GUIDE

The 8 Elements
of a Successful
Government Social
Media Strategy
Contents
1. Map the entire citizen journey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. Build a social governance system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3. Focus on culture and capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4. Provide education for everyone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

5. Make ROI concrete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

6. Find your focus with one content archetype. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

7. Stay compliant and secure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

8. Prepare for real time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Introduction
What does a successful social media strategy include
for public sector organizations? Hootsuite has worked
with national governments, leading digital cities,
and innovative public sector agencies. In this guide,
you’ll learn the eight best practices that inform their
social strategies.

Using real examples from innovative agencies and

departments, you’ll gain new ways to build successful
strategy initiatives while ensuring your agency meets
all applicable compliance and security requirements.

2 Social Media for Government Guide

 Map the entire citizen journey
Research from the McKinsey Center for Government found that strategists
often make the mistake of focusing on individual touchpoints rather than
thinking about the entire end-to-end journey of citizens.

For example, a successful local government a new business, checking eligibility for a
might map all the interactions a citizen government program, or applying for a
might have as they attempt to start a local building permit. Launch online surveys
business, creating a clear and efficient around these tasks, asking citizens to rate
online and offline process. their experience. You can also use focus
groups with citizens to validate and
McKinsey’s survey of 17,000 citizens and
enhance your survey data.
interviews with state leaders found that
government organizations that skillfully If you need to add more sophisticated
manage the entire end-to-end journey data insights, solutions like Hootsuite
of citizens (as they engage with different Insights powered by Brandwatch can use
government services) achieve higher social data to analyze citizens’ perceptions
levels of customer satisfaction. These of government services.
innovative organizations also develop
Once you’ve collected your data, prioritize
more effective ways to “collaborate
areas for improvement. Host a brainstorm
internally across functions and levels to
session to look for ways that social media
deliver their services.”
could help improve the experience and
How can governments map the customer efficiency of delivering these services.
journey in order to better understand Use these challenges—such as improving
where social media fits into the picture? how citizens find local health information
Start by identifying the 25 key moments online—as an opportunity to collaborate
when citizens need to interact with your with other agencies and departments.
government services, such as registering

3 Social Media for Government Guide

SOCIAL MEDIA PRO TIP #1 FOR GOVERNMENT

Engage with the public

Whether you focus efforts on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook,

or a different platform entirely, social media will always
be a solid place to keep the general public informed
and updated about important issues and engage with
an audience on a deeper level.

For example, the Toronto Police Traffic Service

department (@trafficservices) hosts regular AMA
(ask me anything) sessions on TikTok. A representative
fields questions on everything from whether people
in labor can run red lights (no, apparently!) to the
legality of after-market steering wheels.

Communicating and engaging with constituents will

help establish and build credibility and trust, as long
as you don’t use social media to broadcast messages
and actually engage with people who follow you.

4 Social Media for Government Guide

 Build a social governance system
We’ve found that once a department demonstrates success on social
media, other departments become interested in setting up their own
social accounts. But without a structured approach to social media, you’ll
have dozens of departments with their own Facebook Pages, public
officials on Twitter, and local agencies running Instagram campaigns.

This is social sprawl. It duplicates efforts, “We needed to shrink Fairfax County’s
strains budgets, and prevents people 400 square miles into one centralized
from finding accurate information online. dashboard in which we’re all collabo-
rating toward the same mission,” says
To avoid social sprawl, set strict standards
Greg Licamele, Director of External
for approving new social media accounts
Communications at Fairfax County
or renewing existing ones. Departments
Government. “For security reasons and
shouldn’t be allowed to create social media
scalability, we need to be organized
accounts without a strategic purpose.
and see everything.”
Fairfax County (located in Virginia, USA)
Fairfax County has a single “super
offers an excellent example of how to
administrator” who keeps social accounts
establish effective social governance.
secure and efficient. This person creates
Their centralized team manages how
all accounts and adds users to their
social media is used to provide public
Hootsuite organization with appropriate
services for 1.1 million county locals every
publishing access and team collaboration
day—from police, fire and rescue, animal
abilities. A single point of approval
shelter, public transportation, health
ensures that people using social media
department, and recreation centers to
accounts have the proper training, skills,
disposal facilities. The county turned to
and strategic purpose.
Hootsuite to scale social media and
empower their departments to collabo-
rate strategically and securely.

5 Social Media for Government Guide

As Licamele told Hootsuite, “People can’t
just say they want an account. They have
to apply, make a business case, then they’re
approved, and then we do a test phase.”

