Social Media Plan Guide

This comprehensive guide covers creating a general social media plan, but skim through it and think about how a guide like this applies in crises. How do you effectively communicate critical messages through different social media channels?

How to Develop a Social Media Content Strategy

Social media is a mechanism to actively engage with communities through content. Developing a strategy for content creation and circulation within the Social Media Plan promotes organizational objectives, information sharing, and targeted citizen engagement. User considerations and responses in the following sections directly inform completion of the Social Media Plan Template on page 25. Users are encouraged to download, complete and/or modify these templates in ways that suit their organization's needs.

Characteristics of Effective Content Strategies

It is important that SMEM content aligns with community interests on designated key platforms before, during, and after an emergency or event. There is no one-size-fits-all guide to the most effective content strategy, and posts should reflect the unique goals of the organization and its audience. Data collected during interviews with successful SMEM practitioners pointed to the following as typical characteristics of effective content strategies:

Promote: Every social media post and community response is an opportunity to connect with the public while promoting the organization's mission, objectives, and services. When possible, SMEM content should center on a call-to-action to encourage public response and engagement (e.g., when to call 9-1-1, visit a website, subscribe to alerts). Content should always be relevant to the target audience, concise, and informative.
Share: An organization's SMEM content should not be limited to materials they produce themselves. Encourage staff to share and amplify relevant news articles, tips, and other multimedia sources from trustworthy sources, including other departments, neighboring jurisdictions, and emergency partners (e.g., National Weather Service (NWS), American Red Cross). This tactic helps to maximize resources, build an audience, and enhance collaboration across regions.
Converse: When possible, respond to all public inquiries, comments, and posts warranting a response within 1 business day using conversational language that encourages comments and engages follow-up conversation. Followers expect you to be human, authentic, and personal. For more guidance on maintaining a conversation with followers on social media, refer to the DHS S&T Social Media Business Case Guide.
Customized to the Platform: Keep in mind that effective engagement varies by social media platform. Many agency SMEM content strategies provide guidance tailored to platform best practices. It is important to adapt content and tactics per the platform and intended audience.
Content Repository: Provide a database of pre-approved language (e.g., Tweet templates, Facebook posts), graphics (e.g., Hurricane season planning checklist), and other digital content for common hazards and planned events.
Style Resources: Establish a style standard for social media and social networking accounts under the organization's greater branding strategy and style guidelines. Provide supplemental resources (e.g., image size cheat sheets, logos, colors) for staff which support a uniform voice, 'look and feel,' and other stylistic best practices relevant to the organization.

Content Best Practices for All Platforms

Practitioners identified the following best practices in developing engaging content across all social media platforms:

Proactively post content Monday through Friday during normal business hours;
Inform audiences that the organization's social media platforms are not monitored 24/7 and cannot address all inquiries;
Reiterate that citizens who need help during an emergency should call 9-1-1 and NOT rely on social media interactions;
Use multiple content formats (e.g., text, video, image) to capture the target audiences' attention while also meeting multiple device and format preferences;
As a standard practice, do not block, ban, or mute users or pages on accounts unless they frequently violate your organization's community engagement guidelines. Instead, users or pages should be reported to platform management. "Social Media Use Policies and Guidelines" (Section 3.3) provides additional guidance on creating a strong comment policy to support social media community engagement. Social media platforms are often treated as public forums, making the First Amendment applicable to social media accounts run by public officials;
Create engaging and informational posts in advance for events that affect your agency's operations each year (e.g., sports games, festivals, holidays);
When sharing content that is not owned or generated by your agency, clearly reference the original source; and
Use tools (e.g., Landscape by Sprout Social7) to optimize images and ensure proper sizing across platforms.

Content Best Practices for Specific Platforms

The following table outlines content best practices for specific platforms as identified by practitioners developing engaging content.

Platform	Content Best Practices by Platform
Facebook	Highlight important posts by pinning them to the top of your page timeline. To maximize exposure of important content, schedule and post content via Facebook's internal interface. Facebook's algorithm is biased against third-party content management platforms (e.g., Hootsuite, TweetDeck, Sprout Social), which can impact the engagement rates of content posted through management platforms vs. using Facebook's interface directly.
Instagram	Focus on the entire content post - not just the visual. Use captions and descriptions to provide context to the image and tell a story. If using Instagram filters on photos, use similar filters over time to establish a consistent look and feel. Use geolocations or geo-tag features when posting. Use polls through the Instagram Story feature to engage your audience. Leverage the Instagram Live video feature during both planned events or emergency incidents to provide real-time updates to followers
Snapchat	Use vertical or portrait formatting. Keep 'Snaps' short - no more than one to two minutes in length. - Test content as a private message first. Add elements, including text, stickers, and doodles to posts in order to keep them interesting. Use text and writing so videos can be consumed with or without sound.
Twitter	Highlight important posts by pinning them to the top of your page timeline. Search and follow accounts that share similar content. Ensure Tweets are limited to approximately 200 characters to allow users to Retweet and add their own comments. Use relevant keywords and #hashtags to make content easy to search. Develop a list of common hashtags. For example, the State of Michigan created a public Frequently Used Hashtag Guide.

Sample Social Media Visuals and Content

The samples below include examples of public safety organizations using different social media platforms to share engaging content with their communities. Figure 2 demonstrates an agency building trust on day-to-day operations through positive engagement on Twitter and Figure 3 demonstrates building trust through Instagram engagement by offering a ride along to citizens.

