Category Archives: communications

As one year ends and another begins it is a good chance to pause and reflect.

How was your 2023?

How do you think your 2024 will be? 

To help you, I’ve blogged a list of predictions for where public sector communications is headed. If I could sum up the year ahead in a sentence it would be this: 

The old world is vanishing and if you hurry you can prepare for the new one.

But first, a look at last year’s predictions. I got 13 out of 16 right. Or 81.2 per cent.

What I got right from last year’s predictions 

Turbulence with channels did accelerate – Twitter became X. Threads became Twitter. Facebook’s page plus link strategy collapsed, YouTube became the biggest channel in the UK and TikTok surged.  

Permacrisis – That did too. Strikes in the NHS, Westminster turbulence and a quarter of local government in England, Wales and Scotland on the verge of bankruptcy and no sitting government in Northern Ireland.  

More organisations did fall over – Nottingham, Birmingham and Woking councils went bankrupt with warnings more will follow. 

Social media did ease away from the town square – The newly launched WhatsApp Channels was a one way broadcast. Instagram Broadcasts was literally that. New tools were given to Facebook groups and Facebook page post with a link reach collapsed. Goodbye town square and hello walled gardens. 

Email lists did become more important. – Email lists which are not beholden to the whims of Elon Musk or algorithm changes.

The hegemony of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube did end.  

The drift of staff to the private sector did increase. 

Burn out has become institutionalised. 

There was a two speed AI learning curve. Some are innovating and others haven’t even started.

TikTok did become mainstream. More organisations started using it. 

Mastodon didn’t become a Twitter rival.  

LinkedIn became helpful daily. From a professional perspective it’s where the conversations are. 

Working with creators did become more important.  

Here’s what I didn’t get right 

SEO is back, baby. I’m not sure if it was. 

Viva the generalist. I’m not sure if that did happen. Given the rise of AI a team with specialists just now seems the way to go. Have corse skills but learn a niche is what I’d do if I was in a team.

TikTok the end of organic reach. That didn’t happen, yet.  

Predictions for 2024

Without retrenching social media there will be a ghetto of underperforming organisations with time intensive social media that doesn’t work. Teams will feel run ragged but they won’t be achieving. We are no longer in 2012. Everything needs to be re-thought. 

X, formerly Twitter, won’t fall over it’ll just get less relevant. The platform is, as my daughter may say, a messy bitch that loves drama. While the noises it makes will influence the national news cycle it will continue to wither as an effective public sector channel. It won’t go away even if it becomes bankrupt. MySpace can still be found on the web even though its long since stopped being useful. 

Subscriptions will be a key plank. Subscriptions for pro social media accounts will become more necessary to make accounts work anywhere near as well as they have in the past. 

Fascism will become part of normal conversation. Bearing in mind what’s happening to X, formerly Twitter, the Overton window which marks what’s the norm will move globally to include overt fascism from mainstream parties. This will be unavoidable in America with a sidewash for the UK. How an individual and a profession responds to this will depend on their ethics. 

Communicating bankruptcy and more cuts. This will become an important part of swathes of the public sector as more councils go bankrupt and NHS Trusts and government departments face cuts regardless of political party.

The most effective comms will be done by teams operating outside of social media management tools. While the ability to schedule and have graphs produced is attractive the pace of innovation and new tools added means there is already a welter of new tools and practices that exist outside of established social media management. These include adding a Facebook page link as a comment, engaging with Facebook groups and WhatsApp Channels. Teams that perform best will innovate using the platforms natively.  

Election turbulence and the need to be politically restricted. In the UK, the public sector needs to closely read and carefully understand election law as a General Election looms. If you are elsewhere in the world there’s a fair chance you’ll have an election too.  Voter ID had an uneasy start in England’s local elections but will be introduced in Westminster elections for Scotland and Wales. Unprepared teams will sink. 

Teams need to spot and deal with misinformation and disinformation created by AI. Fake audio will be chief amongst this. How would you respond? 

Messaging apps become more important with WhatsApp Channels leading the charge. There will be experimentation with WhatsApp. 

No, there won’t be a Twitter replacement. Threads will build slowly. No, it won’t be the new Twitter. Yes, with the heft of owners Meta it will eventually become a significant player but this will take time. Not in 2024 it won’t. BlueSky and others will stay servicing a niche.