This gives the super administrator

centralized control, securing all social
Companion resource
accounts. But it also allows teams to
coordinate content, assign messages, How secure is your social
and easily access metrics. media presence?
Read this guide to learn the
Organizations should also develop clear
key steps to evaluate your
documentation, outlining the rules of
agency’s risk of social threats
social media interaction and business
like hacking, phishing, and
communication while noting that social
malware—plus, get a free,
media content will be retained to meet
customizable social media
open records and FOIA obligations, as well
policy template to quickly and
as eDiscovery and litigation requirements.
easily create guidelines for
This documentation should be developed
your agency and employees.
through collaboration across different
departments in the organization,
including the records management
and legal team.

6 Social Media for Government Guide

 Focus on culture and capabilities
“Strategy, when it works well, is executable,” says Paul Leinwand, co-author
of the book Strategy That Works. “You’re thinking about the capabilities.
You’re being very clear about where you’re going to spend the money.
You’re actually thinking about the culture to support it. You’re driving
change in the right way. And you’re bringing these topics together every
single day.”

One of the key hurdles in digital Another significant takeaway: Leaders

transformation is shifting your need to train themselves on digital
organization’s culture. Technology is trends. “The presence or absence of a
only part of the story. Culture also needs digitally savvy leadership plays a big role
to adapt to digital change. When Deloitte in whether the organization takes steps
conducted a global survey of 1,200 govern- to upskill its workforce. Leaders who
ment officials in over 70 countries, they understand digital trends and technolo-
found that organizations successfully gies are almost three times more likely
navigating digital transformation share to provide organizational support to
one thing in common: They’ve built a their workforce to help them build digital
holistic strategy. skills, compared to those who lack
that understanding.”
The study found that agencies with a
clear and coherent strategy are more
digitally mature, better equipped to
respond to opportunities and threats,
and have a culture that fosters innovation
and collaboration.

7 Social Media for Government Guide

SOCIAL MEDIA PRO TIP #2 FOR GOVERNMENT

Show people who you really are

We’ll level with you here… politicians don’t AOC has substantially grown her
exactly have the greatest rep’. Stereotyped following and created a personal brand
as dishonest, greedy, and a bit sleazy, for herself that’s relatable, honest, and
there’s an opportunity to shift perceptions bona fide.
by using social media for government
communications and building a personal
brand that is built on transparency.

The US representative for New York’s 14th

congressional district, Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez (commonly known as AOC), has
done this to tremendous impact via her
Twitter account. And with more than 13
million followers, it’s clear there’s an
appetite for @aoc’s personal brand of
straight talk and transparency.

By being authentically herself and using

photos to support the anecdotes and
facts she shares with her constituents,

8 Social Media for Government Guide

 Provide education for everyone
In the early days of social media, experts ran the accounts. Today, social is
often only one part of someone’s job. For example, a recruitment officer
might use LinkedIn as a way to reach out to the community and attract
promising new candidates for the organization.

According to Deloitte, 90 percent of US Marine Corps Recruiting, explained

government organizations report that how education plays a critical role in
workforce issues are one of the most the organization’s national strategy.
challenging parts of digital transformation.
“We don’t see the return on investment
Only a third of organizations report
from television and radio advertising like
having sufficient skills to execute their
we have in the past because it’s generic
digital strategies.
and insincere,” says Bentz. “Our audience
Training needs to be a core part of your wants to communicate with a person.
strategy. You can create the most It’s about facilitating trust and an honest
innovative digital strategy in the world— exchange of information so that they feel
but if your people don’t have the skills comfortable talking with us—allowing us
to execute it, innovation will trip on the to maintain a persistent presence online
front line. that aligns with our core values and mirrors
one of the purposes of the Marine Corps,
How does this work practically? In a
which is to develop quality citizens.”
Hootsuite webinar, Jeremiah Bentz,
director of digital engagement at

Our audience wants to communicate with a person. It’s about facilitating trust and

an honest exchange of information so that they feel comfortable talking with us.”

Jeremiah Bentz
Director of Digital Engagement, US Marine Corps Recruiting

9 Social Media for Government Guide

 The Marine Corps found that their They focus on telling the complete
audience is more comfortable asking transformation—taking the average
questions on social media via direct American and turning them into a Marine.
messages than picking up the phone or Social media adds transparency to the
visiting a recruiting office. Officers need process, revealing each step of this journey
to be empowered to represent the on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat,
Marine Corps on a local level, connecting and more.
with recruits and building advocacy in
“We try to balance our national and local
communities. Bentz uses training and
content,” says Bentz. “I use the team-
education to ensure officers have the
based structure in Hootsuite to facilitate
tools and knowledge to succeed.
the organization of content libraries for
This local social media activity also nationally branded generic content.
connects back into their national strategy. And down at the local level, we focus on
As Bentz explained, the US Marine Corps that storytelling content.”
uses a full-funnel marketing strategy.

10 Social Media for Government Guide

 Make ROI concrete
Mark Rybchuk, Hootsuite’s director of public sector, works with US federal
agencies to build national social media initiatives—and regularly sees
leaders facing tough budget decisions.

