Tracey Varley Executive Officer Communications Yarra Ranges Council
Watch out guinea pigs – Council’s coming to get you!
Guinea pig video…
Delving into the data… Before the YouTube video, Council received 400 submissions objecting to the local law After, only 10 submissions received Opportunity to evaluate effectiveness of comms activities Communication has changed we need to keep up!
Everyone loved Shirewide… …or did they??? How did we know? We had no real way of knowing who read it No accurate way of measuring our readership But it looked really good!
New councillors Less propaganda Innovative leadership The need to do more with less Willingness to try new things
What impacts residents directly? “What is happening in my backyard?” “Where are my rates going?” Keep it short and simple – they don’t need a novel!
A new publication is born…
Our complementary suite of channels: YR Local Website Social media
Exhibit A: Cr Len Cox
Exhibit B: Cr Jim Child
Exhibit C: CEO Glenn Patterson
We need to better understand: Our audience What, when & on which device they read How can we tweak the content to better engage them?
Analytics framework Facebook advertising
Facebook Advertising
Consultation Warburton Mountain Bike Track 773 page views 85 per cent submissions Olinda Pool 538 people viewed 314 were return visitors
…and so does video
Videos of Len and Glenn re new direction now…
What do they think now?
5 news stories per week 9,626 unique page views 4,834 views from social media Average reach 2,105 per FB post
Tell them what they want to know Don’t be afraid of trial and error Blow them away with data!