Teams that don’t accept the link is dead will struggle to provide effective comms.  As we saw towards the end of 2023, Facebook page posts with a link are reaching 0.0 per cent of people. What Meta do today is what others do tomorrow. Indeed, other platforms are already doing it.

Teams that don’t educate the client will struggle to provide effective comms.  Not a new thing but given accelerating changes in 2024 will prove fatal for some teams who have drifted into being unintentionally obsolete. Bring your organisation with you on how you communicate in 2024.

Facebook pages will be Reels, Facebook groups and ads… not organic content. In late 2023 half of time spent on Facebook was Reels. It is the safest prediction to say this trend will continue but for the public sector tapping into sharing into Facebook groups will also be the way they can cut through even more than ever. 

For UK Fire and Rescue comms, there is a once in a generation opportunity to shape the future. The Home Office white paper on fire and rescue has moved fire from becoming a bizarre sub-set of police governance to re-establishing it as its own discipline with a College of Fire. Comms has a chance to play a central part in that.

For Police comms the Nicola Bulley case showed how TikTok detectives can make an investigation harder. The need to get up to speed with this, monitor, challenge and debunk in real time will be increasingly important.    

The new direction of public sector social media will be defined by a cataclysmic event in 2024. In 2011, riots saw Twitter emerge as a key channel for the public sector. In 2024 a significant news effect will signpost the direction needed for the coming years. 

Local news will continue to move from mass consumption and print to become a niche vanishing product. The example in the north of England are city-based email-first subscription platforms dealing with local news with low reader numbers. Print will continue to wither and what the heck, let’s say one local news group will end print entirely.  

TikTok will continue to become more important. Bright comms teams will realise this and find ways to use it while working within the UK Government guidelines. The solution as Grant Shapps has showed is burner phones. 

The wider internet as we know it will begin the process in earnest of drowning under a lorry load of AI-created sludge. Media companies and others in 2024 will jump for the AI creation escalator to make more noise to cut through.  

Two speed AI adoption will continue. If we thought early social media adoption was two speed that’s nothing to teams who take the AI route and those who don’t. Content creation by volume can be increased by it but trust remains an issue.

Find your AI advocate in your team and let them read, discover and experiment. Never since the early days of social media has the need for an individual to use their own time to experiment and get to know AI in 2024. This investment of time for an individual will reap them medium and long term career dividends. Social media grew because there was one risk taker in the comms team. That needs to be the case with AI in 2024.

Build a network of AI knowledge. If there’s one person in a team be that person. If you are then connect with others. LinkedIn is useful for this. So is the CIPR AI in PR group.

Comms needs to shape their organisation’s AI guidelines. Using AI will happen but being the public sector it’ll need to have some parameters. The UK Government’s work on this will be critical in setting the pace. 

Human comms and storytelling will cut through. As more content has an AI flavour what will have greater value is a trusted channel with recognisable humans at the centre.  

Have a good 2024. 

I deliver ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER workshops to show you how to post better content. I deliver ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED and ESSENTIAL TIKTOK & REELS workshops. I also run SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEWS where I can help you with your strategy.

Some earth shattering data was quietly posted by Facebook which confirms what many had been experiencing.

Facebook has now choked off entirely organic Facebook page content with a link. Exactly 0.0 per cent of people’s timelines are Facebook page posts with a link. 

That’s an astounding figure released by the Facebook’s Transparency centre for the third quarter of 2023. 

The table is here:

The table shows that posting to Facebook with a link in the post itself is practically pointless.

This has been the cornerstone of content strategy for more than a decade for many people. It needs re-thinking.

There is an argument that these figures are US. Facebook don’t release a similar breakdown for the UK and the broad trend won’t be a million miles away.  

So, with that in mind, here’s some ideas to navigate away from the post and link tactic.

Facebook ads

If something is important then is it worth £100 to communicate it? 

Sometimes, this is a yes and sometimes a no. If there’s a value in getting people to sign-up or do that call to action then Facebook ads need to be part of your strategy.

Better organic content 

Do better with what you post. 

Good organic content is video then its pictures then its text. It’s also most importantly of interest to the audience. 

