Social Media Use Snowballing

In my current digital media role it has become apparent that existing support models for our digital media channels are no longer sustainable – or even desirable in some cases.

The uptake of social media for example has been dramatic - a 1,000% increase in official Facebook use in a little over two years. And that's just Facebook.

Key changes over the last couple of years include:

• Decreased access to public websites
• Increased use of and dependency on, school intranets
• Dramatic increase in the use of social and mobile media
• Increased public expectation that Google search should provide basic contact information
• Increased disatisfaction with PDF newsletter access on mobiles

 



Website access is moving from desktop to mobile and public access to websites has dwindled.
This pie chart from last year gives a graphic view of the public access to different online department information channels. School satisfaction with traditional public websites has dropped to 45% while satisfaction with public Facebook pages is 90%.

During school closures earlier this month more than 80% of public access to updates was via mobile devices. There were nearly half a million views across school Facebook pages and the official school closure blog in 3 days.

Average monthly views of official public Facebook posts across the department are approaching 1,000,000. YouTube video views have more than tripled over the last two years.

In what ways do we need to change support models to accommodate these rapid shifts?
How much time and effort should we spend on traditional websites?

Website analytics indicate only a small percentage of our information is regularly accessed.
What are the new purposes and audiences for traditional websites?

Do we need to revisit our social media risk management processes and resourcing?

Do we need to question some of our fundamental assumptions about how we resource online digital media?

What new opportunities are there with a communication channel that has one million views a month?