Figure 2: Mountain View Police Department Twitter Content

Figure 2: Mountain View Police Department Twitter Content

Figure 3: Baltimore Police Department Instagram Content

Figure 3: Baltimore Police Department Instagram Content

Content Planning

Social media content planning as part of the Social Media Plan ensures consistent messaging, provides visibility to SMEM initiatives, maximizes resources, and supports the measurement of SMEM objectives. Some practitioners interviewed for this Guide plan content by week, while others create monthly calendars filled with flexible content. Practitioners recommended starting with a manageable calendar (e.g., one-to-two platforms) at a cadence that works best for the agency's social media team. When content planning, consider the following:

What type of content (e.g., text, photo, video) does your agency already share?
What type of content does your agency want to share that it does not currently?
How do your objectives inform the types of information you want to communicate to your audience?
Who is developing content each week? Each month?
Who will have access to the content calendar?
What is the content approval process and who is part of the approval chain?

Example Content Calendar Formats

The table below highlights common content calendar formats identified by practitioners, and the benefits and limitations of each type.

Scheduling Type	Benefit	Limitation
Manual Scheduling (spreadsheet)	Best for teams who publish content once or twice per week. Easily allows for users to manipulate and sort data. Simple to set up.	Best for teams who publish content once or twice per week. Easily allows for users to manipulate and sort data. Simple to set up
Shared Document or Intranet	Best for content teams who publish once or twice per week. Simple to set up. Allows for sharing between collaborators and documenting track changes.	Can become difficult to manage if post frequency increases to more than once or twice per week.
Online Content Management Tool	Useful for managing a rigorous content schedule. Collaboration abilities are superior to other formats. Allows for different ways to view and sort data. Can be integrated into other applications.	Unplanned events may disrupt the flow of scheduled 'evergreen' posts. This conflict could result in postings that may appear poorly timed. Tools can be expensive for full capabilities.

Posting Frequency

Practitioners state that consistent two-way communications on social media before, during, and after an emergency or major event builds public trust. When public safety organizations maintain these two-way engagements with citizens during day-to-day operations, the public is more likely to turn to those organizations' social media accounts during incidents. Practitioners have also noted the value in reaching the targeted audience when that audience is online. This is essential to ensuring high engagement rates. For optimal engagement, practitioners and research suggest the following recommended posting schedule for common social media platforms:

Platform	Posting Frequency	Recommended Post Time Frame
Facebook	One post per day	Wednesday through Sunday, in the afternoon
Instagram	Two to three posts per week	Weekdays in the early morning or early evening
Snapchat	Two to three posts per week	Throughout the day
Twitter	Three posts per day	Weekdays in the afternoon or evening
NextDoor	Post as needed	Post as needed
LinkedIn	One post per business day	Business days in the morning

Evaluating Post Success

To track, analyze, and optimize content performance on a continual basis and ensure success for the long term, an organization must establish sound measurement practices. Without the right measures in place, it is difficult to know which social media posts work best. Account management tools and specific metrics can result in comprehensive, yet simple analyses for the ongoing evaluation of content performance by platform. Prior to determining SMEM metrics, consider the following:

Which key performance indicators (KPIs) is your organization tracking to achieve related agency-wide objectives?
Are there any KPIs you should consider incorporating that you are not currently using?
Who needs access to ongoing reports and statistics?
What target dates or milestones should your agency evaluate given the content strategy?
Which types of content are performing well?
Which types of content are performing poorly?
At what point will the organization make changes to the original content strategy?
Who has the authority to make changes to the content strategy?

Common Content Engagement Metrics

A variety of metrics can be used to determine the success of social media engagements and help organizations improve their brand across platforms. The following table highlights common metrics identified by practitioners for evaluating success across varying platforms.

Platform	Metric	Definition
All platforms	Community Feedback	Anecdotes of successful social media interactions with the public help to evaluate success and sustain leadership buy-in
Facebook	Reach	The number of unique people who saw your post.
	Engagement Rate	Engagement rate measures an audience's activity with a post. It can be measured by the percentage of people who clicked, liked, commented, or shared your post. Posts should achieve a minimum 1% engagement rate. Strong posts earn a rate of 5% or more. How to calculate the Engagement rate: Engagement rate = (clicks+ likes + comments + shares)/impressions.
	Post Clicks	The number of clicks on the content in a post or ad. This indicates engagement with the content shared in the post.
	Link Clicks	The number of clicks on links within a post or ad that led to destinations or experiences, on or off Facebook.
	Hide Post	The number of people who hid your post. Watch this statistic to spot content that is not connecting with the audience.
	Extension Rate	Shows if users are sharing your posts. How to calculate the Extension rate: Extension rate = Total shares/impressions.
	Categorical Reach	This shows the number of unique people who saw your post, organized by category. Calculate: Code each line of data to a specific category in a spreadsheet. Utilize a pivot table to sort the data by category and arrive at a calculated reach number for each category. Use a bar graph or pie chart to represent the frequency or percentage for each category.
Instagram	Follower Growth Rate	The rate that your organization is gaining new followers.
	Engagement Per Follower	Look at the total number of likes and comments earned during a specific time period then divide that number by the number of followers for that same time period. Calculate your engagement per follower on a monthly or weekly basis. Do not try to calculate it on a daily basis, since normal day-to-day fluctuations are likely to distort data.
	Comments	The number of users who have left comments on a post.
	Likes	The number of users who have "liked", or double tapped, a post. This showcases audience engagement with your content.
	Best Time to Post	Consider that you could be losing followers and hindering your engagement rate simply by posting at the wrong time. Refer to your Instagram Insights to determine when your followers are most active online