Case study for the 2010 8th Annual Media Relations Conference: Communicating quickly and effectively to a diverse audience The Northland Regional Council needs to communicate with a large and diverse audience and deliver clear messages to the public. We are using a range of tools including social media to communicate the outcomes of council meetings, civic issues during public consultation and natural disaster threats. The presentation highlights three areas: - success using Twitter - using your website in times of crisis - media and online monitoring

1. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
case study:
 how we do things at our place

2. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
what I’ll talk about
 a bit about us
 how we use Twitter
 using our website in a crisis
 online media monitoring
 learnings & tips

3. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
what we do
environmental management
public transport flood protection
research consents harbour safety
weed & pest control civil defence education
awards regional planning
economic development tourism promotion

4. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
our messages
 informing our citizens
 engaging community on issues
 positive environmental action
 civil defence alerts & action

5. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
council and media
local body politics is about:
 change and emotion
 opposing points of view
 criticism and blame
 winning and losing

6. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
how we operate
 small communications team
 staff induction – media policy
 compulsory media training
 see media as an opportunity

7. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
what makes news

8. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
how we use
Twitter.

9. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.

10. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
objectives & metrics
Objective Measure
Extend reach of existing corporate messages online (e.g. news,
speeches, web updates, YouTube videos) by building relationships
with relevant audiences including intermediaries, stakeholders, and
key influencers such as journalists and bloggers
Number of followers;
relevance and type of followers; number of
web traffic referrals from Twitter to our
website content
Provide an informal, ‘human’ voice of the organisation to promote
comprehension of and engagement with our corporate messages.
Feedback from followers (unsolicited and
solicited)
Provide thought leadership and credibility, increasing our visibility as
the experts in our remit within the online space
Feedback from followers (unsolicited and
solicited); number of re-tweets (Twitter
users repeating our updates); clickthroughs
from our tweets
Provide an additional, low-barrier method for audiences to interact with
the Regional Council provide feedback, seek help and suggest ideas
Volume and quality of @reply and DM
contact from followers; impact of this
feedback on the Regional Council
Provide live coverage of events (such as policy launches, media
briefings, council and committee meetings) for those who cannot
attend
Number of events covered per year;
positive feedback on that coverage

11. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
 www.nrc.govt.nz/twitter

12. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
Civil Defence alerts

13. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
publish tips & facts

14. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
live stream events

15. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
ask for help or ideas

16. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
thank those that help

17. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
link to photos

18. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
respond to queries

19. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
go behind-the-scenes

20. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
create lists

21. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
Twitter success
 work openly, be accountable
 keeps our citizens informed
 extended our audience reach
 provide additional media alerts

22. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
using our
website.

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24. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.

25. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
using your website
 make it easy to access & find
 update, update, update – 24hrs
 flexible, relevant, authoritative
 provide online image gallery
 helps with media queries

26. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
Just wanted to congratulate you on
a fantastic website for Northland
Civil Defence, with very up-to-date
information. It’s a very valuable
resource. Congrats to those who
spend time keeping it up-to-date.
 Breakfast TV, Television New Zealand (July 2008)
”
“

27. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
media
monitoring.

28. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
www.google.com/alerts

29. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
www.google.com/alerts

30. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
www.netvibes.com

31. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
www.addictomatic.com

32. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
www.icerocket.com

33. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
www.socialmention.com

34. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
www.socialmention.com

35. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
www.keotag.com

36. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
youropenbook.org

37. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
summing up
 train your key staff
 be open and honest
 media is only one channel
 prepare a crisis plan
 monitor, prepare, monitor

38. Putting Northland first 2010 Media Relations Conference.
Thank you.
@WebTaniwha | jasond@nrc.govt.nz
Jason Dawson
General Manager - Community Relations
0800 002 004
www.nrc.govt.nz