This document outlines Fairfax County's social media strategy. It discusses the county's success in growing its social media presence across platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The strategy identifies philosophies for the county's social media use, such as engaging the community and sharing timely information. It also provides goals to further expand the county's reach on social media platforms and increase engagement over the next fiscal year. Departments are asked to identify specific social media goals and tactics for their accounts. The county will also create dashboards to track key metrics for each social media account.

1. Fairfax County
Social Media
Strategy
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Version 1.0: MAY 2015
Office of Public Affairs
Fairfax County

2. 1
Our Story of Success
Our county social media story demonstrates success.
From 6 followers on 1 Twitter account in January 2009 to nearly 100,000 followers across 13 accounts in
February 2015, we have seen consistent month-over-month growth across all social platforms.
On Facebook, our collective reach has exploded from one fiscal year to the next
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More importantly, as people choose to follow
us on social media, we are engaging our
community to learn about issues/concerns and
to share relevant, timely and actionable
information. Our residents are noticing. More
than 80 percent of respondents to an ongoing
county Facebook survey report they have
learned more about their local government:
These numbers tell a great story, but we need to redouble our efforts
to meet the growing demand of social media opportunities. This living
strategy document helps outline a path forward while also sharing key
philosophies, goals and metrics to move forward with these primary
communications tools of today.
“Daily Total Reach” of All County
Facebook Pages:
• FY2012: 2,088,753
• FY2013: 6,659,856
• FY2014: 11,603,306
1,404
Number of official county
Facebook posts and tweets
in February 2015.

3. 2
6 Philosophies for County Social Media
Every day people discuss, debate and engage Fairfax County Government in many online conversations. We
recognize the vital importance of participating in these conversations in meaningful ways.
As a county, we aim to meet these six philosophies/strategies:
1. Publish, engage and provide customer service with relevant, timely and
actionable information, while promoting core services and key events.
2. Establish our voice to build confidence that we are a trusted source for
information, especially during emergencies.
3. Use social media aggressively during emergencies and emerging incidents
to empower information ambassadors, listen to community first informers
and share critical information.
4. Listen to conversations about government services/programs and
participate in individual, neighborhood, local, regional, state and/or
national conversations.
5. Ensure the security of our social media accounts and prevent cyber
vandalism.
6. Integrate social media with other ways to deliver and share content, such
as paid, earned and owned media.
Existing Policy
The Fairfax County Social Media Policy and Guidelines for Official Accounts document contains more specific
roles and responsibilities for social media, including emergency response and specific tools such as YouTube
and Flickr. Please continue to refer to it as a companion to this strategy document.

4. 3
Moving Social Media Forward
Based on discussions among 10 county social media publishers, metrics, best practices and the desire to
grow, these 10 changes will guide us forward:
1. Refine application process for new accounts:
a. Public information officers or designated OPA PIO liaisons must be involved in any applications.
b. Through new application forms for Twitter and Facebook, applicants must clearly define
business objectives, audience and partnering opportunities with existing social accounts.
c. Identify examples of similar accounts that would serve as a model for the topic area.
d. Create private, pre-launch test accounts so requesting staff can try sustaining a presence over a
period of time. Reviewing staff can assess the test period; this will help inform account approval.
e. Testing accounts will provide at least three pieces of content to an existing account to publish.
f. A small, multiagency group led by OPA will review all requests.
g. OPA will more clearly outline a menu of social media options for staff to consider such as
providing context on how tools work and advocating for existing social sites.
2. There will be four types of Facebook Pages or Twitter accounts considered for use (in order of
preference for our residents). Each account will have unique characteristics and administrative setups:
a. Multiagency Topic/Subject (e.g., Environment, Disabilities)
b. Campaign (e.g., Slow Down Anti-Speeding Campaign)
c. Program/Facility/Location (e.g., Golf Courses)
d. Department (e.g., Police Department)
3. Develop countywide goals/tactics requiring publishers to set account-specific goals and tactics.
Conduct periodic content and metric reviews of all accounts. Accounts can be closed/merged.
4. Create a deeper spirit of collaboration among all social media publishers, including establishing editorial
circles around content areas, sharing/retweeting official posts and general knowledge sharing.
5. Require all accounts to publish periodic satisfaction surveys. OPA will create these surveys.
6. Accounts must schedule Facebook posts during off hours and repeat key tweets multiple times.
7. Facebook Groups for official, public-facing purposes will not be allowed. Only Facebook Pages will be
permitted for official purposes.
8. Facebook publishers will need to use Facebook Business Manager soon. OPA will provide details.
9. Later in 2015, staff can apply for Instagram accounts based on similar criteria for Facebook and Twitter.
If an area/department already has Twitter or Facebook, then regular photos must be published to those
platforms to prove Instagram can be sustained. If approved, OPA will create all accounts.
10. Continue to examine LinkedIn for future possibilities by the end of this calendar year.

