Starting a new social media account
Consider whether you need to start a new channel and how to get approval.
Look to other channels first
There are many amazing social channels representing the NSW Government. Establishing a new channel is not always the most effective way to reach your audience. Starting, maintaining and growing a government social media channel takes time and energy, and should not be done with a short-term goal in mind. Consider using channels that already exist before establishing a new one.
Before creating a new channel, think about how it is going to serve the needs of customers now and into the future. For example, if you’re trying to promote a specific program, initiative or event, it may be more effective to leverage your department’s official social media account/s (which has an established following) than creating a new one just for your program.
Contact us
If you’d like other social teams to share your content or run your ad campaign on their channels, email the NSW Government Social Media team at:
Seek approval to start a new account
- If you do wish to create an account, research whether similar NSW Government accounts already exist. If they do, reach out to the team who run them to see if you can work together.
- If no similar accounts exist, work with the relevant internal stakeholders (for example, media, marketing and brand teams) to develop a channel strategy.
- Send a copy of your channel account strategy to the NSW Government Social Media team as an FYI.
- Launch your channel.
New account strategy
| Information | Example |
|---|---|
| Reason for setting up a social media channel/s | To communicate with industry leaders, stay on top of latest industry news and increase the brand presence of Business Unit ‘X’. |
| Reason/s why existing social media channels cannot be used | Business Unit ‘X’ would like to establish its own brand to be at the forefront of ‘X’ industry on LinkedIn. There is no current LinkedIn account that is owned by the NSW Government where this content naturally fits. |
| Proposed channel and reasoning | X% of our demographic use LinkedIn. |
| Channel goals | Increase awareness of Business Unit ‘X’ among our target demographic. |
| Target audience/s | NSW business and industry leaders in subject matter X. |
| Growth KPIs | Reach X people in the first 12 months. |
| Budget available for advertising | $10,000 per year. |
| Available resource/s to manage channel | A 9/10 will be managing this channel full time. |
| Proposed content pillars and weighting |
|
| Content sources | Team blogs, industry news websites, etc. |
| Content approval process | All content will be approved at the Director level. |
| Publishing cadence | Content will be published at least three times a week. |
| Community management plan | Comments will be checked daily and responded to where appropriate within 3 business days. |
| Plans for after-hours community management | The responsibility for after-hours community management will be rotated across the team. Channels will be checked once each weeknight and on weekends. |
| Plan for CALD community management | Comments on CALD ads will be translated (via an external agency) and answered in the language the comment was received. |
| Escalation plan | Issues must be escalated to XYZ. |
| Multimedia or defamation insurance cover | Our multimedia or defamation insurance cover is… (consult with your legal team for more information). |
| Archiving plan | We will use Hootsuite’s and in-platform archiving capabilities. |
| Privacy management plan | We will consult with our legal team to draft a privacy statement for our account. |
| Social listening plan | Keyword monitor will be set up with Meltwater and checked daily for community insight and new content sources. |
| Suggested handle (make sure it is still available on the desired platform) | @BusinessUnitX |
| Social media manager contact details | N/A |
Close old accounts
There are hundreds of NSW Government social media channels, more pages than customers are likely to need.
We encourage social media professionals to regularly:
- evaluate strategies
- partner with other teams to run shared channels
- merge or close accounts that are no longer used (for example, due to mergers, machinery of Government changes or funding shifts).
For guidance on how to close down accounts, please see the recordkeeping section.