2019 DGS SOCIAL MEDIA STYLE GUIDE
“The first rule of social media is that everything changes all the time. What won’t change is the community’s desire to network.” - Kami Huyse
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Our Mission To effectively communicate the mission of DGS’ and inform District residents of the Agency’s responsibility to manage the entire portfolio of DC-owned properties from design, construction, real estate management, implementation of sustainable energy, facilities management, and protective services. Objectives: • Shed positive light on DGS projects and events. Highlight victories, success stories, and positive facts about the projects • Demonstrate transparency and address misinformation by sharing updates and progress around the work of each Division • Build community trust in DGS by executing a proactive and responsive communications approach for each Division and initiative • Establish and maintain community inclusion and engagement by creating a meaningful exchange with key audience members • Introduce the city to the faces of the men and women who perform the work • Highlight contract opportunities for contractors • Educate residents about what it entails for DGS to deliver Key Audiences: • Impacted Residents (District residents in all wards of the city) • Opinion Leaders • Neighborhood/Community bloggers • Community Organizations • Neighborhood Businesses • Community Stakeholders • Councilmembers • ANC • Advisory Team • Civic Associations • Contractors • Existing • Potential (Qualified CBEs) • Local Media • Major Broadcast stations (radio and TV) • Major print outlets • Community newspapers and newsletters • Community radio
“69% of U.S. adults use at least one social media site.”
bit.ly/1YyCkPR
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Purpose The DGS’ External Affairs Team supports and encourages the use of social media as a valuable tool to disseminate relevant content that is helpful, informative and ultimately makes District residents’ lives better. These guidelines were developed for social media managers and public information officers (PIO) who create and administer social media sites, on behalf of District of Columbia government agencies and the Bowser Administration, to engage with constituents on DGS initiatives and social media campaigns. The purpose of this document is to outline style guidelines for DGS’s central social media accounts. Use this guide to create consistent messaging and posts across the following channels.
Active DGS Social Media Accounts • Facebook.com/dcdgs • Instagram.com/dcdgs • Twitter.com/dcdgs
Post Ownership All messaging on all central media platforms are posted with our mission and tone in mind.
Two-Factor Authentication For the safety and security of our social media accounts, please ensure that all of our accounts have two-factor authentication. In addition, once a member of our team leaves the agency; remove his/ her access to all accounts.
Our Social Media Mission We are fun, supportive, informative and engaged. We value our community and making District residents’ lives better. We believe in building, maintaining, and sustaining the District of Columbia’s real estate portfolio. Our tone is personal, enthusiastic and direct. We believe in what we do and are passionate about making a difference in our community. We are open, transparent and love to interact and converse with others.
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Overarching Messages • DGS is committed to fulling its responsibility to the Mayor’s vision and the public trust • DGS is committed to keeping the community engaged and informed • DGS takes the concerns of the community seriously and is dedicated to ensuring those concerns are addressed and resolved • DGS works with its contractors to design and construct high-quality facilities with dynamic architecture, construction work, and landscaping to enhance and add value to the aesthetic appeal of the community • District residents are being hired to work on DGS project in every ward of the city in various roles from administrative work to construction
“45% of the total world population are using social networks”
bit.ly/1YyCkPR
The Overarching Approach The DGS Communications team will implement a multi-pronged approach to meet the objectives of the social media campaign. Daily ‘Anchor’ Posts to define the message: • • • • •
Monday: Procurement Opportunities Tuesday: Meet DGS (individual interviews) Wednesday: Wisdom Wednesday (construction words/definitions) Thursday: DGS at Work (photo essay of DGS working) Friday: In Case You Missed it
Community Awareness and Engagement: • Daily Response To Community Members with Concerns • Announcing Community Meetings • Announcing Divisional Events Additional Twitter Usage: • Supporting Mayoral Social Media Campaigns • Advancing Sister Agency Initiatives
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Key Hashtags DGS
Events
Location
Day-Specific Campaigns
#DGSBuilds #BuildMaintainSustain #dgsdcgov #dcdgs
#SpreadTheWord #TellAFriend #DGSintheCommunity #CommunityMeeting
#Ward_ #HomewardDC #DGSinDC #DCValues
#TriviaTuesday #SolicitationMonday #TransformationTuesday
General Guidelines Don’t engage without a plan. Have a clear plan with strategies, goals, and line of responsibility. Be responsible. Be responsible for continuous monitoring, maintenance, and timely responses. Add value. Add value with unique, strategic information. Be transparent. Be transparent and avoid misrepresentation. Stick to what you know. Write about what you know and stick to your area of expertise. Be a team player. Reporting developments and share findings internally, across Divisions. Post meaningfully. Post meaningful, respectful comments. Always think before you post. Pause and think, consulting with a manager or expert if unsure. Admit it if you make a mistake. Be upfront and be quick with your correction. Respect confidentiality. Be respectful of what you post and conscientious of our confidentiality. Give credit to others. Give credit to sources you reference or use online and in posts. Handle negative comments quickly. Handle negativity quickly, professionally and strategically. Always use proper grammar. Be consistent and use proper grammar when posting. Consistency is key. Each agency should institute a consistent content schedule with consistent messaging and branding for posted content.
