Joint research with CommsCamp about local government social and advertising use in 2014

1. The big advertising survey
of local government 2014
In partnership with
@DeesonCreative
deeson-creative.co.uk

2. The BIG advertising survey
We are gold sponsors of Comms Camp 2014 and
we know from our regular Socialbury events,
where we gather the public and private sectors
to talk confidentially around a theme, that
communications and digital teams have to juggle
time, resource and budget at a time when more is
expected for less.
So we thought we’d survey local government
followers of Comms2Point0 and find out how
teams are using advertising to reach audiences,
specifically looking at the impact of digital
channels.
We had responses from 57 local government
organisations, 70% of which employed more than
1000 staff.
Read on to find out how local government is
using social media advertising today.
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

3. 1 Traditional versus
digital advertising
Traditional channels still dominate advertising
spend by local government, with three quarters
using local radio and newspapers.
Digital advertising is less dominant. Fewer than half (47%)
said they send out email newsletters and around a fifth
(21%) use Google Adwords. Nearly a third (30%) advertise
on local media websites.
18% NATIONAL PAPERS
78% LOCAL PAPERS
70% COUNCIL MAGS/NEWSLETTERS
5.4% NATIONAL RADIO
75% LOCAL RADIO
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
ADVERTISING
CHANNEL USE
21% GOOGLE ADWORDS
47% EMAIL MARKETING
29% LOCAL MEDIA
WEBSITES
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

4. 2 How many are using social
media advertising?
Nearly two-thirds of local government organisations
who responded said they have used social media
advertising to reach audiences.
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
ARE YOU
ADVERTISING ON
SOCIAL MEDIA?
YES 60%
5% DON’T
KNOW
NO 35%
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

5. 3 Facebook is the most popular
advertising platform
Around 87% of local government has advertised on
Facebook, which appears to be the most popular
platform. YouTube is being used the least.
SOCIAL MEDIA
PLATFORM USE
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk
FACEBOOK 87%
YOUTUBE 3%
LINKEDIN 15%
TWITTER 15%
OTHER 3%

6. 4 The impact of Facebook zero
The posts you publish on your organisation’s Facebook page
are not guaranteed to appear in your fans’ newsfeeds for free
anymore. It is being called Facebook zero.
Facebook has confirmed that Facebook zero is happening and
organic reach no longer exists for pages.
Protecting the user
Facebook did this to protect user newsfeeds, so they can see posts by friends and family rather than it being
clogged up by news from brands and organisations.
Think of it this way. The average person would see 1500 posts a day if they were shown all the posts by friends
and pages they’ve liked every time they logged onto Facebook. For those with lots of friends, this figure could
be closer to 15,000.
If they hadn’t restricted brand and page updates appearing in newsfeeds, it’s likely Facebook would start to
lose users.
User intuitive
Facebook’s software programming (its algorithm) adapts to each Facebook user’s behaviour.
If you engage with specific types of post, such as photos or videos, respond more to some friends more than
others, or always click on Guardian news stories, your newsfeed will show you more of this content. It is
tailored to you.
If you don’t like photos of food, updates about your friends’ children or posts from Aunty Mary, if you don’t
interact with them then they should fall out of your feed.
Content! Content! Content!
Good quality content has never been so important on Facebook as it is now. Facebook is tracking engagement
on your pages and working out your ‘content worth’. The challenge is to keep delivering high quality and
interesting content when budgets are contracting.
The survey showed that Facebook zero has yet to make an impact on local government Facebook pages, with
only a fifth (21%) saying engagement has dropped off.
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk
0%
IS FACEBOOK
ENGAGEMENT
FALLING?
5% DON’T KNOW
21% YES
56% NO
18% STAYED SAME

7. 5 Feast or famine in spend
While a fifth (20%) are spending less than £20 a
month on social media advertising, more than a
quarter (28%) are spending more than £100 monthly.
MONTHLY
SOCIAL AD
SPEND
<£20 20%
£20-50 10%
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
£50-100 10%
£100-200 5%
£200 - 500 15%
£500+ 8%
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

