Keynote given at Inside Government event on "The Rise of Social Media in the Public Sector" #publicsectorcomms

1. The Importance of Social Media
in Developing an Effective
Communications Strategy
@benrmatthews

2. This is @benrmatthews
Freelance Digital PR consultant specialising in Tech,
Media, Financial Services and Charity
Awarded Young PR Professional of the Year 2010
Youngest ever PR professional to be featured in PR
Week
Founded Bright One, a volunteer-run communications
agency
Client experience includes London 2012, O2 Telefonica,
Financial Times, WWF, NSPCC, American Express

3. 5 Short Stories
1. The Best Laid Plans.
2. What Can You Control?
3. Data. Big Data.
4. Social Media is Unique
5. Business Gets Social.

4. 5 Short Stories
1. The Best Laid Plans.
2. What Can You Control?
3. Data. Big Data.
4. Social Media is Unique
5. Business Gets Social.

5. The Best
Laid Plans...

7. Facebook
From University niche to the multi billion
ubiquitous comms platform

8. IPO and decline?

9. Control vs Constant Flux

10. Instagram
Facebook Buys Instagram
for $1 Billion

14. Pinterest

16. You cannot predict or
control with timescales
and markets like these

17. Strategy is adaptable by nature
It will consider availability to both organisation and external
constituents to take the activity in different directions with
the application of different resources:
● Platforms
● Channels
● Contexts
● Finance
● Resources
● Time
● Technologies

18. 5 Short Stories
1. The Best Laid Plans.
2. What Can You Control?
3. Data. Big Data.
4. Social Media is Unique
5. Business Gets Social.

19. What Can You
Control?

20. Search

21. Website

22. Email

23. Twitter

24. The Social Media Brandsphere

25. The internet is interesting in
the way people use it
● Some people only use search engines and
read what sites tell them.
● Others only go to sites that they know and
feel safe exploring.
● Others are much more adventurous. Some
add content in walled gardens like Facebook,
others publish websites and blogs
If you ask any audience what they use the
internet for, the answers will all be different.

26. 5 Short Stories
1. The Best Laid Plans.
2. What Can You Control?
3. Data. Big Data.
4. Social Media is Unique
5. Business Gets Social.

27. Data.
Big Data.

28. What is Big Data?
Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of
data — so much that 90% of the data in the
world today has been created in the last two
years alone.
This data comes from everywhere: posts to
social media sites, digital photos and videos,
purchase transaction records, and mobile
phone GPS signals to name a few.

29. Volume
Organisations have ever-growing data of all types
E.G. Turn 12 terabytes of Tweets created each
day into improved product sentiment analysis

30. Velocity
For time-sensitive processes, data can be used as
it streams into your organisation in order to
maximise its value.
E.G. Monitor 500 million websites in real-time to
predict customer issues faster

31. Variety
Big data is any type of data - structured and
unstructured data such as text, audio, video, click
streams and more. New insights are found when
analysing these data types together.
E.G. Exploit the 80% data growth in images, video
and documents to improve customer satisfaction

32. Google Analytics

33. Salesforce

34. Facebook Insights

35. Youtube Analytics

36. Sprout Social

37. Simply Measured

38. Brandwatch

39. More Than a Matter of Size
It is an opportunity to find insights in new and
emerging types of data and content, to make
your organisation more agile, and to answer
questions that were previously considered
beyond your reach.
Until now, there was no practical way to
harvest this opportunity.

40. 5 Short Stories
1. The Best Laid Plans.
2. What Can You Control?
3. Data. Big Data.
4. Social Media is Unique
5. Business Gets Social.

41. Social Media
Is Unique

42. Twitter

43. Twitter

44. The mass media
mindset is hard
to leave behind
when the
audience is
reaching in and
eschewing
organisations
that only reach
out.

45. Social Media as Emotion Driver
The internet is an experience and an emotion driver
that fits well into what some consider to be an
emerging economy when so many organisations
offer so much that is so similar.

46. "Human beings are far
more likely to
communicate ideas and
information with others
when they are emotionally
engaged."
Maki

47. Pinterest

48. Pinterest

51. Alpha Gov

52. 5 Short Stories
1. The Best Laid Plans.
2. What Can You Control?
3. Data. Big Data.
4. The Customer Is Always Right.
5. Business Gets Social.

53. Business
Gets Social.

55. Organisation-wide
The essence of social media in the future is
that it will become a coherent organisation-
wide online strategy.
Endorsement and adoption of the strategy
needs to come from all functions of an
organisation, from the boardroom ad
management, down to customer services and
sales.

57. Key Adoption Drivers
There will be a driver that prompts entry into
the online world.
● Staff initiative
● Competitor pressure
● Customer service improvement
● Crisis comms
● Negative brand impression online
● New channels for promotion

58. What This Means For You
Becoming a social business transforms the
organisation from the inside out
Connecting the internal with the external in a
way that enhances relationships creates
shared value for the people, the organisation
and ecosystem as a whole.

59. 5 Key Takeaways
1. Strategy is adaptable by nature
2. Make sure you control the channels you own
3. Use data to gather new insights
4. Remember customers are individuals
5. Embed social in your organisation

60. Thank You.
@benrmatthews
ben@brightone.org.uk
benrmatthews.com