Let’s be honest – government social media isn’t always rainbows and butterflies.
But there are steps you can take to create a more healthy social presence for your agency.
Jessie Brown, Social Media Specialist at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), shared her top best practices as part of our latest Social Media Strategies Summit for Public Agencies and Government, including how to:
- Overcome negativity and foster more positive online conversations in your community
- Protect your brand (and your mental wellbeing) by managing challenging situations
- Keep your community engaged and thriving by institutionalizing strategies and best practices
Rather than firefighting in the comments section, it’s all about adding value and engaging positively. As Jessie puts it, “The best defense is a good offense.”
Let’s get into it.
Rule #1: Respond (Even When You Don’t Have To)
There will be plenty of times when you receive a comment that doesn’t require a response. The commenter might not be asking a direct question; they could even – shock, horror – be paying you a compliment!
Whatever the case, Jessie strongly recommends taking the time to reply. The more time you spend engaging with your audience, the more positive comments you’ll receive.
This isn’t rocket science. It could be as simple as replying “thank you” when someone says something nice to you. Perhaps there’s an opportunity for some light-hearted banter. Or you could share a little added value: if someone says they can’t wait to go to the state park this weekend, you can tell them there’s a festival happening and steer them toward extra parking spaces.
“You can earn trust and goodwill through this because people see that you’re responsive,” Jessie explains. “They see your personality, they see that you’re trying to connect with them, and that encourages more engagement.”
Rule #2: Build a Positive, Engaging Brand Voice
Of course, it’s not just about taking the time to comment. It’s also about the way you comment.
“How you say things is very important,” says Jessie. “You want to have a brand voice that speaks for you and your agency, but that’s also inviting people to connect with you.”
Building a brand voice is key to humanizing your agency. It reminds your audience that real people work inside those faceless, gray government offices.
This involves:
- Considering how you want people to feel when they read your social media content and comments
- Creating different tones of voice for each audience and platform you target
- Deciding what qualities in a brand voice would help you reach your agency’s social goals
For example, here’s a look at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources vision, goals, and voice:
So, how does Jessie encourage Iowans to care for the state’s precious resources?
“I consider it a journey built on trust, building relationships and connections,” she explains. “The more that I can get people out in nature, the more I get them to connect with it – and when they connect with it, they’ll want to protect and preserve it.”
Rule #3: Put Good in to Get Good Out
Obvious as it sounds, you have to share good content if you want to get more positive engagements on social media.
Sure, not everything you post is going to be thrilling and game-changing. A lot of it might be pretty mundane. But there are always opportunities to make your posts feel interesting and inviting – you just have to find them.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean you should be constantly searching for a joke or clever turn of phrase, but you should always strive to find some way to get people interested and engaged. Get it right and they’ll reward you by interacting. As Jessie puts it, you’re “putting deposits in your Good Vibes account.”
There are entire articles that offer a lot of advice on how to do this (like our guide: 20 Ways Government Agencies Can Increase Their Engagement on Social Media). As a starting point, Jessie recommends some simple steps like:
- Asking direct questions
- Telling your audience what to do next
- Posting about hot topics
For example, the US Fish and Wildlife Service generated a ton of replies to the following post by writing a caption that’s both fun and packed with information:
View this post on Instagram
Likewise, Iowa DNR grabbed attention with a post about bears.
By adopting a serious yet engaging tone, they encouraged people to respond with semi-lighthearted comments (like “If not friend, why friend-shaped”), which gave Jessie an opportunity to reply, thereby generating even more comments.
View this post on Instagram
Rule #4: Set the Tone
It’s important to remember that you have the power to set the tone for the comments section through the content you post and the tone of voice you adopt. It’s harder to be mean to someone when you’ve taken the time to build positive relationships with your audience.
“Most people seeing your posts are going to read the room,” Jessie says. “They’re going to catch up on the tone of the post, see how other people are commenting, and they’re going to join in similarly – and those who aren’t reading the room are probably going to be held accountable by some of your regulars and brand advocates.”
There are many ways to create a more positive, trusting environment. Often, it’s simply a matter of being patient, kind, and empathetic.
And when a problem is above your pay grade—like when it requires a change in legislation to resolve—you can still educate your audience about the situation and make them feel heard.
