- Zoe
Social Media Marketing and Reflection
As an aspiring international communications officer or television foreign correspondent there are three particular social media accounts which I highly regard and will continue to observe throughout my studies; US foreign correspondent for Nine Network Australia, Amelia Adams, The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and UK foreign correspondent for Seven Network Australia, Amy Parks.
Amelia Adams
Amelia Adams is the current US foreign correspondent for Nine Network Australia. Much like myself Adams has wanted to be a journalist from a young age, in an interview with Medianet she recalled her parents letting her stay up late one a week to watch 60 Minutes (Medianet, 2020). Adams regularly maintains two public social media accounts, Twitter and Instagram.
Adams Twitter is evidently a professional based social media account with the majority of tweets reporting breaking international news or news stories relating to her current journalistic position. This is highlighted particularly through Adams last Twitter post which re-tweeted Ryan Lizza stating, ‘Mitch McConnel just said on Fox News that if Donald Trump is the GOP presidential nominee in 2020 that he will support him’ (Lizza,2021).
Adams Instagram incorporates both her professional and personal lives. Post’s show Adams on work trips, reporting live, at international events in addition to spending time with her family and friends. The Instagram page in which she maintains exhibits her personal brand by highlighting her respective interests, hobbies and values being her family, profession and travel. Integrating her personal and professional life together on social media emphasises to the public that she is a real human with individual values, adversities and goals which helps people relate to her as a professional.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is an Australian government department with over 6000 staff across Australia and 121 different overseas posts. DFAT works tirelessly to ensure Australia is a safe, strong and prosperous country by providing foreign trade and development policy advice to the Government, in addition to working with other government agencies to guarantee Australia’s pursuit of its global, regional and bilateral interests are coordinated effectively (DFAT,2015).
As social media increased in popularity, DFAT recognised the importance of maintaining social media profiles to increase effective communication with the public. In 2011 DFAT YouTube channel was established, followed by a Twitter account shortly after. In 2015 DFAT created a LinkedIn profile followed by a Facebook page and Blog in 2016 and an Instagram page in 2017. It is important to note that DFAT manages almost 100 different accounts from its Canberra headquarters that are specifically designed for different departments in addition to their main accounts just mentioned.
DFAT’s many social media platforms are designed to enhance communication and reputation with government and non-government organisations, businesses, community groups and individual members of the public. Social media assists DFAT by recognising trending conversations and opinions which can service improved responsive policies, programs and services nationally and internationally. Additionally, social media increases communication with the public by sharing breaking and general international news, international policies and missions and international non-government organisation work.
Social media increases and strengthens the relationship with both national and international publics as it highlights intentions and goals, showcases achievements and awards and adds a level of individuality, character and care into an incredibly large and at times, seemingly faceless, government department.
Amy Parks
Amy Parks is a foreign correspondent for Seven Network Australia based in the United Kingdom. Before her switch to Seven Network, Parks was the original host for Nine Network Australia’s late night quiz show, Quizmania. Unlike Adams, Parks only maintains one social media account – Twitter. Parks shares recent trending news stories, light-hearted videos and funny memes.
After examining Parks’ Twitter, the conglomeration of professional posts and ‘safe for work’ memes accentuates Parks’ personality to the public. The expression of both her professional and personal views, much like Adams, helps the public to relate to their reporter on a more in depth and personal level.
Using the social media cone maturity framework, evaluate their social media marketing strategy on two chosen social media platforms. At what maturity stage do you think your chosen people and companies are at and why?
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is categorised within the maturity stage according to the social media cone maturity framework. DFAT’s communications team manages hundreds of social media accounts and it can be difficult to define their Twitter accounts as initiation, diffusion or maturity. The @DFAT Twitter account was established on April 7, 2011. It is clear that this particular account is within the maturity stage. It follows an obvious social media strategy that is goal orientated and aligns with the department’s beliefs and priorities. The utilisation of external resources to monitor and understand their audience analytics and gather information regarding public interest and opinion is evident in addition to the application of content activities (Effing&Spil,2015).
Journalists Amelia Adams and Amy Parks are categorised within the diffusion stage. There is no limited recognisable control and the initiation of basic polices are noticeable for both Twitter accounts. Both Adams and Parks’ accounts incorporate undeniable personal initiative and follow a loose plan which is set to enhance their relationship with the public. By choosing Twitter as their channel choice, they have identified a target audience however each post integrates experimentation resulting in the education and analysis of their target audiences’ personas (Effing&Spil,2015).
Much like DFAT’S Twitter accounts there are a number of Instagram accounts which are managed by communication officers across the globe. These accounts range from the initiation stage to the diffusion stage through to maturity. @DFAT Instagram was founded in June 2017 and possess all the characteristic of a profile in maturity – a variety of resources, content activities, targeted campaigns and audience monitoring. The account is well managed and portrays clear ideologies which allows time for in depth activity planning and account monitoring.
Adams’ Instagram account is categorised in the diffusion stage of the social media cone maturity framework, much like her Twitter account. There is an obvious theme which demonstrates the following of an initiated plan and a clear focus on particular campaigns, in Adams case her professional and personal lives, passions and principles. To portray these elements of her life via Instagram, Adams used polices and goals to ensure there was no deviation from her desired outcome. These combined aspects are evidence of Adam’s account being in the diffusion stage.
What are the Key Performance Indicators that you use or you learned this week from the video presented by Carlos Gil? What reporting tools do you recommend to measure the ROI of Social Media Marketing?
After running social media accounts for a local café, bar and studio in 2020, I was already aware of the importance of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). On every post made I would follow the impressions, engagements and views. To understand the audience and further analyse areas of improvement, weekly data would be assessed and added into an Excel spreadsheet. KPIs would include not only impressions, engagements and views but clicks, completion percentages, total followers, new followers, profile views and hashtags. By recording weekly data into spreadsheets I was able to notice trends, recognise target audiences and gain better insight to what our customer based wanted to see in their feeds.
There is a number of reporting tools to measure the ROI of your social media marketing, Quu, Buffer, Brand24, Rival IQ and Later, just to name a few. Throughout the management of Two Before Ten’s social media account I used Buffer and Later to measure ROIs. These two particular applications are cost effective, easy to use and provide insightful statistics to measure ROIs.
References
Effing, R. and Spil, T., 2016. The social strategy cone: Towards a framework for evaluating social media strategies. International Journal of Information Management, 36(1), pp.1-8.
Medianet. 2021. Journalist Spotlight: Amelia Adams, Senior US Correspondent, Nine News. [online] Available at: <https://www.medianet.com.au/blog-amelia-adams-nine-news/> [Accessed March 2021].
Klang, M. and Nolin, J., 2011. Disciplining social media: An analysis of social media policies in 26 Swedish municipalities. First Monday,.
Mergel, I. and Bretschneider, S., 2013. A Three-Stage Adoption Process for Social Media Use in Government. Public Administration Review, 73(3), pp.390-400.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 2021. Social Media. [online] Available at: <https://www.dfat.gov.au/news/social-media> [Accessed March 2021].