Hashtag Protocol When posting content, we encourage inserting at minimum two relevant hashtags. The first hashtag should be the campaign hashtag (e.g., #ClimateReadyDC). The second hashtag should be relevant to the topic and engaging to the targeted audience (e.g., #climatechange).
State of Emergency and Serious Weather Updates In cases where the District is experiencing any type of emergency (terrorist attack, weather advisory, etc.), WE do not post on social media. Allow the lead agency – in most cases this would be MPD or HSEMA – to post on their social media accounts first, followed by DGS amplifying that message with retweets and quoted tweets.
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Ways DGS Employees Can Help Boost Social Media + Contribute to Content Creation Includes: • • • •
Highlight Divisions Homegrown videos Hey Director 1 second a day video diary
Create a challenge by setting goals: • By January 2020, we want to have 10,000 followers and engage DGS employees
DC Agency Partnerships Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions Mayor’s Office on African Affairs Commission on the Arts and Humanities Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs Office of the Attorney General Department of Behavioral Health Office Campaign Finance Office of the Chief Financial Officer Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Office of Chief Technology Officer Child and Family Services Agency Child Support Services Division Office of the City Administrator Office of Community Affairs Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services Department of Consumer and Regulartory Affairs Contract Appeals Board Department of Corrections Developmental Disabilities Council, DC Office of Disability Rights Department on Disability Services Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education Emergency and Safety Alliance Department of Employment Services Department of Energy & Environment DC Department of For-Hire Vehicles
Department of Forensic Sciences Department of General Services Government Operations Cluster Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Department Health Care Finance Department of Health Department of Human Resources Office of Human Rights Department of Human Services Office of the Inspector General Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining DC Public Library Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement Department of Parks and Recreation Office of Partnerships and Grant Services Office of Deputy Mayor Planning and Economic Development Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Office of Religious Affairs Department of Public Works Office of Risk Management Office of Tax and Revenue Department of Transportation Office of Zoning Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services DC Youth Advisory Council
Full list of DC agency partnerships available at dc.gov/directory.
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DGS Social Media Strategy Mission, Goals and Tactics Identifying our goals and objectives from day one will help in the long run to achieve our measurable goals and create greater awareness surrounding our brand. The following plan outlines the key steps we will take to drive our social media marketing and engagement. 1. Craft social media objectives - this includes our main objectives we want to achieve in 2020 along with S.M.A.R.T goals. Look to our goals for 2020 to learn more about our objectives and how we plan to achieve each. 2. Understand our audience persona - we must always consider our audience and research current trends across platforms, looking at both younger and older audiences and their preferences. 3. Research competition and other government sectors - always be on the lookout for what others are doing, in terms of social media posts, rate of posting, and how they navigate their platforms. 4. Develop content marketing strategy for each platform - always consider what type of content should be posted on each platform and plan accordingly. Content should be consistent across each while using specific features, like stories and retweets. 5. List specific resources - make an extensive list of tools and resources we plan on using for our social media marketing strategy. This includes time to research, creating content, designing images and videos, tools like Google Analytics, and money to execute our social media strategy. 6. Distribute tasks among team members - distribute and assign what each member of the team is in charge of to prevent confusion and problems down the line when managing platforms and metrics. This will make the process much more manageable and productive. 7. Track social media metrics and social media ROI - with goals set in place, we will track our progress through social media analytics and metrics to see how our targeted audience is interacting with our posts, reach, engagement, and followers we gain through our social media strategy.
