Well, it used to be pics of landscapes back in the day, didn’t it? But what works well on Instagram today?
It’s true that square pics of fashion, landscapes and pics of your dinner were ‘Gram staples when it was bought by Meta for a billion dollars in 2012. But the platform has evolved into a channel where the Meta portrait-shaped video format Reels now dominates.
Instagram has long evolved away from being just pics. You can just post pictures but also, you can post a carousel of pictures which means multiple pictures in the same post for people to browse through. You can also post conventional video as well as Reels video.
In this piece of research I’ve also added artwork and toolkit as a format. Basically, toolkit content is that made by an organisation and then shared across a number of organisations with a request to share. An NHS Scotland Measles campaign shared with NHS organisations across the country would be an example of that. In addition, artwork is something designed in-house for a specific reason. Like a Happy Easter image, for example with a shot of an egg, text and a logo.
What the results show
Reels video is head and shoulders the most successful format of posting for the public sector, the survey showed. It’s not even close.
The engagement rate for Reels was a bumper 3.37 per cent well ahead of any other format.
The second most engaging format is a carousel of photographs at 1.3 per cent engagement with a standard single picture third at 0.82 engagement.
Artwork engaged 0.2 per cent and toolkit content connected with just 0.12 per cent.
What was potentially surprising was that conventional video performed particularly poorly. Just 0.03 per cent were engaging with this type of content. However, this option is being phased out.
Conclusions
The drive to Reels video is absolutely reflected in the numbers. While the Kardashians may not be happy at the drift to the video format the data doesn’t lie. The popularity of carousels isn’t surprising when you stop and think about it. Formats that mean people spend longer on the platform are almost always rewarded because time spent is such an important metric for social media companies.
About the survey
For the survey, 14 public sector channels and 135 posts were selected at random.
Content elected included NHS Highland, NHS Lothian, London Ambulance Service, Swansea University Health Board NHS, Belfast City Council, Manchester City Council, Lewisham Council, Essex County Council, Police Service Northern Ireland, Merseyside Police, Scottish Fire & Rescue and Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue. If you found that useful, I run social media reviews as well training to give you the skills to create better content through ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER training.
Instagram is a platform going through changes. Clodagh Pickavance is Marketing and Communications Manager at Runnymede Borough Council. She also produces a career focused podcast called Comms Hun, which you can listen to here.In this post she talks through what she did to build an Instagram account.
Six tips and tricks for growing your Instagram following
Beautiful bloggers, luxurious locations, inspiring interiors, delicious dishes and pampered pooches. Just a few of the things that spring to mind when thinking about Instagram.
In fact, since its creation in 2010, Instagram has evolved rapidly from a simple photo sharing app (where we may all be guilty of sharing daily dinner snaps back in the day) to its latest incarnation, where video rules. Whether it’s Reels and Stories, the choices are endless, users can even shop in the app.
It’s evident that this social channel has a clear connection to big brands, but what about your local council? How do us comms folks make food waste sexy? Perhaps we can PR our pothole projects here, surely a nice filter should do the trick?
Align your audience with the right channels
I am sure it will come as no surprise when I say there is a time and a place for certain messages. In fact, I am incredibly confident that my fellow marketing maestros will always start off by identifying the best channels to reach the desired target audience.
It might mean adapting our copy and content depending on the channel we are using – or not using certain platforms at all!
That last point is important. Very important – and leads rather nicely into my next point
Think beautiful
How do you personally use Instagram?
I use it to browse and save images of clothes, nail art inspo, dream house interiors, and of course, funny dog videos.
And, if I’m posting myself, you’ll get the best bits. My highlights reel, so to speak; holidays, festivals, birthdays, weddings – and if you’re lucky – pictures of my ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ French Bulldog, Rex.
Largely, Instagram is for escapism. Users want to see beautiful pictures and they want the content to inspire them, whether it’s with a family activity, next stylish staycation, or a new fitness class.
So my first ‘rule’ for Instagram is ‘beautiful content only’. It was the first channel specific rule I implemented when joining Wokingham Borough Council in 2019 and one that thankfully, my then colleagues were on board with.