“These leaders need to balance the desire Office at the Department of Education
to innovate on digital with the everyday found that the loan repayment process
costs of running public programs,” explains confused their customers. As reported in
Rybchuk. “To gain support, digital projects Accenture’s Government for the People
need to have realistic strategies and clear report, the agency responded with a
business cases.” customer outreach campaign about
loan repayments.
There are three steps to help you solve
this problem. Their team answered common questions
via several communication channels,
First, make sure you’re not measuring
including social media posts and direct
social media in isolation. Tag every piece of
emails to customers. The campaign
social media content with web tracking
resulted in more than 66 million media
parameters for Google Analytics. This allows
impressions. According to Accenture, this
you to analyze the cost of reaching citizens
approach helps “reduce traffic to call
via social versus other digital channels
centers because staff can answer many
such as web properties, email lists, and
customer questions at once, rather
paid media. This guide shows how to get
than individually.”
started with UTM parameters.
Similarly, Russel Lolacher, director of web
Second, begin with the end in mind. Pick
and social media at the Ministry of
costly activities—such as call center calls
Transportation and Infrastructure in
or complex topics such as filing taxes—
Canada, revealed to Hootsuite how his
and use social to reduce inefficiencies.
team ensures social media solves
For example, the Federal Student Aid
practical problems.

11 Social Media for Government Guide

 “If we’re receiving numerous questions efficiencies and cost savings. This will be
about a topic, we understand the public more meaningful to leadership and
may not be finding this information demonstrate that social media is an
online, so we look to our content strategy essential line in your budget.
to address this. We aim to create content
that comes from public inquiries,
addresses public concerns, or corrects
misinformation while focusing on
customer service above all else.”

Finally, track two sets of metrics. First,

track your program metrics—these are
the metrics you need to excel at social
Companion resource
media such as click-through-rates, video
views, and engagement rates. These help Still unsure about how to
you optimize social media. measure the ROI of social?
This guide takes you through
But these metrics don’t resonate with
each step to calculate the
leaders. They need to be translated into
return on investment from
foundational business measures such as
your social media activities
cost savings, channel efficiency, and
and expenses.
brand impact. Create a second
dashboard that only tracks operational

12 Social Media for Government Guide

 Find your focus with one content archetype
Strategy is about choices. And good strategists know they need to help
leaders say no to certain things. Content, of course, is the fuel of any social
and digital strategy. But with content creation, it’s easy to get distracted
and scattered. To get the most mileage of your content, you need to focus
on one of five types of effective content.

Altimeter’s Building a Content Strategy for recruiting, increasing transparency,

report outlines five content archetypes and demonstrating impact. Examples
organizations can create. Resist the include recruitment videos on YouTube,
temptation to spread resources thinly sharing success stories (such as an
across these archetypes—instead, pick environmental agency sharing a case
one archetype and master it. study), or using Facebook Live to share
town hall meetings.
1. Content as presence
3. Content as currency
This is engaging content designed to
increase awareness. For example, the This content aims to build the brand of
famous Dumb Ways to Die campaign by the organization with high-quality expert
Metro Trains in Australia was designed to content. It helps the audience become
promote rail safety. It generated over 150 experts—for example, a work safety
million YouTube views and earned global organization might use a new online
attention. Most organizations default to training course to make sure construction
this content archetype as it promises workers see their organization as a trusted
traffic and accolades. industry partner.

2. Content as a window 4. Content as community

This content builds trust and loyalty. Here, the organization builds content fit
The goal is to reveal your organization’s to a specific community of shared interests
culture, mission, and practices. It’s effective and peer knowledge. For example, your

13 Social Media for Government Guide

 organization might focus on answering As the authors of the report recommend,
citizen questions on Quora or Instagram, your organization needs to “think only of
using these watering holes as your primary the customer and which one of these
distribution channel. content archetypes is best equipped to
serve their need. By choosing one, and
5. Content as support
only one content archetype, brands can
With this archetype, your content helps minimize content waste, establish strong
citizens achieve tasks and easily access criteria for what they will and won’t
knowledge about essential services. publish, and truly create the most value
For example, a text message that reminds for their customers.”
citizens to put out their recycling or a
Facebook group that helps business
owners troubleshoot around tax time.

CASE STUDY

The CIA’s content archetype

They’re the world’s most secretive agency. But on social media, they’ve taken an unexpected
approach: funny, useful, and often cheeky posts. From offering tips for reporting UFOs to sharing
recruitment opportunities for college majors, the CIA is using social media to offer a human
glimpse into the people protecting the USA.

The CIA uses the “content as a window” archetype. Their goal is to use content to give a sense of
transparency into their work, mission, and history.