“28% of marketers have either already 8
implemented social commerce or plan to do so in the next year“ bit.ly/1YyCkPR
Social Media Plan Example
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Our Goals for 2020 Creating a winning strategy for social media with real results starts with planning out your goals and establishing your objectives. This includes developing S.M.A.R.T goals and tracking meaningful metrics to maintain consistency across messaging through the amount of posts and content. Without setting goals, you have no way of measuring your success. Use these tips to guide your actions and ensure they align with our mission and objectives. Setting Goals When establishing goals, start broad and then get specific with S.M.A.R.T goals to plan out how you are going to achieve each. Make sure each goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive. How many people are interacting with your social media posts? Who are you targeting and how do you plan on engaging them? Be both specific and difficult with goals so they are reachable, but still a challenge to achieve to motivate you to get greater results. Our Goals: • Build brand awareness • Acquire 25% new followers across platforms by posting at least 3 times a week with clear call to action • Grow traffic by 50% by 2020 through weekly posts, including hashtags and mentions , with clear call to action • Attain 10,000 followers on Twitter through weekly posts using hashtags and mentions Number of Twitter Followers By the Year 2017
2018
2019
2020
3,000 5,000
10,000 9,398
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• Attain 2,000 followers on Instagram through engaging weekly posts using stories, hashtags, mentions, with clear call to action • Attain 7,000 Facebook followers through engaging weekly posts using stories, hashtags, mentions, with clear call to action • Reach 50% of followers each day with weekly posts, using hashtags and mentions to drive interest • Generate 50% increase in mentions and shares through weekly posts and clear call to actions to learn more and drive engagement
Our Goals for 2020 • Create loyal following • Increase engagement by 50% per post by posting content at least 3 times a week with clear call to action • Acquire 30% more likes and retweets from targeted audience per post by posting meaningful content at least 3 times a week with hashtags and mentions and clear call to action • Increase resident acknowledgement of DGS content by 60% with posting multiple times a week with a variety of content, using hashtags and mentions • Drive traffic to website • Increase page views by 50% by posting content at least 3 times a week across social media platforms with clear call to action to bring people to website • Increase time on site by 25% through engaging content that is updated weekly
Defining Success Based on a survey provided by Simply Measure, these are the metrics used most often when measuring social media success. Engagement metrics
58%
(Likes, comments, @mentions, shares, retweets)
Conversion and revenue metrics
21%
(Web traffic, goal conversions, revenue)
Brand awareness metrics
16%
(Reach, impressions, share of voice)
Customer loyalty metrics
(followers, response rate, views, clicks)
Those not using social media metrics
2% 3%
The effectiveness of DGS’s Social Media campaigns will be measured utilizing a variety of metrics: • Social Media and Online Analytics – Key impressions will be tracked among all social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as the website. • Positive Media Coverage – Ideally the communications plan will reflect an increase in positive media mentions across local media outlets • Positive Council Responses • Analytics - Provide a weekly update on Friday’s to recap followers, impressions/page views, and trends. At the end of the year, we will compile the information to create an annual report on the performance of social media.
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Facebook “68% of U.S. adults use Facebook, most of them daily”
bit.ly/1YyCkPR
Specific Guidelines: • • • • • •
Keep posts short & specific Include captions for photos when possible Use emojis sparingly Include relevant mentions in posts, as long as the account is active Delete the text URL from your post if displaying the link preview Use shortened links
Best Times to Post: According to Hootsuite, the best days to post on Facebook are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday between the hours of 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm. Also, Saturday and Sunday are great days to post but only between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm. Successful organizations and brands typically only post once per day. 6 PM 5 PM 4 PM 3 PM 2 PM 1 PM 12 PM 11 AM 10 AM 9 AM 8 AM 7 AM 6 AM 5 AM Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Ideal Profile Page Sizing: • Profile image: 360 x 360 pixels • Cover image: 820 x 312 pixels • New Feed image: 1200 x 900 pixels
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Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Facebook Examples The following examples should be used as guidelines for actively posting and maintaining our Facebook page with profile picture, banner images, and content.