During the two plus years that I was there the channel grew from 400 followers to more than 3,000. Something that I am incredibly proud to have played an integral part in and which is a real testament to the team’s approach.
This rule will help you to say no to content that doesn’t work for this channel. Government Covid-19 graphics which feature lots of text and unrelatable stock imagery? No, thank you.
In fact, the vast majority of Covid-19 messaging went out on other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter and if posting or on Instagram, sat predominantly on stories and highlights. And, that’s not to say Covid messaging didn’t reach the grid, but when it did, it was localised, it was visual, and it told a story that resonated with our audience.
What story am I trying to tell?
There’s a known adage that says “a picture is worth a thousand words”. This is a key mantra when managing an Instagram channel, in fact, this ethos could, and often does supersede the beautiful images only ‘rule’ that I just waxed lyrical about.
However, rules are meant to be broken and for what better reason than if you have a visually interesting story. Since joining my new job at Runnymede Borough Council, I’ve recently taken over running Magna Square’s Instagram page.
Magna Square forms part of a £90m redevelopment project for the Council, transforming the centre of historic Egham, with brand-new residential apartments, shops, restaurants, and more.
As the development is literally being built, I’ve had to get creative with my content. This includes sharing pictures of cranes, an in-situ building site and CGI images. I have pretty much burned my ‘beautiful pictures’ only rule, but, do you know what? We’ve seen a steady increase in followers.
In fact, over four months we’ve jumped from 30 followers to 139! So, what exactly am I trying to tell you? Use your pictures and videos to tell a story. Residents want live updates and behind the scenes insights, as long as what you’re sharing is visually interesting, people will follow along.
Reels, reels, reels
It will come as no surprise when I say Reels are king. Much as stories were introduced to challenge Snapchat, the introduction of Reels challenges social newcomer TikTok.
There’s much internet chatter that says the Instagram algorithm favours Reels over static posts, meaning your audience is much more likely to engage with this medium. I’d be inclined to agree, especially if my own stats are anything to go by.
We recently opened our ultra-modern student accommodation, Parish Hall, at Magna Square. I decided to pull together a quick Reel to showcase the new building. Within hours, the video had clocked up 100 likes and currently sits at 12.5k views. For a seven second video, it was certainly worth the effort.
Cross channel promotion
This is a trick which is easily overlooked, but with some forward planning can drive traffic for your page.
Use your other social media channels to encourage existing followers to join you over on Instagram. Chances are your Facebook followers also use this channel and it’s another chance to catch their attention if they are signed up to your pages on multiple platforms.
Newsletters are also a great way to promote your Instagram page, or any of your social media accounts for that matter.
What to avoid
Graphics with text
I mentioned this briefly earlier, but I personally don’t love text graphics on Instagram. I will sometimes use them if we don’t have a picture that works, but often I find the engagement is lower.
If you must use a graphic which features text, make sure you get the right ratios (1080 x 1080 px). I often remind people to think of the grid as a whole, yes Instagram now has a nifty scaling button, but if you use a wide landscape graphic with text, it’s going to cut the text off in the grid view – and that my friends looks naff.
Hashtag ambiguity
Get specific with your hashtags. If you’re promoting a family friendly activity and simply put #FamilyFun you’ll soon find it’s too wide reaching (with 10.1m tags). You need to hone in on things that your audience might actually search – in my case #SurreyFamily is much more niche with 3.1k tags.
In addition, it was thought that 10 to 15 hashtags was optimum for increasing your posts reach, but now recent updates from Instagram suggest three to five will do the trick. Make sure you include hashtags in the body of your post.
Slow and steady wins the race
Another piece of advice is don’t get pulled into posting everyday. If you follow the rule of beautiful photos only or visually interesting content you might not have something to post everyday. And that’s ok. If you’re running a public sector account, chances are your content ebbs and flows depending on project timelines and activities taking place. You are better to showcase your best bits, that post substandard items, just for the sake of posting.
Overall…
My main advice when using Instagram is to think of the channel for good news stories. It’s where people go to escape or discover new things, be that your brand-new leisure centre opening or a sunset snap at a local park.