5. 4
Social Media Goals/Tactics – Countywide
In fiscal year 2016, the primary objective of our countywide social media presence will be to support the
missions of the county and departments and the goals of various programs and services by posting regularly,
engaging frequently and attracting new followers. Here are three specific countywide goals (admittedly output
focused at this time) that all social media accounts will contribute to:
1. Goal: Increase total number of tweets from all accounts to at least 2,000 per month by June 30,
2016.
Reason: As a government, we tweet on average 900 times per month across all accounts. The
shelf life of a tweet is about an hour, so accounts must tweet more frequently to reach key
audiences at different times of the day.
Tactic: Each Twitter account is required to schedule at least 20 tweets per month during non-
business hours for a minimum of 240 scheduled tweets annually beginning July 1, 2015. Scheduled
tweets can be evergreen or repeat content from earlier in the day/week/month.
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2. Goal: Increase total reach across all Facebook Pages to 20 million by June 30, 2016.
Reason: County Facebook reach has grown from 2 million to 6 million to 11 million in the last three
fiscal years, which is a success. However, the great majority of posts are generally published during
the first part of the workday and though posts last longer in a Facebook newsfeed, we are not
aiming our content at prime Facebook hours in the evening.
Tactic: Each Facebook Page is required to schedule one post per week between 5 and 8 p.m.
Questions or comments should be answered the following morning.
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3. Goal: Increase total Instagram followers to at least 5,000 by June 30, 2016.
Reason: Instagram, by many measures, is the fastest growing social platform, due in large part to
its very visual nature. As the county begins using this tool, it’s important to develop a solid base of
followers. Two pilot accounts (animal shelter and government) have nearly 2,000 followers today.
Tactic: Use at least 1 hashtag on each Instagram post to draw in people who may not be familiar
with our presence. Embed or share at least 1 Instagram photo a month on an account’s website or
other social media presence to draw in more followers.

6. 5
Social Media Goals & Tactics –
Account/Department/Topic Area
By July 1, 2015 – the start of FY2016 -- each existing social media account, in collaboration with public
information officers, will be required to identify specific, yet simple goals and tactics unique to their business
objectives. These goals will be reviewed annually and monitored periodically. Examples of goals could range
from internal posting processes to using funds to promote content on social media to the number of times
content is shared from other sources.
EXAMPLE
Account: Fairfax County Government Facebook Page
Goal: Increase reach of top posts on Facebook by an additional 10 percent per post.
Tactic: Every Friday, boost (pay) most popular organic posts for the weekend. The post must have a minimum
organic reach of 3,000, as well as a minimum of 30 likes or 10 comments.

7. 6
Social Media Dashboards
In order to understand our future, we need to know metrics of our accounts. OPA will create dashboards for
each social media account. These reports will feature various sections specific to Twitter and Facebook. All
dashboards will include the following three elements:
1.) Monthly metrics reports with specific Twitter and Facebook data.
2.) Satisfaction survey results: Each account will be required to periodically survey its audience for feedback.
While the full results will be available to each publisher, these dashboards will highlight results from two key
metrics:
• Overall satisfaction.
• Do respondents think they have learned more about their government through this social media
account.
3.) Space to document the required performance measure for each account as noted on page 5.
An example Twitter dashboard is on the following two pages:

8. 7
@fairfaxcounty Twitter Dashboard
METRICS REPORT
Impressions Engagements Followers Tweets // Scheduled*
April 2015 869,943 14,358 51,917 211 // 28
March 2015 1,423,146 24,393 48,086 297 // 36
February 2015 1,572,765 31,180 42,460 246 // 13
January 2015 1,584,822 40,225 37,501 232 // 41
Login to analytics.twitter.com for more details.
* Each Twitter account is required to schedule at least 20 tweets per month (4 or 5 a week) during non-business hours beginning
July 1, 2015. Scheduled tweets can be evergreen or repeat content from earlier in the day/week/month.
SATISFACTION SURVEY RESULTS
Data from January-April 2015.

9. 8
CONTENT ANALYSIS
Point-in-time assessment: 28 days ending May 4.
PERFORMANCE MEASURE FOR FY2016
Goal:
Tactic:

10. 9
Editorial Planning Calendar
As an added resource, an editorial planning calendar has been created (a larger version will be available as an
Excel spreadsheet). At this time, it is optional to use; it’s more of a guide to help reinforce the need to plan
content and publish regularly. The time slots provided are guides and can be adapted to fit your schedules.