Birmingham is the youngest city in Europe with nearly 40 per cent of the population under the age of 25. We wanted try and connect with this demographic and starting an Instagram account was one way we thought we could do this digitally. This case study forms part of our social media strategy resource.
Objectives – what did you want to achieve?
Birmingham is the youngest city in Europe with nearly 40 per cent of the population under the age of 25. We wanted try and connect with this demographic and starting an Instagram account was one way we thought we could do this digitally.
Audiences – who did you target and why?
As well as being a young city Brum is a digital city with a huge Instagram following. Popular hashtags #igersbirmingham and #brum have 101k and 179k posts respectively. We felt this might be a different audience to our followers on other social media channels.
Strategy – how did you make this happen?
We started an individual Instagram account and used the channel for about 12months before we launched the corporate account. We wanted to get a feel for how Instagram worked and on who to follow in the city as well as seeing what type of pictures worked best.
Tactics – what channels, tools, platforms and content did you use?
We wanted to use Instagram as a tool for council communications and not just to post pictures of the city. We felt there were enough accounts doing this already and to justify the resource needed to make the account work it had to have value to the council. We planned a campaign of generic posts to launch including:
- welcome to the account message
- register to vote
- meet the lord mayor
- active parks
- social care opportunity day
- housing advice
- jobs
- events
Whenever we posted we tried to ensure there was a clear call to action with a signpost to an active link on the account profile.
Did it work? What were the outcomes?
We’ve had over 2000 people follow the account in the first 12months.
What did you learn?
Good pictures do work best, but an important message can also have a successful outcome
in terms of support. The surprising thing was the popularity of video which we weren’t
expecting.
Would you do anything differently?
We see this as a long term channel for communication not just a quick win. We’re still learning and the next year will give us a better insight into the value of the account as a means of communication for the council.
Want to know more?
Contact Guy Evans, Social Media Officer for Birmingham City Council at @aguyinbrum on Twitter and Instagram