Tips for Successful Government Social Media Marketing

Social Media

Government social media marketing is vital to promote their products, services, and initiatives. It can also help them create awareness about the issues they have been working on. Governments rely on social media for communication, outreach, and education.

Social media provides an excellent way for the government to stay in contact with its and potential constituents. Social media has also become an effective tool for governments to share information and provide public service announcements.

Content and Information on Social Media

Providing information through social media can be a cost-effective way to reach more people in a shorter period than traditional channels such as television or radio could achieve alone.

Many government agencies are using social media to connect with the public and get feedback on issues. These agencies have emerged as some of the most engaged and transparent organizations on social media.

A successful government social media strategy will help attract citizens and engage voters through these platforms while providing an avenue for them to voice their opinions and concerns. 

Social media users with a negative opinion about a government agency or its policies can be engaged by highlighting what makes the agency unique or what sets it apart from others in its field. 

  • Have a clear strategy. This will help in establishing a brand and clear objectives. These tactics are also helpful in measuring the success of the campaign.
  • Make sure that there is proper transparency on social media. Government agencies must give people a fundamental understanding of what they do and how they do it.
  • Make sure that public relations strategies are established on social media sites themselves. These need to be in line with other channels like TV ads, print ads, internet banners, and traditional PR methods like press releases, press conferences, and more.
  • Encourage discussion, not discourage it – whether this discussion is good or bad for the organization. Respond publicly, thank people for their feedback, and answer questions where appropriate.

Governments should focus on generating content that will appeal to a broad audience, which is what they are looking for when they come across the information in the first place. They also need to maintain a consistent message so that no matter who comes across it or how many times they see it, it has the same feeling and intention.

TikTok Is Becoming Political

Social Media

TikTok

 

Is TikTok suitable as a political medium? Political editor Jarne van der Poel talks about it with Emmelie Valkenburgh van @groenlinksoptiktok and Sanne Kruikemeier, assistant professor of political communication.

With a week to go until the elections, there is a lot of campaigning going on. Due to the coronavirus, the candidates cannot fly on the street and so the attention is more than ever on social media. Several political parties have therefore ventured into the relatively new medium TikTok (politicians can click here to boost their presence on TikTok as well). The VVD and GroenLinks – their accounts together @vvdoptiktok and called @groenlinksoptiktok – are now the biggest players there with 36 thousand and 24 thousand followers respectively.

According to Emerce, a total of 4.5 million Dutch people use the app, mainly people in their twenties and teenagers. TikTok is known for short and often musical videos. Playback or imitation of other videos is encouraged, creating viral trends.

An example of this is the trend where users are to the rhythm of Where Is The Love? of The Black Eyed Peas hopping around the room, accompanied by witty lyrics (‘on the way to a break after 10 minutes of studying’ or ‘subserviating the room if you have to do the dishes). Political parties do not want to be left behind: VVD MP Martin Wörsdörfer (‘on the way to a new debate’) and GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver (‘on the way to our first post on TikTok’) jumped rhythmically through the House of Representatives building.

Commentators immediately talked about it. In De Nieuws BV, campaign strategist Anne Stokvis said that Jesse Klaver is missing out here. She wondered what exactly he has to look for on TikTok, and felt that he underestimated the target group. ‘Toe-curling and embarrassing’ was the verdict at Editie NL. “If you as an older man or woman are going to do a dance for young people of 15 or 16 years, then you miss the mark,” one analyst scoffed.

Positive influence underestimated

The statements in the media fit into a broader trend in which social media is portrayed in a bad light. The public discourse on social media is defined by discussions about damnation, relocation, invasion of privacy, and the spread of fake news. These concerns are entirely justified, but the balance is sometimes lost.

It becomes painfully clear that the – somewhat older – commentators on television do not fully understand the value of a social medium like TikTok. In addition to fun trends, it is also a place for political activism, education and commentary. “During the U.S. elections, TikTok seems to have had an encouraging influence on young people,” says Sanne Kruikemeier, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam who has conducted research on online political communication and its effect on citizens’ political engagement.

‘A bit of Klaver and a bit of Emmelie’

Teens and young adults are increasingly using TikTok to express their opinions and concerns about politics. Emmelie Valkenburgh also sees this. She is an online content creator and manages the TikTok account of GroenLinks. “A bit of Clover and a bit of Emmelie,” the caption of the account reads. “Young people are also on TikTok, because they have an opinion about political and social issues and want to get involved,” she says. In the comments below her videos, young users start discussions on topics such as the climate or the housing market.

Content and personal

“Young political involvement is further encouraged by social media making politics more accessible,” kruikemeier says. “Many young people find politics abstract or boring. Research shows that social media makes politics more accessible by giving it a face and a voice.”

Emmelie also tries to do this: “Our social media are substantive, but I also want to show the personal sides of our leader.” An example of this is the popular TikTok video “Cooking with Klaaf”, in which Jesse Klaver cooks vegetarian boemboe bali. On the other side of the political spectrum, the VVD shared on TikTok the morning routine of MP Dennis Wiersma.