Ultimately, people want to feel proud of where they live and connected to the community. Tell stories, use real people and show off interesting locations.
A day a year local government shouts about what it does.
I raise my hat to everyone who took part in the day and created content.
Seven years ago, this was purely a Twitter thing when it started as #walsall24. Over the years the Local Government Association has got involved to support it.
But now that Twitter is the 4th most popular social platform should it just be Twitter? I’m not so sure. If it is true to its aim of reaching people to tell the story of what local government does it needs to find the best platform. Probably, this is an array of platforms.
An additional worry in a discussion on the Public Sector Facebook group is that people struggle to create the time to make #ourday really work. But anecdotally, this does work as internal comms. It also works to encourage service areas to share their stories.
Here are five pieces of content that caught my eye
Radio DJ Nick Grimshaw posting about council gritters on instagram
Nick Grimshaw has 1.3 million followers. He is from Oldham. The winner of their name-a-gritter competition was ‘Nick Grit-shaw’. So, as an Oldham boy made good he shared it with his followers attracting 30,000 likes.
Why is this good? This isn’t the council talking about what they do, it’s a Radio One DJ. That’s far cooler.
A post shared by nicholasgrimshaw (@nicholasgrimshaw) on
An interactive be-a-council-officer game
There used to be a cartoon strip called You Are the Ref where you were given a scenario and had to choose the correct outcome. Doncaster Council used Twitter to create a similar scenario only being faced with the challenge a council officer would face. It gave a taste of the difficulty council staff face.
Let’s get started.
— #OurDay in Doncaster | Story 1 (@DoncasterTales1) November 20, 2017
Why is this good? It’s not saying ‘here’s what we do.’ It asks: ‘what would you do?’
A poem set to video
There are 1,200 services that local government does. It’s hard to cover them all. But a video of just over a minute covers much of the ground. Well done Bath & North East Somerset Council.
Why is this good? It uses video so autoplays in your timeline. It covers a range of things in a short space of time.
Hello doggy
The most popular Facebook update wasn’t a council service as such but a lost dog. Of course it was. It was never going to be an engineer filling in a pothole, was it? You can see it here.
Hello, regular people
One of the benefits of #ourday is putting faces to names and to be able to tell people what they do, as this Derbyshire Dales Council tweet shows.
Busy day ahead for these 3 from our Clean & Green Team. Mick is our central litter bin emptier, while Andrew & Steve are preparing to help with the clearance of autumn leaves #ourdaypic.twitter.com/SZ1iZwehB8
Why is this good? Because it tells you who those familiar faces are and what they do.
A Periscope broadcast to explain a guided walk
South Cambridgeshire has many attractive places and guided walks encourage older people to step out. Here the council used Twitter’s live streaming app Periscope for a council worker to talk about what the scheme is.
A clip-on mic helps to improve the sound.
Why is this good? Because it is getting out of an office and experimenting with technology.
A thousand flowers are blooming in this new era of digital communications.
Amazing things are happening, new rulebooks are being written and old ones tossed away.
But if you are too busy growing roses you won’t spot the great things happening.
Or in other words, look outside your own corner of the world and you’ll find great things.
And so it is with fire and rescue services not just across the UK but across the world. I’ve done some work in the sector and got to know some people and I’ve always left with knew ideas on how to do things.
Often, people in the sector don’t realise just how great their work is. Less in number than local and central government comms people from the sector communicate to save lives and to prevent them. I’d love them to be bolder. They don’t just get you to test your smoke alarm. They save lives.
One myth exploded, though. In the UK the comms is not geared up primarily for documenting heroic rescue. Prevention is better than cure. Statistics say there were 258 fatalities in the 12-months to March 2015 and 3,225 were taken to hospital. There were almost 155,000 fires. This is the second lowest in UK history.
Fire comms people need to move from the pedestrian pace of advice to business to communicating death and sometimes the death of their own colleagues. That takes guts. Not everyone can do this.
There is a community of fire communicators
The FirePRO organisation is the umbrella group for the sector and a bright bunch they are too. But Twitter also connects them not just across the UK but far further. The fact I asked a question about best practice on a Friday night and got a pile of responses is perfect evidence. Neil Spencer from West Midlands fire describes this as a ‘can do, will do, let’s give it a try attitude.’
