to a massive part of the population. There’s also the risk of not being on a mainstream channel - TikTok isn’t fringe or emerging anymore, it’s very much here.

One thing you don’t need is to be across trends - we’ve had great success sticking to our bread and butter basics. We barely engage with trends, so you can do a great job on TikTok just being yourself and telling your story in a compelling way.

Letting our audiences decide

Michael Corcoran - ex-Ryanair

There's a place for councils and governments and politicians to win if they find that little hook. But the one thing they have to be able to do is be open to failing and failing fast. To be willing to test and learn and to let the audience decide, because that is the most important thing. Otherwise you'll be dead by committee, over-engineering it, overthinking it, or over-polishing it.

Instead, have a simplified strategic view, have simplified guiding principles - not hard and fast rules - that go back to the strategy every time. And let the audience decide. Iterate, iterate, iterate. You will find something that you can deliver, that will reach and have some sort of impact. It mightn’t be at the RyanAir level, but it will do something.

Making better video

Chris Riordan - Department of Education, Victoria

Whenever we have a job come into us, we always ask the same three questions, and unless it's got all three of these things, we won't do it. And so the first is a story - everything has to hang off a story. And then you also need a storyteller, that's our second thing. You can't just wheel out the head of the department or the most senior bureaucrat in whatever area it’s in because they tend to talk in a way that normal people won't engage with. And then our last thing is a visual element. You have to assume that this video is popping up in someone’s feed with no sound, so you need to hit them with enough visuals that it ropes them in.

Being on camera

Annaleisha Fensom - ex-Zealandia

Being in front of the camera now feels a lot more comfortable compared to when I started out. It boils down to practice, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and allowing myself to make mistakes without aiming for perfection. If a video takes me multiple takes, who really cares at the end of the day?

It may sound like a cliché, but when I'm on camera, authenticity is my goal. I picture my friends or family tuning in, and I want them to think, "Oh, that's Anna, she's being herself". This approach ensures that my content feels genuine, personable, and helps me convey my passion for the sanctuary and its mission.

Disaster recovery social

Lachlan Forsyth - ex-NZTA

We knew early on there was only so much damage we could show – the critical thing was sharing what progress was being made, and the scale of the job ahead. So we hustled to find anything that showed the response - small, large, it didn’t matter. What mattered was showing people that we were onto it, and that everyone involved was going above and beyond to help people. So, while our teams committed to delivering on the ground, we committed to delivering stories about them, and everything they were doing. Communities were desperate for updates and to see progress – that was our priority.

Communicating success

Heather Lansdowne - Australian Bureau of Statistics

We always like to “toot our own horn” with our senior managers and executive team whenever we get really strong results on a post, positive feedback in the comments, reshares from prominent people, or any news coverage of our content. We also hold annual social media awards where we award our top subject matter contributors for their efforts and help in validating posts. We also invite senior executive to these presentations and show them our results for the last year as well as discussing all the relevant updates to the social media landscape.

Community management

Venessa Paech - Australian Community Managers

The lesson for our organisations who want the benefits of the ‘broadcastability’ of these spaces and the benefits of the platform, is that it doesn’t come for free. You have to be ready to create and maintain a social and cultural space in a way that's realistic and achievable for you. That doesn't mean you have to be always on, dealing with crises 24 hours a day, but you must consider it. You have to design the space, the governance, the boundaries, systems and resourcing that's going to allow you to do this in a way that honours your side of that social contract.

Comments are content

Moderation is my favourite bit of the job, but it’s probably also the hardest part. You’re dealing with real people and real emotions. I’d say it’s also the part of the job with the biggest risk, as there is often a lot of attention on the comments, but there is also huge reward there if you get it right.

Every comment is also a piece of content, because people are watching, especially on the popular or controversial posts. So you can use the comments as an opportunity to educate or give context or add some useful links that will give people a better understanding of what’s going on. 

Not letting the trolls win

Nicole Skews-Poole - Anchordown

I think we need to understand and acknowledge that social media looks and feels different now, and that it is going to increase your resourcing around content moderation in particular. But it’s equally important to understand that organisations must stay firm in this storm and double down on ensuring that the public can still access good sources of information online.

The way that most people engage with social content is to simply view it, without liking or commenting. So comments are often not a true indication of public sentiment, but we still act like they are. Instead of worrying about getting negative comments, if a piece of content is important for your organisation, then it is still really worth sharing, and every bit of content you post can be a clear assertion of your values.

Clapping back

Ben Caldwell - Rangitīkei District Council

I like to frame it as me being on stage and I’m being heckled and asking myself how I would respond to that. Generally people heckle for one of two reasons: they’re trying to be helpful, or they want to be involved. I think if you look at it like that it’s easier to work out ways to be playful and a bit sassy without taking the p_ss. Unless of course they’re being absolute conspiracy theorists and then I might reply with a little bit of disdain [laughs]. In general though, it’s about trying to get people on board with you, and in that respect it’s the same as being on stage.

Learning and adapting

Tim Price - Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

In social media I think probably the last couple of years has changed more than it has in the last ten, and I just have to keep learning how the algorithms change, how TikTok changed things, what content to create, what I need to do to work within the current system. 

So continual learning and adapting and updating your skills is crucial if you want to work in in this field because you can learn one thing and then it's out of date in two years - or it could happen overnight. Elon will buy Twitter, TikTok will launch, or Facebook will change something and you'll literally have to change everything you think about how you do stuff. 

Embracing AI

Zac Seipert - Central Utah Water Conservancy District

If you’ve been dismissing this technology up until this point, I implore you to stop. You need to be informed. You need to be aware. You need to experiment. This technology is already beginning to weave its way into every product, tool, service, and offering available. You need to take control of your future and begin learning about and experimenting with this tech. Start small with simple exercises or prompts. Then you can begin to really push the boundaries of what is possible and see where these tools can truly help you in your career and life.

Taking a break

Taylor Eustace - New Zealand Defence Force

Make time to put the devices down and be present. It’s easy in our line of work to feel like you constantly need to be ‘on’. Now I take pleasure in purposefully taking time for myself - spending time with loved ones, listening to music, reading a book, gaming, going for a walk in nature. Nothing is more important than your mental health. You are not your job!

That’s it for today, hopefully you’ve found something to inspire you.

Before you go, I want to hear from you (yes, you 🫵).

Which government socials do you love? Who should I interview next? What topics could I cover? I want to bring you as much value as I can this year so hit reply on this email and let me know.

Oh, and P.S. the next newsletter is going to be a ripper… 🙀

See you soon for more tips on how to get a little bit Better 👋