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deeson-creative.co.uk @deesoncreativeAuthored by Emily Turner and Jordan Hammond © Copyright 2014 Deeson Group

The BIG Social Media Audit

We evaluate 20 Kent organisations to see how they are using the main key platforms

deeson-creative.co.uk @deesoncreative

emilyt@deeson.co.uk lizzieh@deeson.co.uk

01227 469060

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Who can we look to in Kent for inspiration across the main platforms, as well as emerging ones?

The Deeson Creative team has completed a big audit of 20 local organisations, both in the public and private sector.

We’ve been using our benchmarking tool to look at performance across nine platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Vine, Instagram, Flickr and Google+.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA?We know social media is a burning issue from our monthly Socialbury knowledge sharing events, which brings together senior representatives from the county’s leading organisations.

Organisations have told us they are finding social media useful and exciting, but also a resource drain, tricky to keep up with, difficult to measure, and hard to integrate in an organisation’s culture.

THE BENCHMARKING PROCESSWe examined brand consistency, page set up, post frequency, response rate, engagement levels, design customisation, community management, social etiquette and use of rich content. There was a maximum score of 30 points per platform.

THE ORGANISATIONS UNDER THE MICROSCOPEWe audited: Visit Kent, Dover Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Chatham Dockyard, The Aspinall Foundation, Saga Holidays, Port of Dover, Manston Airport, P&O Ferries, DFDS Seaways, Kent Police, Kent Fire & Rescue Service, Kent Community Health Trust, South East Coast Ambulance Service, Kent County Council, University Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury College, K College and Midkent College.

The big Deeson audit – how are Kent organisations using social media?

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HIGHEST YOUTUBE SCOREThe internet was made for animals and nothing is more shareable than animals doing funny things in videos. The Aspinall Foundation proves this theory with more than 8.5 million views on their YouTube channel.

This organisation knows what people want to see and they deliver extremely shareable video content. An 18-second video of a gorilla walking like a human notched up 3.5 million views alone. The foundation is using the videos to prompt donations with a call to action, helping them broaden their audience.

Watch their videos here.

TIPS AND CONSIDERATIONSFive organisations out of the 20 we reviewed aren’t using YouTube as a channel. For those that are, subscribers and views could grow through:

• Branding – some channels look unofficial as logos haven’t been uploaded and header images lack engaging visuals

• SEO – YouTube is the second biggest search engine and many organisations aren’t thinking of search terms when tagging or writing titles and intro copy for videos

Who’s being watched?

• Content – as we move to mobile internet, the move towards shorter videos for faster download will be key. Many videos are longer than two minutes

• Community management – comments need moderation to filter spam and respond to those showing their appreciation

HIGHEST SCORECHANNEL CHAMPIONS: Aspinall Foundation, Saga Holidays, DFDS Seasways and K College

The Big Deeson Audit

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NOT ON YOUTUBE

WHO'S ON YOUTUBE?