Here are 14 things you can learn from fire comms
#1 Using planning to get your shizzle ready
Nobody wants an emergency. But they tend to happen and when they do public sector comms people have to react. I’ve lost count of the number of blank faces in local government when I ask what they’d do if a plane crashed, a bomb went off or a tower block started to fall down. Not so fire and rescue.
“The way to sum this up quickly – and sorry to anyone who knows me because you’ll have heard me utter this phrase, annoyingly, hundreds of times before – you have to be proactive about your reactive communications.”
Lesson: Good comms planning always helps.
#2 Using Periscope for realtime situation reports
Lesson: If an incident is breaking live video from the scene to give situation reports has real value and can plug into online networks as well as media organisations.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the last 18-months co-delivering workshops on making effective video for comms. It teaches people to plan, edit, shoot and post video. However, in an emergency the value is not the well-shot video. The value is have video footage from that particular spot at that particular time. Why? So you can communicate with people in realtime. In the UK, there is a duty on comms people in local government, fire, police and other agencies to warn and inform.
As this US example shows, a firefighter giving a commentary or even a brief situation report – has value. Don’t forget anyone with a smartphone and the Periscope app has the ability to fill that information vacuum. Questions can also be posed by people following the stream and answered by fire crew.
In an era where video is highly sought by media organisations online to be in the frontline is priceless.
Lesson: A simple sharable hashtag can help spread a campaign.
One of the greatest uses of a hashtag by anyone in the public sector is the excellent #testittuesday tag. Started by Norfolk Fire and rescue it is that brilliant thing of basic advice shared as a hashtag. It encourages people every Tuesday to test their smoke alarm. As basic good advice it can be hard to measure the effectiveness or the fires that didn’t happen because of a test.
Lesson: Instagram can be used for soft power. Images of the work people to do interspersed with more serious messages.
Services across the world are starting to make headway with Instagram. Really, there’s no surprise. It’s not like there’s nothing to photograph. If there isn’t a fire there’s the equipment or the staff in the equipment. Kent Fire and Rescue Service excell in this area. A stream that is engaging, fun and personable people could do worse than looking at this.
A photo posted by Fire and Rescue (@kentfirerescue) on Jul 12, 2016 at 5:41am PDT
#5 Using mapping
Lesson: Maps can communicate with the media and residents and reduce avoidable contact.
Back when I was a journalist we made a round of calls to fire stations on our patch at 7.30am, 1pm and 10pm. There were six in our patch and a further 14 in surrounding areas which we sort of covered. That’s 60 calls a call.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service have a mapping page embedded in their website which gives news of incidents with some basic details. They also post images and videos which can be used with a credit. This must cut the amount of time on routine calls. Hats off to Sarah Roberts for this.
#6 Using the social web as a firefighter and human being
Lesson: People respond to people so let your people.
One thing I’ve long argued for is for public sector people to use social media as themselves. There’s far greater cut-through. People connect better to real people than a logo. So, it’s always inspiring to see real people doing just that. Thanks to @rubonist on Twitter for flagging this.
@danslee@Rubonist I’m a big fan of keeping my community informed. This includes #media when something significant is occurring.
Lesson: Using the social web allows senior people to be visible and to listen better. It also allows partners and the organisation to better understand their thinking and priorities.
There has been a trend in recent years of senior public sector people using Twitter to engage, listen, share ideas and give some visibility to yourself.
Lesson: Embedding video to drop into people’s timelines can be a good way to communicate.
Sometimes things don’t always go to plan as this incident which saw five people die in Nechells, Birmingham. Video content posted to Twitter shared the press conference to the community. This could have been uploaded to Facebook too.
Lesson: Being creative about your communications and the channels you use can pay off.
As London Fire Brigade showed in their epic news jacking of the racy film 50 Shades of Grey imagination on comms works. A campaign followed in the wake of the film to talk about the number of times people had called for help with locked handcuffs, penis rings and other rather embarrassment-creating problems. The #50shadesofred campaign is a benchmark in public sector comms. Data driven it used a range of channels.