Tell the story on the page

That thing you want people to know, tell it on the page. This is no longer about driving traffic to your website. Facebook wants its audience to stay. It doesn’t want them to go to a website. That’s basic commercial sense.

Put the link in the comments or create an event

If you absolutely have to add a link add it to the comments or if you’ve got tickets to shift add the link to a Facebook event. Here. Facebook actually gives you leeway to add a link where people can sort a ticket. Use it. 

Maybe Facebook is not the channel

There’s no reason why it has to be Facebook if the route no longer works. Maybe its an email list, TikTok, Instagram, a poster or a piece of print. Think about other routes. 

No matter what you post you need to think about it. There’s been more change in the last 12-months than across the last 12-years with social media. 
Think about your content. I deliver ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER workshops to show you how to post better content. I deliver ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED and ESSENTIAL TIKTOK & REELS workshops. I also run SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEWS where I can help you with your strategy.

It’s always good to see what works and what doesn’t.

Consistently, when I’m looking at content for a social media review the worst performing content has been generic campaign content shared by a tool kit.

If you work in comms you’ll know a toolkit is a pre-designed piece of content that may include a leaflet, a header image and social media content. The idea is great. It’s the centre recognising regions are hard pressed and could do with something on a plate. I can also imagine earnest conversations about ‘brand consistency’.

But here’s the truth. Tool kit content is failing. It ticks a box. It is it’s own metric but the audience doesn’t connect with it. They much prefer content with local voices.

“We’ve issued a toolkit to 100 organisations as part of the campaign,” the Teams call runs.

Everyone nods.

“The greatest danger about communication,” George Bernard Shaw once said “is the illusion that it’s taken place.”

He could have been talking about a whole host of national campaigns you’ve stepped over in the last few years.

But the danger isn’t just that communication hasn’t taken place it’s also if you’re posting to social media that you’re irritating your audience and harming your future reach. This is not a victimless crime. It’s an act of collective self-harm.

In 2006, journalist Tom Foremski wrote a blogpost ‘Die Press Release! Die! Die! Die!‘ after a bottle of red wine. In amongst the blood on the wall was an argument that words alone were pointless in a landscape where hyperlinks and images were more important.

Is it time for the same for toolkit social content?

There’s two big learning points from the latest Ipsos Iris UK social media data release… it’s good news for TikTok and really bad news for X, formerly Twitter.

The UK audience on the Elon Musk-owned app has collapsed by 17 per cent across 12-months.

For TikTok the landscape is far rosier with a 29 per cent increase. 

In the public sector all this points to the pressing need to rethink your social media in 2024.

This may lead to dialling back in some areas and re-focusing and reskilling in others. This may feel daunting but like with any journey understanding the size of the task is paramount.

I’ll go through the data which has been commissioned by Ipsos Iris for UKOM which is the advertising industry’s body with the data also being used by Ofcom. 

YouTube has deposed Facebook as the largest 

One further surprise is that for the first time UK data puts YouTube with 45.5m users as the largest platform in the UK followed by Facebook on 45.1m. WhatsApp has pushed up to 3rd on 40.9m and Instagram 4th on 36.7m  and 

Elsewhere, X, formerly Twitter is 23.6m, TikTok on 23.5m, LinkedIn 18.4m, Pinterest 13.1m, Snapchat 11.7m and Nextdoor 8.1m.

Here’s what it all means for the public sector

Twitter, formerly X

This stands out most for public sector social media users. The platform has been a key part of content delivery since 2008. But with a 17 per cent decline in use that means its less important to people overall. The limit on the number of tweets anyone can see has limited its role on an emergency. It’s also suffering from a significant problem with defunct users making it a less attractive proposition.

Decline has been highest amongst 35 to 44-year-olds with a 19 per cent fall but the decline has been across the board,

However, it’s maybe time to dial back rather than to quit entirely. 

TikTok 

Start investing time with TikTok. The 27 per cent rise in 12 months is the largest by some distance. While the noise is with the video platform it’s worth remembering it still stands sixth on the list. But the pace of increase is well worth noting as is the 25 hours and eight minutes a month younger users spend monthly on the app.  

