tracey varley executive officer communications yarra ranges council
TRANSCRIPT
Tell them what they want to know
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!
Traditional print (so yesterday…)
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!
Fast forward to 2012…New councillors
Less propaganda
Innovative leadership
The need to do more with less
Willingness to try new things
“Why spend 4 weeks and $25K per quarter on a publication if no one is reading it?”
Shifting focusWhat 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…
A new inspirationOur complementary suite of channels:
•YR Local•Website•Social media
Exhibit A: Cr Len Cox
Exhibit A: Cr Len Cox
Exhibit B: Cr Jim Child
Exhibit B: Cr Jim Child
Exhibit C: CEO Glenn Patterson
Exhibit C: CEO Glenn Patterson
How do your comms measure up?
We need to better understand:•Our audience•What, when & on which device they read•How can we tweak the content to better engage them?
Next steps•Analytics framework•Facebook advertising
Facebook Advertising
ConsultationWarburton Mountain Bike Track•773 page views 85 per cent submissions
Olinda Pool•538 people viewed•314 were return visitors
A picture tells 1000 words…
…and so does video
What do they think now?
Videos of Len and Glenn re new direction now…
What do they think now?
The numbers…5 news stories per week 9,626 unique
page views
4,834 views
from social mediaAverage reach
2,105 per FB post
Take it away…
•Tell them what they want to know•Don’t be afraid of trial and error•Blow them away with data!