Create engaging social content

 

If you take a scroll on any social media platform you’ll be exposed to clickbait driven by fear, rage and division, and poorly executed AI images.

 

Content is fast, vast and over consumed, and with such a high saturation it’s increasingly difficult to create a memorable experience for audiences when it comes to CFA’s mission of protecting lives and property.

CFA’s important messages about recruitment, who we are and fire safety will never be a one-size-fits-all for any page or audience, and we need to look at different ways to reach every audience group in our communities to cut through the noise.

It’s incredible to see so many brigades adopting their own unique style when creating content and building a strong following. 

Taradale Fire Brigade has its own fresh approach to creating content, with some content reaching more than 80,000 viewers. Brigade Community Safety Coordinator Jodie Parker shared the challenges and lessons learned of producing unique content with a creator style approach.

“We created a video at the end of last fire season about a tanker being moved and it got a huge viewership,” Jodie said. “Pushing for that second appliance, we realised video was more effective for the message we wanted to convey to the local community.

“Since then we have seen an increase in our views and followers.

“We ran a mini campaign with bite-sized bits of information that was far easier to digest for short attention spans on social media.”

But Jodie pointed out that video isn’t always the answer.

“Everyone consumes media in a different way, so brigades should first think about the message they want to share and then use a combination of posts and reels to share that for a better reach.”

Jodie said the biggest challenges were finding the time to create content and getting those people who are more cautious about social media to understand why it was needed.

“Content normally involves multiple people, and it means we need to have the people around and I need to be available to capture it,” she said.

“Similarly, not everyone has the same relationship with social media, so it’s important to ensure the people you want to feature in content are OK to be filmed and that they understand we need this as a platform to share our story as a brigade.”

Jodie’s top tips for making unique content:

• Keep it simple, honest and authentic.
• Use opportunities such as events or training to show the reality of your brigade.
• Keep it short and uncomplicated – don’t try to convey too much in one post.
• Get more people and their ideas involved in your page.
• If you’re struggling to get people on board with content explain the reason you need it and show the results on performance.
• If you need someone to manage your social media, it should be someone comfortable with computers who enjoys doing social media. It can be time consuming, and they need to understand the platform and how to moderate it.

 

Submitted by	News and Media