It’s also worth noting that growth has been highest amongst older demographics. Leading the way has been over 55s with a 51 per cent increase with 35 to 44-year-olds increasing by 27 per cent and a 21 per cent rise for 45 to 54-year-olds,  

YouTube

Funny how YouTube quietly hoovers up the audience without drawing too much attention to itself. The original video app has even more quietly become the UK’s largest platform. Content shared needs to have good metadata to really reach people but its powerful search engine means that it can still reach an audience.

Facebook

There’s been a three per cent decline in UK audience but it remains the heaviest used for 35 to 45-year-olds at 15 hours 13 minutes. These can be decision makers in a household and have a greater chance of voting than younger people. For the public sector this all matters.  

WhatsApp

The platform is now the third most use platform with 40.9 million users in the UK. In previous years this has been classed as a social app by Ofcom. While now they show it as a messenger app its size demands attention. With the launch of WhatsApp Channels this behemoth is getting more attractive. 

Snapchat

The public sector often overlooks this. Largely, because its used by younger people and in big numbers and we don’t get it. It’s in second place with under 34’s with 21 hours and seven minutes use a month. If you need to reach a younger audience in a space where they are comfortable this is a strong contender.

Pinterest

I know 18.4 million UK people use it but I can’t for the life of me find a compelling use for it for the public sector other than if there’s a wedding venue you’re looking to communicate I may doing it a disservice as there’s a big chunk of users.

Threads

It’s worth capturing some of the Threads data published by Ipsos Iris, too. Linked to Instagram and launched by Meta the channel drew 770,000 users at launch in the UK but he figure has flattened to 180,000 regular users. Keep an eye on it at this stage. 

I run communications training through ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER and SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEWS to better assess how your channels are performing and which channels you need to focus on. 

I’m excited to tell you that I’ve launched a WhatsApp channel and I’d like you to sign-up.

The aim is to send one piece of content a day that’s going to be useful to a public sector comms and PR person. Just one. I don’t want to flood you. 

I’m calling it Dan’s Daily Useful. You can join here: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaBUqU2C1FuH6rAdhf3G

Why WhatsApp

For the past two years I’ve been banging a drum for WhatsApp. It’s used by eighty per cent of 18 to 65-year-olds in the UK and I’ve long thought it’s only a matter of time before Meta launched a tool to allow organisations to meaningfully connect with their audiences.

So, when WhatsApp Channels was launched a few months ago I’ve been keeping close tabs on how it works. If I’m training and advising on the platform it makes sense to get hands on with it. So I am.

Why WhatsApp Channels 

WhatsApp Channels is a broadcast GDPR-friendly platform where I’ll be able to broadcast and you can react with a reaction but not jump into the channel or see other people’s name or phone number and others won’t see yours either. Here’s a basic WhatsApp Channels guide. 

Why one piece of content a day

Back in 2018, the Financial Times launched a pilot allowing one free link a day to WhatsApp subscribers. It was a huge success. I filed it away for future use. 

I’m still sending a weekly email

I’ve been sending a weekly email for the past eight years. I’ll still be doing that. You’ll be able to get some content, blogs and research earlier through the WhatsApp Channel. 

As I get to grips with WhatsApp Channels I’ll share the learning for you.  

That’s it.

Tell your friends.  

Not all new books but books I keep coming back to… here’s a list of books that you can go and buy for yourself.

Some I use as reference books that have been well thumbed and scribbled on for some years. One that is a brilliant perspective on the coming wave on Artificial Intelligence that bring people say will shape the next decades just as much as the wheel, fire and the internet has. 

Enjoy.     

‘The Coming Wave’ by Mustapha Souleymane 

“The coming wave is defined by two core technologies: artificial intelligence (AI) and synthetic biology. Together they will usher in a new dawn for humanity creating wealth and surplus unlike anything ever seen. And yet their rapid proliferation also threatens to empower a diverse array of bad actors to unleash disruption, instability and even catastrophe on an unimaginable scale. The implications of these questions will ultimately affect everyone alive and every generation that follows us.” 

‘Indestructible: Reclaim Control and Respond With Confidence in a Media Crisis’ by Molly McPherson

“Atone as a humbly as possible. This is another place where the ego gets in the way of the apology. Don’t hedge, don’t quibble about details. Be sincere in your message. If you don’t want to say or write the words ‘I’m sorry,’ then be as empathetic to those accusing you as humanely possible.”

