Create Craft
Without a doubt, social media is effective in the business world.
Is it, however, feasible in the public sector?
Social media increases revenues for the private sector, but there are other ways the government may gain from it as well.
If social media is handled properly, it may be a powerful tool for changing behaviour, raising awareness, or cutting call centre expenses.
Some of the best instances of social media marketing in the public sector are as follows:
- Tourism Australia
With more than 2.3 million Instagram followers, Tourism Australia is undoubtedly one of the Australian government’s most effective social media marketing campaigns. To entice tourists to visit Australia, Tourism Australia showcases some of the most stunning sites there. The content is mostly created by users, which is its strongest feature. As fans see firsthand accounts of Australians living and visiting the country, Tourism Australia’s involvement is undoubtedly increased. Anything more captivating and thrilling than content created by and for the people?
2) Family Update
Critics had previously complained to the Australian Federal Government’s Department of Human Services about how difficult and time-consuming it was to file for social security benefits. In response, the department created the Family Update Facebook page to help families that depend on Medicare, Centerlink, and Child Support payments even more.
The idea behind this is rather straightforward: bring government services directly to people’s doorsteps if they are difficult for them to access. Facebook is a place where actual people connect, thus creating Family Update was amazing since it provided a strong link between people. Australians may now use the channels they already use to ask inquiries and acquire pertinent information.
3) U.S. Marine Corps
The U.S. Marine Corps leads the pack in educating the public about contemporary social concerns and garnering over 3 million Facebook “likes.” Press announcements, actual stories of marines, and well-known phrases are all posted on their Facebook wall.
This Facebook page is beautiful because it has the ability to stir people’s emotions by making them aware of what goes on in combat zones. In addition to heartfelt inspirational stories, people can also learn about the most recent developments in U.S. military technology, legislation, speeches, and memorials for the departed. The audience is kept interested by the diversity of excellent information.
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4) New Zealand Police Recruitment
Recently, a video that New Zealand Police Recruitment released on Facebook went viral. This video has been seen over 10 million times on all platforms. Nearly 100,000 people shared it on Facebook alone. They achieved this by making a video that the government would typically consider to be brave. This humorous and lighthearted video featuring dancing police officers is absolutely not typical of the government.
The main goal of the business plan was to hire more people for the New Zealand Police. The purpose of this film was to alter the public’s impression of the New Zealand Police’s work culture. Anybody who saw this video would grin and develop a favourable impression of the New Zealand Police.
In response to this video, numerous police agencies all over the world posted their own renditions of the Running Man Challenge. In response to this challenge, police agencies from all across the world, including the Australian Federal Police, the New York Police Department, and the Scotland Police, produced response videos. Globally, tens of millions of people saw these videos.
5) Queensland Police Service
With more than 750,000 Facebook “likes,” James Kliemt, Senior Digital Media Officer for the Queensland Police Service, established the biggest police page in the English-speaking world. Emergency management is handled via the Facebook page of the Queensland Police Service. When Australia experienced one of the worst natural disasters in decades—the Queensland floods in 2010–2011—it quickly became the go-to news channel.
“There was a little old lady in North Queensland who got cut off in the floods from everything except her landline phone,” James Kliemt recounted in a recent interview. Other than that, she was not in contact with the outside world. When she called her daughter in Brussels, Belgium, she would tell her what was happening after seeing our Facebook page. There were hundreds of such situations. The directive to the on-duty police was to “just look at the Facebook page if your communications go down.”
These days, social media is used by hundreds of police agencies worldwide, including the Queensland Police Service, for crisis management. The Queensland Police Service used this amusing animated image above to alert the public of the possible risks associated with strong winds. Over 700 people shared this warning.
Social media is now used by police departments to solve crimes. They crowdsource information on criminals’ whereabouts, missing persons, and other details required to punish offenders. The International Association of Chiefs of Police discovered that 76% of participants in their 2015 Social Media Survey—which included over 500 law enforcement agencies nationwide—used social media to request tips about criminal activity. Authorities have solved crimes thanks to this intelligence.