If you have been reading GovTalk the last few months, you should have some direction on how to use the three largest social media platforms to your entity’s advantage. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the top tools to coordinate a social media campaign for any organization, even a local government.
However, there are a few smaller platforms you can also use that target niche markets and offer singular opportunities to interact with your constituency. Two of these platforms have been around for a while, and one is just a year old; but used carefully and in conjunction with your major social media accounts, they can widen your reach.
Pin It!
Yes, Pinterest can be a great tool for certain divisions of your municipality. Pinterest is essentially a digital scrapbook, and users can pin and re-pin each other’s finds. For municipal entities, using Pinterest as a digital replacement for physical scrapbooks and art displays is a great way to start using the tool.
If you manage a division like Arts and History or a city museum, you can use Pinterest to organize and share content based on projects or exhibits. Idaho’s tourism board, Visit Idaho, uses the big three and Pinterest to share Idaho activities, including seasonal attractions and activities.
For New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pinterest acts as a chance to curate its own artwork for a larger audience than can typically visit its walls. A favorite board, with over 70,000 followers, is The Few, the Proud, the Mustachioed. It’s just what you think it is, and if you oversee a museum with an uncommon collection like this, what better way to share it?
Pics in the Round
Are you a Parks and Recreation manager looking for a new way to show off your trails and greenery? If you haven’t looked into Instagram yet, now’s the time. Not only can you now manage multiple accounts without having to log out of the platform, you can upload and share videos.
Create an account for each of your parks, then get creative with a camera that takes 360-degree photos and video. Now your audience can get a more comprehensive peek at your attractions. For divisions like Building or a Mayor’s Office, Instagram can be used to share the phases of projects or even a day-in-the-life-of series.
Using Instagram however your entity decides to do so will reach a target audience that will not expect its local government to use social media: young millennials. Of all the adults online, 53 percent of those aged 18 through 29 use Instagram regularly and are likely to have more than one account. If your municipality is struggling to connect to its younger constituents, Instagram could be a key means of doing so.
Going Live
Pinterest and Instagram have been around for a while in the social media game. Twitter’s newest acquisition, Periscope, got into the game less than a year ago. Offering live video streaming that can be saved and shared, Periscope integrates with Twitter and users interact with the video streams much the same way they do tweets.
Perfect for a division that interacts regularly with the media, Periscope must be used with caution more so than many other platforms. Because you are streaming live video, there are multiple legal issues at play, including intellectual property rights and permissions. Government entities are just as culpable as businesses for respecting the rights of those whose images they use, if not moreso.
Hand over use of a Periscope account only to those Twitter users who have gone through legal training in copyright, publicity permissions, etc.
Be Selective
Just as these social media platforms are more selective in their uses, so should you be in who you choose to run them. With platforms like Facebook and Twitter, it’s easier to give accounts to a larger group of users. Pinterest, Instagram, Periscope, and other niche platforms are better suited for select municipal users who will use them for the most relevant content.
Give an archivist Pinterest and Instagram accounts in order to share his latest project. Set up a Public Information Officer on Periscope and Instagram in order to showcase the latest media releases for the Mayor’s Office. Hand over use of a park’s Instagram account to its regular maintenance crew to see what magic they can create.
Avoid the mistakes other businesses and organizations make when using social media, and choose your platforms and their managers wisely. You want your social media to reflect the divisions its representing, so let your managers make their plans and find their voices. These niche platforms give your entities a chance to have some fun.