“It’s so great to have people respond and say, ‘I didn’t know that was the case’ or ‘thank you’, because people generally are going to be surprised that you are responding and giving them that extra help.”
Jessie also recommends giving enthusiastic encouragement – like cheering people on to explore a new part of their city. “All of this humanizes your agency, so people are more willing to see you as a person, not just a computer in a big building somewhere.”
You should also take the time to recognize and reach out to regular commenters. They’re the most likely to share your content, say great things, and generally advocate for you.
Don’t be afraid to push the envelope a little with your tone of voice in captions and comments. Experiment with being more sassy or nutty (or whatever you feel is appropriate), then take note of the stuff that really resonates with your audience – and do more of it.
Rule #5: View Negative Interactions as Opportunities
You can’t completely eradicate negativity on social media, but you can shift your thinking so that negative interactions become opportunities rather than insults.
It pays to take a leaf from Leslie Knope’s book here. What she hears when she’s being yelled at is people caring loudly at her. And someone caring loudly is just a supporter you haven’t met yet. They’re people who are passionate and intense about the things that matter to them – they just have some trouble articulating their thoughts.
When you encounter tough conversations, approach them with kindness and empathy. “Hug your haters,” as customer experience expert Jay Baer says.
Your goal here is to ensure that when someone cares loudly, they always feel like you understand and empathize with their concerns.
Take the time to share a kind, informational, educational response, such as providing extra resources around the issue they’re discussing or a phone number for someone they can speak to about it.
“Most of them are pretty disarmed when you actually respond,” Jessie explains. “They didn’t expect the government agency to get back to them, let alone want to discuss or explain things.”
Conversely, if people see that you’re staying silent, they may judge you for ignoring the problem.
Rule #6: Understand When Not to Engage
All of Jessie’s advice up to this point has been about facing up to your audience by replying as much as possible. But she lists some examples of people and conversations you don’t need to engage with:
- True trolls: People with no real connection to your account. They don’t care about your agency or the topics you’re discussing; their only goal is to stir things up and incite mass chaos.
- Spammers: Like those posts that say “I admire you greatly, please send me a DM.”
- Frequent flyers: You’ve engaged with them in the past, steered them toward the right resources or experts to speak to, but they keep posting the same thing.
- Repeat posters: Similarly, if you reply to the same person three times and they still have more questions, advise them to contact a specialist. Then, it’s up to them to continue the conversation elsewhere.
- Threads you can’t add value to: If a bunch of posters are just calling each other names, there’s not much you can do besides asking them to play nice.
- Terms-of-service violations: Don’t interact with anything that should go to legal.
- Threats and accusations: Don’t get involved until you’ve spoken to your supervisor or legal team.
- Topics that leadership has urged not to engage with: If the higher-ups don’t want you to comment on an open investigation (or similar), that’s the end of the story.
Rule #7: Embrace Healthy Boundaries
As a social media professional, it’s essential to maintain healthy boundaries to protect yourself mentally and prevent burnout.
“You need to have your own personal boundaries where you get to decide what bothers you and what doesn’t,” Jessie insists. “You need to calm your own emotional response first, so you can meet people with empathy again and show them they’ve been heard.”
Fortunately, there are plenty of simple steps you can take to protect yourself in the moment, from getting regular exercise to eating well and staying hydrated.
👉 Further reading: 6 Ways to Avoid Burnout as a Social Media Manager
Rule #8: Make Your Own Rules
Continuing the subject of protecting yourself in your role, Jessie also recommends creating your own social media policy document detailing things like:
- Your social media strategy and/or goals
- Your brand voice and how you defined it
- The different people on your team
- Requirements around accessibility
- Examples of times when you’d need to speak to legal before replying
Essentially, this is an opportunity to write down on paper everything you do daily – including why you don’t do certain things.
Not only does this demonstrate the breadth and depth of your role, but it also helps you create a more consistent approach. So if you have people inside your agency pushing you to do things you disagree with, you can point them toward your policy document: “It’s not just me saying ‘no.’ These are the reasons why we do the things that we do. And here is all the thought that went into it.”
Are you seeking social media marketing tips, insights, and best practices for government social media? Register for our next social media conference!
Featured image by Freepik.