8. 6 Social advertising barriers
Advertising on social media requires time, budget,
knowledge and a supportive internal culture. Our survey
revealed that budget is a key reason why some councils
have not advertised on social media. It’s interesting to
see how high ‘lack of support’ scored.
WHAT
STOPS YOU
ADVERTISING
ON SOCIAL?
BUDGET 62%
KNOWLEDGE 45%
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
TIME 14%
LACK OF SUPPORT 35%
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

9. 7 Social team sizes
Only a few organisations have empowered staff to
manage social media content so the responsibility sits
with more than 50 people.
HOW MANY PEOPLE
LOOK AFTER
SOCIAL?
20-50
23%
50+
10%
10-20 19%
18%
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
1-5
30%
5-1
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

10. 8 The local government toolbox
Teams use a wide range of tools to manage social
media. Hootsuite is used by more than 75% of those who
responded. Social Mention, Tweetdeck and Tweetreach
are also popular.
Others mentioned include: manual trawl, Socitm, SumAll,
CrowdControlHQ, custom tools, SocialSignIn and Talkwalker.
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT TOOLS USED
HOOTSUITE 78%
TWEETDECK 34%
SPROUT SOCIAL 4%
TWITONOMY 10%
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
SOCIAL MENTION 18%
TOPSY 8%
FOLLOWERWONK 2%
TWEETREACH 24%
BUZZSUMO 2%
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

11. 9 Free tools rule
More than three-quarters of the organisations surveyed evaluate
performance using free Facebook insights, while only a quarter
are tracking clicks using short link service, Bitly.
SOCIAL ANALYTICS TOOLS
SPROUT SOCIAL 4%
FACEBOOK INSIGHTS 77%
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
HOOTSUITE 45%
GOOGLE 71%
BITLY 24%
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

12. THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE
The survey showed there wasn’t an obvious relationship between council size and
advertising spend or organisation size and more people having responsibility for social
media.
Support for social media use across organisations and advertising spend looks like it
depends on the culture of the organisation, big or small, and the knowledge within the
team.
BUT WE DON’T NEED TO ADVERTISE!
Your content will be facing an increasing number of hurdles as platforms tweak
algorithms to show only the most interesting and relevant content to their users.
Facebook zero isn’t the only thing you need to worry about. LinkedIn is developing
itself into a b2b publishing platform and has introduced a content marketing score for
updates. YouTube is tinkering with viral content and Instagram has introduced ads.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
In a content crowded social environment, your content needs to rock to reach your
ecosystem. This might be a challenge if you are posting necessary but possibly less
interesting content on social media, such as recruitment ads or encouraging people to
engage in consultations around service change.
DIGITAL DEMAND
We can see that local government advertising on traditional channels, particularly
papers and radio, is alive and well but the spend now needs to encompass digital
channels. Why? Here are some UK statistics (Source: Ofcom) to consider:
• Mobile internet take-up is 49%
• The fastest growing mobile internet group is 55-64 year olds
• 16-24 year olds spend 24 hours a week online
• 16-24 year olds are more likely to choose their smartphone over their TV
MOVING FORWARD
Your feeds and pages maybe doing okay for now without investment in team, content
and ad spend, but the fast march of social media means this may not last. Venture
capitalists have pumped billions into social media innovation and now want return.
Platforms are vying for the best user engagement experience. Free is over. Invest now in
content and accept the need for some paid for advertising.
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk

13. AUTHOR
Emily Turner
Content and marketing strategist
Emily is an NCTJ-trained journalist who moved into crisis communications,
working for the Department of Work and Pensions, Shell, Danone and Maersk.
She worked for five years in the communications team at Kent Police HQ, at
Kent County Council and the NHS. She was responsible for social media and
digital firsts, such as publishing magistrate court results online.
DEESON CREATIVE
We provide social media and analytics training, content strategy workshops, digital
strategy, campaign design and web development.
Interested? Then drop us an email, emilyt@deeson.co.uk.
Or follow us on Twitter @DeesonCreative or @emilyaturner.
© 2014 Deeson Group Ltd
@DeesonCreative | 01227 469067 | deeson-creative.co.uk