‘TikTok Boom: China’s Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media’ by Chris Stokel-Walker 

“TikTok’s algorithm works on what’s called the ‘content graph’ looking at what you’ve previously engaged with rather than a ‘social graph’ which accounts you follow. That makes it possible for a video to go super-viral from less than super surroundings. ‘We see things going viral all the time from people who have maybe, like 50 fans, who crack something,” says How. ‘There’s no recipe for it. There’s no magic formula.”

‘Buzzing Communities: How To Build Bigger Better, and More Active Online Communities’ by Richard Millington

“One morning I received a courtesy call that my position was being cut. It wasn’t that I wasn’t doing the job I had been hired for I just couldn’t prove that I had done a good job – nor that doing a good job profited the organisation. I hadn’t bothered to benchmark the community when I joined. I hadn’t bothered to ascertain the metrics of growth, engagement, sense of community, nor ROI.”

‘It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens’ Danah Boyd 

“Nostalgia gets in the way of understanding the relation between teens and technology. Adults may idealise their childhoods and forget the trials and tribulations they faced. Many adults I meet assume that their own childhoods were better and richer, simpler and safer than the digitally mediated ones contemporary youth experience. They associate the rise of digital technology with decline – social, intellectual and moral. The research I present here suggests the opposite is true.” 

Facebook have allowed the creation of secondary profiles to use in groups.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Here’s what the new Meta guidelines say:

You can create additional Facebook profiles from your main profile. You’ll create a profile name and @username for each profile:

• These names don’t have to match the name that you use in everyday life, but they must follow our Community Standards and policies for additional profiles.
• The @username is unique and will appear on the additional profile.

People may learn that the profiles you create are connected based on what you say or do. Learn about things to bear in mind when you use additional Facebook profiles.

Our Community Standards apply to all profiles. If you go against our standards from any of your profiles, it will affect your Facebook account.

Meta help guidelines.

Here’s why you shouldn’t.

The CIPR code of conduct says you should deal honestly. Pretending to be someone else isn’t.

Deal honestly and fairly in business with employers, employees, clients, fellow professionals, other professions and the public.

CIPR Code of Conduct

If you work in the Civil Service the Civil Service Code says you should work honestly:

‘Honesty’ means being truthful and open. This includes only using resources for authorised public purposes, and not misleading ministers, parliament or the public.

Civil Service Code of Conduct

If you are NHS:

We are honest about our point of view and what we can and cannot do.

NHS Core Values

If you think you can do it and not be spotted you’re taking a risk. Ask yourself what the public will make of communicators making dishonest representations online?

A new online news outlet Bournemouth Observer tried the fake profile route and it diodn’t end well. If that’s for a new operation just imagine what would happen if a public organisation did so.

Facebook groups are an important part of the landscape. Build relationships with admins. If needs be, build a list of admins’ email addresses in case of an emergency.

There was a question this week that made me think. Broadly it’s this: “What do I do when people senior people to me come to me and think ChatGPT can do all my comms now.”

ChatGPT is easy. So is Google’s Bard. Ask a question and hit the button. Seconds later you’ve got a plan. What’s not to like?

For me, ChatGPT, is a spare brain. It can fill, a blank page in seconds and some of those ideas will be really good. Maybe 20 per cent will not but it takes a human to spot that 20 per cent.

If you’re the Leader of a Council with not much experience of comms a comms plan knocked up by ChatGPT is going to look pretty plausible. 

So what do you do?

The question here is absolutely fundamental to how AI will reshape jobs. 

If you’re buying a house you’d be advised to commission searches to see what planning applications, rights of way and mining your dream plot is affected by. The key information is largely stored on paper files that searches clerks must go through by hand. There will be few who will mourn the loss of these clerks but if its you will.

What gives comms a God given right to communicate?   

There is no God given right. You need to demonstrate that your experience and advice is sound and that you’ll reach an audience, that they’ll do that thing and the organisation will be helped. 

Ban it? 

Of course, the first temptation is to ban tools like ChatGPT. Some UK Universities have indeed outlawed the use of large language models. They can do this because they have the power to grant or deny a degree. But what worries me is that this won’t make it go away.

Banning technology? Until 2011 no police officer in the West Midlands could use the internet because a previous Chief Constable hated it. Hindsight shows us this is ridiculous. So the real question is, not that it should be banned but how can it be used appropriately, safely and effectively?