#10 Using data to allow people to build their own picture
Lesson: Data can be turned into something searchable to give people street-level insight.
Everyone’s experience is different. This is why it is refreshing to see West Midlands Fire Service use their incident data to allow you to search by postcode to see what incidents happened in your neighbourhood.
#11 Using Flickr as an image library
Lesson: A Flickr library can make thousands of images available for re-use.
Social photo storage site Flickr may not have the sexiness as Snapchat but as a place to be your public image library it remains peerless. There are several organisations in the UK using it well. However, the US use is the benchmark. Los Angeles Fire Department post images to the stream. They have almost 20,000 images. With an open licence anyone can use them. As the argument goes, public money paid for then so why shouldn’t with the permission of the photographer people and organisations re-use them?
#12 Using Facebook for large communities
Lesson: Facebook pages are a start but not the last word on how people can be reached on the platform.
Pages can be a useful way to have some Facebook real estate although they deal with broadcasting to small corners of the web that can be shared on. Manchester Fire and Rescue and Scottish Fire and Rescue are examples.
But to really engage, you need to use Facebook as the page to comment and add content on other pages. Or join Facebook groups as an individual.
#13 Using Facebook for niche communities
Lesson: Facebook pages for smaller communities can be effective ways of reaching them. The Polish community, maybe. Or in Biker Down‘s case motorbike riders.
Facebook has the numbers so it is worth using. Seeing as it has the numbers yo can also carve out niches where people will congregate. There were more than 5,000 serious incidents with motorbikes in 2014. I’ve long believed that the single corporate page is almost always not the answer for large organisations. There are communities within them, so plug into them. If you are a biker the Biker Down page would work.
#14 Using Facebook quizzes
Lesson: Quizes reach people. Often people who are hard to engage with.
Facebook quizzes can engage with audiences that may well be resistant to leaflets and other comms. London Fire Brigade uses them well and creates them to accompany campaigns. They’ve done them to see if people fancy being firefighters, for example. With this one, they are celebrating their 150th anniversary with helmets.
#15 Using Snapchat
Lesson: Yes, you can use Snapchat.
One of the good things about the web is coming across organisations doing good things in other countries. Take Sapeurs Pompiers Volontaires du Gard. They are a French fire brigade in Nimes in the south of the country who have an imaginative use of images on Twitter and Snapchat too.
Thanks for the input for this post from people across the Fire and Rescue comms community. In particular: Catherine Levin, Neil Spencer, Bridget Aherne, Sarah Roberts, Robert Coles, @Rubonist, Thanh Ngugen, Steven Morgan, Phillip Gillingham, Jim Williams, Pave Dhande, Leigh Holmes, Jack Grasby, Pete Richardson, Dave Walton and Dawn Whittaker.
Back in the day when the social web seemed new case studies and examples emerged like roadsigns in the fog. Rarely and eagerly sought.
Today, things are different and what was once rare is now expected. Such is the pace of change. So, here’s a crack at rounding-up some of the good things in one place before they get lost. Some you may know. Some may be new. I’ve veered away from posting the sort of content I’m helping to share on comms2point0. That’s more case studies, data and think pieces.
Celtic fans respond with cocoa pops to online Turkish fans who threaten to stab them
Turkish football fans have carved out a reputation for trouble in the past with knife attacks on rival supporters. So, when Fenerbache drew Celtic in Europe some armchair hooligans took selfies with knives threatening violence.
The response from the Celtic supporters was rather sharp. They could have threatened even greater violence in response. Instead they used the Simpsons-inspired hashtag #thatsnotaknife to respond with an arms race of their own. They took masked selfies with household objects including a spoon, a banana and a box of cocoa pops. As an example of an organic self-organised campaign it’s brilliant.
I’m really no Star Wars nerd. I really couldn’t tell you the name of the bar Hans Solo walked into in Return of the Jedi. Or was it Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? But this collection of mock retro album covers really is a fabulous thing of design.