On company page, always use our circular logo as profile image, a landscape photo for banner image across top, and up-to-date mission statement and contact information.
Be consistent with post set-up. Keep it short and use a minimum of two hashtags. Include links when necessary.
When posting about a past event, include multiple photos.
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Twitter Specific Guidelines: • • • •
Keep posts short & specific Include relevant mentions, as long as the account is ACTIVE Avoid using more than 3 mentions in a single post Include hashtags for each post
“40% of
americans aged 18 to 29 use Twitter.” bit.ly/1YyCkPR
Best Times to Post on Twitter: The highest levels of engagement are seen on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, according to Huffington Post. The most popular time to post is 8:00 am to 10:00 am, 12:00 pm and between 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm. According to TruConversion, tweeting frequency should be at least four times per day, depending on your audience. 9 PM 8 PM 7 PM 6 PM 5 PM 4 PM 3 PM 2 PM 1 PM 12 PM 11 AM 10 AM 9 AM 8 AM 7 AM 6 AM 5 AM Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
What kind of tweets should we be sending?: • • • • •
Event Promotion New Initiatives and Programs Announcement Agency Major Milestones News and important information relevant to your audience Muriel Bowser’s initiatives, campaigns and tweets (retweet)
Ideal Profile Page Sizing: • Profile image: 400 x 400 pixels • Cover image: 1500 x 500 pixels • Tweeted images: 1200 x 675 pixels
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Sunday
Twitter Examples The following examples should be used as guidelines for actively posting and maintaining our Twitter page with profile picture, banner image, and content.
On company page, always use our circular logo as profile image, a landscape photo for banner image across top, and up-to-date mission statement and contact information.
Create tweets that spread the word about current events, our organization, and other relevant content. Pin tweets you want to stay static at the top of your page feed for others to easily see.
Only retweet relevant content to our page with clear messaging that aligns with our organization.
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Instagram Specific Guidelines: • • • • •
Keep captions short & specific Images should be authentic and natural looking Use filters and photo effects sparingly Tag relevant mentions, as long as the account is ACTIVE Include hashtags for each post
“Roughly of U.S. users are between the ages of 18 and 34” bit.ly/1YyCkPR
Best Times to Post on Instagram: According to Hubspot, studies show that the best days to post are Wednesday ,Thursday and Friday, which are the days that have the highest engagement on the platform. Best times to post each day are found below. Average posting frequency is once per day. 6 PM 5 PM 4 PM 3 PM 2 PM 1 PM 12 PM 11 AM 10 AM 9 AM 8 AM 7 AM 6 AM 5 AM Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
What kind of posts should we be sending?: • • • • •
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Images of events and promotional material Behind-the-scenes posts Reposts from employees Educational posts Motivational posts
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Ideal Profile Page Sizing: • • • •
Profile image: 180 x 180 pixels Square photo: 2048 x 2048 pixels Landscape photo: 1080 x 566 pixels Portrait photo: 1080 x 1350 pixels
Instagram Examples The following examples should be used as guidelines for actively posting and maintaining our Instagram page with profile picture and content.
When posting about past event, include multiple pictures.
Use standard template design when creating custom designs for upcoming events or campaigns.
On company page, always use our circular logo as profile image with up-to-date mission statement and contact information. Think about creative angles for photos to draw more attention to each post.
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DGS Style Guide LOGO
Multi-color
White on color background
One-color
ACCENT ELEMENTS
MAYOR’S LOGO
COLOR PALETTE #bf0000
CMYK: 17, 100, 100, 9 RGB: 191, 0, 0
#012c3b
#a7a9ac
CMYK: 96, 71, 53, 56 RGB: 1, 44, 59
CMYK: 0, 0, 0, 40 RGB: 167, 169, 172
FONTS MUSEO SANS ROUNDED 700 Museo Sans Rounded 500 Museo Sans Rounded 300
TAGLINE BUILD MAINTAIN SUSTAIN
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#000000
CMYK: 0, 0, 0, 100 RGB: 0, 0, 0
Circular
Contacts ACCESS
PHONE
SUPPORT E-MAIL
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
Name
(123) 456-7890
name@email.com
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Notes:
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dgs.dc.gov
@dcdgs