The ClipArt argument 

The first clipart was introduced by IBM in 1983. The VCN ExecuVision package allowed users to add arrows, boxes and other basic images to their work. It was a revolution. The upside was that basic design was freed from the tyranny of graphic designers. The downside? it often looked sh-t. Then people came back to designers for the really important stuff. 

The effectiveness of clipart was tested out in real time and at fairly low risk. 

The argument of allowing ChatGPT to produce comms so the budget can be cut by a third is outwardly compelling but what would be lost by minimising human intervention?

Political nouse

Nouse is an untaught filter to evaluate actions based on experience and knowledge. AI doesn’t usually have it and humans do. 

For example, don’t turn up as a local government comms person on election night with a ‘Vote Labour’ sticker on your jacket, Why? Because you’re supposed to be politically neutral and questions will be asked. 

In my time in local government there was only one person I worked with in comms who had no political nouse. They’d been a journalist and genuinely didn’t see the difference between being a journalist and a press officer. The individual would laugh and joke with opposition councillors before Full Council and ignore the other members. It wasn’t long before questions were asked not just of them but of the wider team. It caused a lot of problems and as we dug into it there were many more examples of a lack of nouse by this individual.

ChatGPT may produce a comms plan but it may also suggest materials that your judgement says you wouldn’t be using for good reason. Maybe because that particular suggestion wouldn’t fly. Or maybe because it suggests a course of action that’s too expensive.

I asked ChatGPT to produce a script for Staffordshire Day. It did. It suggested shots of Stafford Castle, Alton Towers and Cannock Chase. Excellent. But the final shot of crowds each with Staffordshire flags and fireworks just wasn’t going to work without time and a big slab of budget. 

There’s no way I could have made that video unedited and here’s where comms can add value.   

The costed ChatGPT test 

AI tools can be useful but as the CIPR’s ‘Humans Needed More Than Ever’ research shows humans are still needed.  The Guardian newspaper is closely restricting the use of AI. UK Government is considering what restrictions to put in place to ethically and safely use AI. We are not at the stage of putting out foot down on the accelerator. Buzzfeed sacked most of its nerwsroom and was rewarded with a jump in share price. Can a council do the same? It can, but it’ll miss out on the skills of human operators to sift the good ideas and to use nouse to navigate away from the bad. 

However, the language of pounds shillings and pence is definitely part of the landscape for AI. 

So, here’s a test. Create a comms plan for a topic the traditional way. Then create a comms plan using a tool like ChatGPT. What good ideas did it have? What’s the full cost in staff time, videography, photography and other resources of that ChatGPT plan? What’s the risk to political nouse? From all this you can see the financial and creative benefit of ChatGPT, the cost of using unbridled ChatGPT and the risk of removing political nouse from the equation. 

“The comms plan we made will take two days of staff time to deliver. We’ve managed the political risk of spending too lavishly on this. 

“The ChatGPT comms plan will cost £3,000 and five days of staff time. The political risk is FOI on what the cost is.”

“However, some of the ideas ChatGPT came up with we’ll repurpose.” 

In other words, you’re testing it, you’re assessing the benefits, you’re calculating the cost and the political risk and THAT is the conversation to have with senior people.

As Noddy Holder would almost say ‘It’s almost Chriiiiistmaaaaas’.

Here are some top present ideas for PR and communications people.

Helpfully, they are divided into categories WFH, stationary, fashion, food and drink, Books, office and stress relief.

Whether they be for colleagues, friends, relatives or yourself.

Dig in.

Presents for the WFH

Fashion

Food and drink

Books

Office

Stress

Got a present idea? Post it in the comments.

Happy Christmas!

Someone asked me the other day which councils were doing a really amazing job at TikTok. I really had to think.

TikTok can be a really engaging place with users watching almost 30-minutes of video a day. 

Users’ interests are the oil that powers the wheels of this platform so if you’re all about the dog videos, the recipes and the football then that’s what you’ll likely see. It’s all about keeping you entertained, you see.

This slant for interest and entertainment is a big stumbling block when it comes to local government’s 1,200 services few of which can be charitably called entertaining. 

