Social Media WA Summit | 20-22 February 2019, Perth | Novotel Perth Langley

Strategies to drive consumer engagement and inform decision making within your organisation

– Use VIP code SME1 to receive the best rates available

With eight out of 10 Australians on social media, there is now an increased focus for the organisation to become more digitally accessible and transparent to the community. In order to engage citizens and inform the public, organisations are now focused on driving consumer engagement and effectively informing decision making across the West Coast of Australia.

Akolade’s provides leading case studies exploring strategic planning for driven social media excellence, measuring ROI on social media activity and a look into the next wave of social media platforms. This summit brings together key social media experts to deliver case studies, insights and strategies to build audience trust and enhance consumer engagement.

Those who attend this summit and learn how to:
• Establish a strategic plan to align social media initiatives with your organisational goals
• Effectively measure ROI on your social media activity to enhance audience engagement
• Realise the next wave of social media to sustain a strong public presence within the community
• Enhance audience engagement and create timely content with limited budget and resources
• Develop an effective social media narrative to ensure a targeted following

Ahead of our Social Media WA Summit 2019, we chat with Nancy Groves, Head of Social Media, United Nations USA about her thoughts on how social media is bringing the community closer together and the challenges with adopting this.

• What kinds of factors do you think contribute to the delay some organisations adopting social media?

Employees often have overstretched mandates and not enough resources to meet them. That means that when changes like integrating social media use happen, many have a hard time figuring out how to re-prioritise their work. Managers may be slow to understand how these changes may affect existing workloads and guidance can be slow to come. Also, for those working with political appointees, there is always a delay when new teams come and go.

• Obviously, the United Nations have a tremendous following. What sorts of things do you promote to actively engage the public?

We try to keep an eye on what people are talking about online and make sure that our content matches those ongoing discussions. We keep our content simple and facts based and try to keep it as relevant as possible for those who may not fully understand how complex some international issues can be. We do reply to comments and questions on our platforms and we try to save time for more planned Q&A sessions on topics.

• What kind of strategies should organisations be implementing to overcome initial challenges?

Strategies should be realistic and aligned to goals. It’s easy to get distracted but keeping your eye on your overall goals will help you prioritize. Without adequate staffing, resources and knowledge and/or experience, organisations are likely unable to be on every platform. Pick those that make the most sense for your audience. Depending on your aim, strategies should be able to cover different time frames — several years, a year, quarters, months, weeks and even days. Allow time to explain your strategies to managers, colleagues and peers. You can never assume that people understand what you’re trying to achieve and since everyone thinks they are expert communicators, it helps to have up-front discussions of what you’re trying to do early on.

Attend and discover how the United Nations are capitalising on their social media activity:

United Nations: Communicating in the era of constant change

• Establishing a trusted online voice to maintain public trust

• Staying focused while facing a surge of criticism, crisis and misinformation campaigns

• Setting goals with limited resources, support and staff and building internal relationships to succeed in your social media objectives

Nancy Groves, Head of Social Media, United Nations USA

– Use VIP code SME1 to receive the best rates available