By nature of their work, the CIA can’t be completely transparent. But on Twitter and Facebook,
they showcase artifacts from declassified missions, share interesting documents about how their
intelligence analysts solve complicated problems, admit to mistakes they’ve made in previous
decades, and reveal sacrifices their staff have quietly made.

The impact: connecting the American public to their agency’s purpose and role. Plus, the “content
as a window” archetype serves as an excellent recruitment tool. From YouTube “day in a life” videos
to glimpses of CIA offices on Twitter, they’re helping to generate interest and build relationships
with college graduates and future analysts.

14 Social Media for Government Guide

 Stay compliant and secure
In recent years, government bodies and their employees have
responded to dramatic shifts in public expectations of political and
government discourse.

Innovative policymakers and their staff FedRAMP authorized and comes with
are quickly adapting by creating highly two-factor authentication for an additional
engaging social content to rally follower layer of security. When you centralize
support. The challenge: keeping up with your social media management with
the expectations of citizens and popular Hootsuite, you have complete control to
culture while remaining compliant with review and approve messages, log all
privacy requirements and mitigating the activity and interactions, and set up post
risk of a security incident. review and approvals.

A social media security breach will The other key consideration: compliance.
seriously undermine the general public’s For large organizations with multiple
confidence in government. Plus, the US social media managers and specialists,
government requires all cloud services establishing best practices for social
used by federal agencies to meet a media use can help ensure the collective
meticulous set of security standards compliance of all users. Guidelines towards
known as FedRAMP. acceptable and forbidden content, data
handling, citizen engagement, and even
The simplest way to ensure that your
tone are a few best practice examples
accounts stay secure is by centralizing
organizations can implement to keep
your organization’s social media activity
their team compliant.
on a single social media management
platform designed to manage all your If you use Hootsuite to manage social for
social media accounts and activity across a government or agency, our partners’
multiple teams or people. Hootsuite is social media archiving integrations make

15 Social Media for Government Guide

 it easy to stay compliant with the If you need more details, read through
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), our step-by-step guide to social media
General Data Protection Regulation security for more tips on how to protect
(GDPR), and other public records laws. your organization online, whether or not
you use Hootsuite.

SOCIAL MEDIA PRO TIP #3 FOR GOVERNMENT

Stay connected in a crisis

More than enough crises have happened its social media channels for multiple
across the globe in the past few years. incidents, including a 2016 wildfire that
The COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, the saw the evacuation of 88,000 community
January 6th insurrection, and the members and a 2020 flood that damaged
occupation of Ukraine by Russian forces more than 2,000 structures in the
are a few instances where choices out of downtown core.
the general public’s control or decisions
As these events unfolded, Hootsuite helped
from lawmakers have impacted the world.
the RMWB manage the fast-moving
When events like those mentioned above situations with a coordinated presence
occur, people turn to social media to seek across multiple social media accounts,
out and source information, keep up-to- keeping communities safe and updated
speed with the latest news, and quell their on the latest developments.
fears by laughing at a few memes.

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

(RMWB) is a local government authority
in Alberta, Canada, and the second-
largest municipality by area in Alberta.
Using Hootsuite, the municipality has
coordinated crisis communications across

16 Social Media for Government Guide

 Prepare for real time
A central part of any public sector digital strategy is laying the
groundwork for emergency response. Here are a few solutions
Hootsuite's public sector customers use to respond faster in real time
and coordinate emergency response messaging on digital channels.

Listen beyond “owned channels.” Coordinate national and local

Monitoring your organization’s Twitter messaging with content libraries

account or Facebook Page only captures and templated responses.

a fraction of conversations. Use a solution Solutions such as Hootsuite’s Content

like Hootsuite Insights to proactively Library allow administrators to create
monitor for spikes in traffic around topics easy-to-share assets, such as an official
such as citizens reporting an emergency response to an event or a tutorial video
situation on Twitter. that can explain an unfolding situation.
This gives you a central repository of
Turn citizens into real-time “beacons.”
approved content that can be shared by
Fairfax County turns to citizens to act as support agents, frontline responders, and
“beacons” on the ground, capturing different departments. And for direct
information about emergency events messages, Hootsuite Inbox includes the
with live video. Because they’ve organized ability to create and use templated
their entire county with Hootsuite’s replies to common inquiries, ensuring
platform, it’s easy to disseminate this that your teams answer frequently asked
information to the relevant department. questions quickly and consistently.

17 Social Media for Government Guide

Social media management for government
and the public sector
Citizens have become accustomed to engaging with
government agencies online — and they expect government
agencies to be responsive to them on the social media platforms
where they spend a significant amount of their time.

With FedRAMP authorized social media tools designed

specifically for the public sector, Hootsuite makes it easy to create
and schedule effective content, engage citizens, manage risk,
and measure impact to prove the return on your investment in
social media. It’s all the tools you need to engage citizens and
deliver services online — on one secure platform.

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