Local government advertising and social survey 2014

The big advertising survey of local government 2014

In partnership with

@DeesonCreative

deeson-creative.co.uk

© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd @DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

The BIG advertising survey

We are gold sponsors of Comms Camp 2014 and we know from our regular Socialbury events, where we gather the public and private sectors to talk confidentially around a theme, that communications and digital teams have to juggle time, resource and budget at a time when more is expected for less.

So we thought we’d survey local government followers of Comms2Point0 and find out how teams are using advertising to reach audiences, specifically looking at the impact of digital channels.

We had responses from 57 local government organisations, 70% of which employed more than 1000 staff.

Read on to find out how local government is using social media advertising today.


Traditional channels still dominate advertising spend by local government, with three quarters using local radio and newspapers.

Digital advertising is less dominant. Fewer than half (47%) said they send out email newsletters and around a fifth (21%) use Google Adwords. Nearly a third (30%) advertise on local media websites.

1 Traditional versus digital advertising

ADVERTISING CHANNEL USE

78%

LO

CAL

PAPE

RS18

%

N

ATIO

NAL

PAP

ERS

75%

LO

CAL

RAD

IO5.

4% N

ATIO

NAL

RAD

IO70

% C

OU

NCI

L M

AGS/

NEW

SLET

TERS

47%

EM

AIL

MAR

KETI

NG

21%

G

OO

GLE

ADW

ORD

S29

%

LOCA

L M

EDIA

WEB

SITE

S


2 How many are using social media advertising?Nearly two-thirds of local government organisations who responded said they have used social media advertising to reach audiences.

ARE YOU ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

YES 60%

NO 35%

5%

DON’T KNOW


3 Facebook is the most popular advertising platformAround 87% of local government has advertised on Facebook, which appears to be the most popular platform. YouTube is being used the least.

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM USE

FACE

BO

OK

87%

YOU

TUB

E 3%

LIN

KED

IN 1

5%

TWIT

TER

15%

OTH

ER 3

%


Protecting the userFacebook did this to protect user newsfeeds, so they can see posts by friends and family rather than it being clogged up by news from brands and organisations. Think of it this way. The average person would see 1500 posts a day if they were shown all the posts by friends and pages they’ve liked every time they logged onto Facebook. For those with lots of friends, this figure could be closer to 15,000. If they hadn’t restricted brand and page updates appearing in newsfeeds, it’s likely Facebook would start to lose users.

User intuitiveFacebook’s software programming (its algorithm) adapts to each Facebook user’s behaviour.If you engage with specific types of post, such as photos or videos, respond more to some friends more than others, or always click on Guardian news stories, your newsfeed will show you more of this content. It is tailored to you.If you don’t like photos of food, updates about your friends’ children or posts from Aunty Mary, if you don’t interact with them then they should fall out of your feed.

Content! Content! Content!Good quality content has never been so important on Facebook as it is now. Facebook is tracking engagement on your pages and working out your ‘content worth’. The challenge is to keep delivering high quality and interesting content when budgets are contracting.The survey showed that Facebook zero has yet to make an impact on local government Facebook pages, with only a fifth (21%) saying engagement has dropped off.

4 The impact of Facebook zeroThe posts you publish on your organisation’s Facebook page are not guaranteed to appear in your fans’ newsfeeds for free anymore. It is being called Facebook zero.

Facebook has confirmed that Facebook zero is happening and organic reach no longer exists for pages.

0%

IS FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT FALLING?

5% D

ON

’T K

NO

W

21%

Y

ES

56%

NO

18%

ST

AYED

SA

ME


5 Feast or famine in spendWhile a fifth (20%) are spending less than £20 a month on social media advertising, more than a quarter (28%) are spending more than £100 monthly.

MONTHLY SOCIAL AD SPEND

<£20

20%

£20-

50 1

0%

£50-

100

10%

£100

-200

5%

£200

- 5

00 1

5%

£500

+ 8%


6 Social advertising barriersAdvertising on social media requires time, budget, knowledge and a supportive internal culture. Our survey revealed that budget is a key reason why some councils have not advertised on social media. It’s interesting to see how high ‘lack of support’ scored.

