What Works: Engaging the public through social media

Social media has become a key way that people connect with one another. According to a 2016 statistical bulletin from The Office for National Statistics: 

“Use of the internet for social networking continued to grow and has become part of many adults’ everyday lives, rising to 63% in 2016.” 

The bulletin identified that social media use in the 16-24 age group was 91%, and in the 25-39 age group was 89%. Only in the 65+ age group was it used by fewer than half the public (23%). 

The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement has worked with public engagement professionals and researchers from across the UK to co-develop a social media guide.

The guide tackles:

• Why use social media? - this includes a focus on the benefits of engaging via social media
• Getting started – a useful flow chart for considerations when planning social media engagement
• Applying quality engagement principles – engagement via social media is the same as any other activity; you need to know your purpose and audience
• Choosing the right tools – with an ever growing number of platforms, which will work best for you?
• Making shareable content – want to reach your intended audience? This section will help you to create content that your audience will want to share
• Evaluation and impact – tips for planning and implementing evaluation of your social media usage
• Risks and how to manage them – engaging via social media isn’t risk free. This section will help you consider the risks and how to mitigate them
• Resources – this section includes engagement examples, reports, blogs, articles, online resources and guides, crowdsourced from the contributors
• Top tips – provided by our expert contributors