3. Australian batsmen Chris Rodgers and Steve Smith head through the Long Room at Lord’s
Another Ashes series and another victory for England. As ever, the two sides went head-to-head ov er social media to see who could produce the best content. Video emerged as a key battleground. Here’ is a clip of the two batsmen coming off the field through the historic Long Room. It works for me for being real-time, slightly geurilla, unpolished but giving behind-the-scenes content. It was shared almost 200-times giving a tidy digital footprint.
There are two sides to the internet. The good and the bad. The Humans of New York Facebook page is everything that’s good about the internet. It started as a photography project by a photographer. As he took the pictures the powerful human stories behind them came tumbling out. Sometimes they make me laugh and sometimes cry. Always they tell a story with humanity. This summer the page has visited Pakistan and Iran. Two countries whose web presence in my timeline is shrouded in darkness. The Humans of New York page let some sunshine in.
As the Humans of New York is to cities the Homes of Football Twitter is to football. Roy Stuart Clarke has been taking pictures of the sport for more than 20 years. He’s not interested in the action. It’s what happens away from the pitch that he’s more interested in.
Back in the day you had two choices. You went to the paper shop and bought a paper and maybe they something on Stoke City. Or you used ceefax and turned to p312. It was the internet of the day and how I loved it. But then its faster and slicker younger brother the web came along and turned our heads. But a geek in a bedroom has rebuilt Ceefax and has taken a live news stream so you can watch today’s news again. Slowly.
This is as close to a perfect public sector Facebook page as its possible to get. Public servants talking like humans. There’s wit, humour and drama. All of it points towards the fact that there isn’t much crime there but if there is they are ready to strike.
As new sites are created it’s sometimes hard to keep track of ones that have been started. That great Facebook page. What was it called again? Councils across Dorset – there’s seven of them – do collaboration while others just talk about it. They have a shared website and they’ve got a shared A-Z where people can find social sites from across the region.
Access to the life under the Pyongyang regime is closely restricted. But bizarrely, one of the few routes is via Instagram. The official North Korean government account @northkorea_dprk_today is one route that’s open. Propaganda posters, pictures of crops and smiling people prevail along with lengthy narratives in support of the socialist utopia. If you want to get a flavour of what the USSR would be like on social media it’s here. A historic oddity. No pictures of starvation or opponents getting machine gunned, however.
When the RNLI go to work they do it miles from view with no-one really to see. The trouble is that people love to see what they get up to. This footage from the onboard camera is raw and unedited but was seen by almost 3,000 on the Facebook page and more via mainstream media. This demonstrates the benefit of sharing the sweets by sharing access to those on the ground as well as the usefulness of video.
There’s also no doubt that in 10 years time the landscape will have shifted. Once AOL was an internet giant. Remember how Friends Reunited was going to be the future of the internet?
But please don’t run screaming from the room. That would just be silly.
The lessons you’ve learned on the social web are portable and will stand you in good stead.
A few weeks back there was an excellent session for local government people at localgovcamp in Birmingham that looked at new social media platforms.
As a comms person who is doing more and more digital it was fascinating.
Rather than being just a check-list of which ones we should be using – and Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram were mentioned – the best discussion was around a broad approach rather than being platform specific.
As someone who managed to dodge the Google Wave boat that rather appeals to me. Google Wave, by the way, was an ill-fated Google product that arrived in a blaze of hype then died.
6 ideas on approaching new platforms
1. Should I horizon scan? There’s no harm at all in being on the look out and have an ear to the ground. But life is too short.
2. Should I use it as me first? Use a new platform as yourself first. Kick the tyres. See how it flies. Make a few mistakes in your own name. Then think about it for the organisation.
3. Are there numbers? Ask yourself if there’s a sizable community that use it. And is that community people you’d like to connect with?
4. Will this platform do something for you or your team?Shane Dillon, who I rate enormously, pointed out that sometimes a platform isn’t about the big numbers. It’s about that little thing a platform can do. The free video conferencing on Google+ alone can make it an attractive proposition ahead of huge numbers.
5. Is there best practice? Have a look to see how others are using it. Be an ideas magpie.
6. Then launch quietly. Don’t enter into a platform in a blaze of publicity. Let it grow naturally. If it’s a success you’ll make your own waves.