WHAT STOPS YOU ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL?

BU

DG

ET 6

2%

KN

OW

LED

GE

45%

TIM

E 14

%

LACK

OF

SUPP

OR

T 35

%


Only a few organisations have empowered staff to manage social media content so the responsibility sits with more than 50 people.

7 Social team sizes

HOW MANY PEOPLE LOOK AFTER SOCIAL?

1-5 30%

5-1 19%10-20

18%

20-50 23%

50+ 10%


8 The local government toolboxTeams use a wide range of tools to manage social media. Hootsuite is used by more than 75% of those who responded. Social Mention, Tweetdeck and Tweetreach are also popular.

Others mentioned include: manual trawl, Socitm, SumAll, CrowdControlHQ, custom tools, SocialSignIn and Talkwalker.

SOCIAL MANAGEMENT TOOLS USED

HO

OTS

UIT

E 78

%

TWEE

TDEC

K 3

4%

SPR

OU

T SO

CIA

L 4%

TWIT

ON

OM

Y 10

%

SOCI

AL

MEN

TIO

N 1

8%

TOPS

Y 8%

FOLL

OW

ERW

ON

K 2

%

TWEE

TREA

CH 2

4%

BU

ZZSU

MO

2%


9 Free tools ruleMore than three-quarters of the organisations surveyed evaluate performance using free Facebook insights, while only a quarter are tracking clicks using short link service, Bitly.

SOCIAL ANALYTICS TOOLS

SPR

OU

T SO

CIA

L 4%

FACE

BO

OK

INSI

GH

TS 7

7%

HO

OTS

UIT

E 45

%

GO

OG

LE 7

1%

BIT

LY 2

4%


THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTUREThe survey showed there wasn’t an obvious relationship between council size and advertising spend or organisation size and more people having responsibility for social media.

Support for social media use across organisations and advertising spend looks like it depends on the culture of the organisation, big or small, and the knowledge within the team.

BUT WE DON’T NEED TO ADVERTISE!Your content will be facing an increasing number of hurdles as platforms tweak algorithms to show only the most interesting and relevant content to their users.

Facebook zero isn’t the only thing you need to worry about. LinkedIn is developing itself into a b2b publishing platform and has introduced a content marketing score for updates. YouTube is tinkering with viral content and Instagram has introduced ads.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?In a content crowded social environment, your content needs to rock to reach your ecosystem. This might be a challenge if you are posting necessary but possibly less interesting content on social media, such as recruitment ads or encouraging people to engage in consultations around service change.

DIGITAL DEMANDWe can see that local government advertising on traditional channels, particularly papers and radio, is alive and well but the spend now needs to encompass digital channels. Why? Here are some UK statistics (Source: Ofcom) to consider:

• Mobile internet take-up is 49%• The fastest growing mobile internet group is 55-64 year olds• 16-24 year olds spend 24 hours a week online• 16-24 year olds are more likely to choose their smartphone over their TV

MOVING FORWARDYour feeds and pages maybe doing okay for now without investment in team, content and ad spend, but the fast march of social media means this may not last. Venture capitalists have pumped billions into social media innovation and now want return. Platforms are vying for the best user engagement experience. Free is over. Invest now in content and accept the need for some paid for advertising.


AUTHOR

Emily Turner Content and marketing strategist

Emily is an NCTJ-trained journalist who moved into crisis communications, working for the Department of Work and Pensions, Shell, Danone and Maersk. She worked for five years in the communications team at Kent Police HQ, at Kent County Council and the NHS. She was responsible for social media and digital firsts, such as publishing magistrate court results online.

DEESON CREATIVEWe provide social media and analytics training, content strategy workshops, digital strategy, campaign design and web development.

Interested? Then drop us an email, [email protected]. Or follow us on Twitter @DeesonCreative or @emilyaturner.

Documents

Local government advertising and social survey 2014