Emmelie rejects the suggestion that these kinds of videos are at the expense of the content. GroenLinks’ TikTok account also contains excerpts from debates and speeches and videos in which she films herself and explains what the party’s plans are. And yes, “a minute remains a minute,” she admits, but you can also make a substantive point in 60 seconds. It helps the 27-year-old that she herself belongs to the young target group: “I think I have more insight into it, that I can translate our policy intentions well into ‘the language’ of TikTok and that I know how the app works.”

 

ALSO READ: How Great Recruiters are Made from Political Science and Law Graduates

 

New target group

Ultimately, the app, which is now used more often by young people than Facebook, is mainly a way to reach a new target group during campaign time. “I actually think that political parties are always looking for new ways to reach citizens. Instagram is mainly millennials and with TikTok you really reach a new, younger target group,” says Kruikemeier. “We think it’s important to reach as many people as possible,” Emmelie agrees. “There is a large group on TikTok that may not get politics on board with the regular news. We take up the challenge of doing that through this route.”

‘In a democracy it is not only important to vote, but also to participate’

“You can try to appeal to a new target group,” said political scientist Peter van der Heide at EditieNL, “but with TikTok that makes no sense, because that target group is not even allowed to vote.” Sanne Kruikemeier can count on a slight surprise at this statement: “For me personally, that is a bit of a limited view of politics. In a democracy, it is not only important to vote, but also to participate, for example. I think it would be useful to involve young people under the age of 18 as well. Political parties are already doing this, for example through their youth departments.”

Small effect on voice choice

Despite all the positive effects on the political involvement of young people, Kruikemeier expects that the final effect on the choice of the vote is small. “We see in research that successful social media campaigns can lead to preferential votes for a particular candidate, but those are small effects.” She also emphasizes that social media is often used by people who are probably already politically involved and are already voting anyway.

In addition, the TikTok algorithm chooses videos that match the user’s interests and offers them on a silver platter: the “For You” page. So there is a good chance that Emmelie’s videos will end up with people who already think the same way. Still, that’s not a problem: “The goal isn’t necessarily to convince people of other political persuasions, but rather to reach young people in general,” she says.

‘Young people are also on TikTok to talk about politics’

In any case, more attention to the positive effects of social media would not be out of place in the public debate. “Older journalists didn’t think our TikTok was a good idea,” Emmelie laughs, “but I think they underestimate young people because they’re also on TikTok to talk about politics.”

Sanne Kruikemeier also thinks that the positive function of social media such as TikTok remains underexposed: “Young people spend a large part of their day on social media. We often talk about the dangers of this, but forget that it can also contribute to democracy in a positive way.”

That TikTok is the new medium for politicians, she would not want to say. “But social media will remain, in whatever form. And that is the future, also of politics.”

 

The Politicalization of Instagram

Political Photography, Politics, Social Media

While a lot has been going on around the world, there are also lots of things not happening, and as a result spurred the politicization of Instagram. Inasmuch as the U.S. is the leading Instagram user on a global scale, photographic content of political nature, particularly those chronicling the Black Lives Matter rallies across all states now dominate the photo-sharing platform’s news feeds.

The rest of the world are now gradually working their way out of the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet there are still no events, concerts, celebrations and even restaurants from which interesting pictures can be taken, to draw the people’s interest away from U.S. political occurrences.

Why Instagram Serves as a Better Platform for Political Activism

Instagram has transitioned into becoming a social media platform for letting people around the world know what is actually happening in America today. Its importance as a more effective tool for political activism is enhanced by the two thousand number of characters that IG users can utilize in captioning a photo. The number stands in stark contrast to Twitter, which allows up to a maximum of 280 characters only.
Moreover, since Instagram is an affiliate of Facebook, it enables IG users to instantly spread their photographs across millions of FB accounts and make it go viral.

Socially shared photographs rather than words can lay bare truths much faster than the curated news being broadcasted by TV and online news channels. In fact, they often provide the lead that journalists pick up and follow through with formal coverage; making the information official as the latest development on a trending issue.

The Real World Now Matters at Instagram

Instagram initially gained popularity as a social platform where people can instill, as well as draw inspiration, on and from matters pertaining to lifestyle and life choices. To some, sharing and viewing IG photographs is a way of escaping reality. To entrepreneurs and brand advertisers, the platform serves as an easier and faster way to spread knowledge about their products and/or services.

Yet now more than ever, Instagram users are using the platform to raise awareness that “real changes” must take place in America today.

After all, Donald J. Trump, who as president of the United States, has been making feeble propaganda instead of addressing the ill effects wrought by COVID 19 on the country’s economy and people. He is now on a mission to project himself as the president who restored law and order, while encouraging his racist supporters to commit acts of violence.

To make matters worse, he has been deploying unidentified military forces in major U.S. cities who go after peaceful protesters instead of protecting them against agitators.

Instagram audiences around the world are still keen on liking and sharing photographs of political leaders who convey messages of hope for a better future. In fact, Indian Prime Minister Modi, being the leader of the nation with the second highest number of Instagram users, is ranked as the political leader with the biggest number of IG followers. Although Donald Trump would prefer to be in that position, he only comes in third. Former U.S. President Obama ranks second for being the political leader with the most number of IG followers.

While many are also hoping to grow the number of their followers, not a few find ways to push the visibility of their uploads by seeking assistance from the best place to buy instagram likes.