Yes, there are public sector organisations that do a good job with TikTok. But they tend to home in on one or two things. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue are all about fire safety and recruitment, for example. Black Country Living Museum is about telling stories from the area’s past with new tools. Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust are about recruitment and basic health messages.

But how about councils?

First, here’s a quick reel of eye catching local government TikToks. If you’re used to TikTik you’ll be used to faster edits, fast paced music and trends. 

What councils do it all well?  There’s a few I like the look of. West Sussex Council did an eye catching campaign around voting.

Birmingham City Council have an innovative approach where they have a couple of members of staff who act as creators where they star in a TikToks which cast an entertaining view of Birmingham. There’s nothing on the council going bankrupt but there are tips for students on where to study, for example. That’s fine. TikTok isn’t and never will be a channel for everything. 

Almost 800,000 views would say this approach is working fine on TikTok. That may be a harder sell for some councils. 

Manchester City Council make straightforward videos wit fast edits and music clips from TikTok’s editing tools. They cover the more entertaining end of council priorities. So do Liverpool City Council. Stoke on Trent City Council have shown how visual set pieces like Remembrance Day can be swiftly converted into TikTok content.

Elsewhere, it’s service areas who are performing well. This appeals to my sense that not everyone wants the 1,200 service wide spread of what the council does. Invercargill Libraries in New Zealand has built a following through making videos that celebrate reading, libraries and librarians. So does Whitby Library in the UK and the fabulous Hays Public Library in the US. 

It’s not about posting about the date, time and link for a booking. It’s about making libraries fun and entertaining.   

Place marketing can work really well on TikTok. It’s fun, engaging and can be entertaining. Visit London isn’t strictly speaking a council account but there is input from the Mayor of London so that works. 

The Mayor of London’s TikTok also works well with a mix of the Mayor celebrating the capital and making set-piece statements. It’s the best example of using a politician and given the post’s high profile incumbents you can see how this works.

If that’s what to look at here’s also what to do and avoid. 

What to do and don’t for good local government TikTok 

Do 

1. Be creative. People are watching TikTok for the entertainment. They’re not waiting to tick a box for a middle manager who doesn’t know how the internet works. 
2. Experiment with what areas you’ll cover. Museums, leisure and the fun stuff, yes. 
3. Plug in the real people. People warm to people on TikTok not things designed on Canva alone. 
4. Follow the BBC. BBC News are market leaders for quality journalism on TikTok. They have reporters who create content with the platform in mind. There are cutaways and pieces to camera. 
5. Experiment with trends. Trends are clips, music or approaches that can burn and fade quickly. They get the lion’s share of attention and by hopping on them you can boost your reach.
6. Reshare. Resharing is the equivalent of the RT. If someone has already made a cracking TikTok of a footpath to explore next time you’re looking to explore the area thank them warmly and reshare it. 
7. Work with creators. Explore TikTok. See what works on it before launching onto it. Look for hashtags and creators that are making content. Maybe see if yo can work with them. 
8. Look beyond local government. There’s some good accounts outside of the sector.
9. Look for a licence to operate rather than have to get permission for each clip. You know the platform and you know the code of conduct. Get going. 
10. Use a burner phone to get around the UK Government restrictions. Whitehall has asked civil servants not to use TikTok on the same device as work emails. So get a second device.
11. Finish off using the TikTok editing tool. Add captions to make it accessible and add music from the TikTok library.
12. Have a business account. Yes, this will limit the sounds that you can use but it means you’re limited to the tracks you have permission to use. You’ll also get insight.    

Don’t

1. Go for Councillors. Yes, I know that elected members make the world go round but they often land as well as a bag of glass bottles that’s fallen off a recycling wagon. 
2. Try and shoehorn stuff that won’t work. Planning want you to make their consultation exciting but they haven’t got anything visual, a story to tell or anyone who will appear on screen. Don’t. 
3. Look to get all your content shot by shot signed off by people who don’t understand the platform. They are not the audience. Look for a licence to operate where you can experiment. 
4. Use landscape video. Shoot in portrait.
5. Cross post what you’ve done for another channel and think it’ll work on TikTok. It probably won’t. Not only that you only have permission to use TikTok approved music on TikTok. Not on other platforms. 

I help deliver the ESSENTIAL TIKTOK & REELS workshop to show people how best to use the portrait style of filmmaking.