5 Things You Should Be Doing Right Now
The first quarter of the year has passed and it is a great time to review the analytics for your digital media. The snow has melted. The grass is starting to turn green. And as dwellers of the northern plains, we can’t wait to open up windows and start freshening up our home and yard. But what about freshening up your communications? Now is a perfect time take a moment to do these five things:
- Dust off your analytics. The first quarter of the year has passed and it is a great time to review the analytics for your digital media. How is your website traffic? Where are citizens spending their time or what are they downloading? How engaging is your social media? Take stock of what is working and not working right now and also compare it to last year at this time. You may find trends that emerge in the springtime or may find that you need to elevate some parts of your digital media to meet your citizens’ demands.
- Brush off the cobwebs with community and regional organizations. When is the last time you sat down with leaders of various community organizations? If winter has kept you cooped up, now is the time to reach out to those organizations that partner, support, or are otherwise tied to your community. From these meetings, you can further assess the merits of your communications and add to your digital strategies.
- Clean up and prep your media channels for construction season. As the second part of looking at your analytics, you also need to prep your owned (and potentially paid) media for the upcoming construction season. Summer is a wonderful time of year, but it also can bring major construction and many disruptions to your citizens. Make sure that all your channels have easy to understand information, schedules, and benefits of the construction placed front and center.
- Sow and plant your social media in advance. For those of us who manage social media, we understand that it takes strategy and effort to use it most effectively. But, we all get busy and this tends to be one of the areas that can end up being last minute. This can be an issue as the majority of Americans now get their news from social/digital media. Set aside two hours to review the upcoming city department communication needs and events, upcoming construction, and other city initiatives such as a June election. Create a list of posts based on a 6-8 week schedule. If you have time, take it one step further and create the accompanying graphics or videos. Try to create two to three posts a week, leaving room for items that may “pop up”.
- Cultivate for the legislative season. For states that have a legislature that meets every other year, this tends to be an off year. The off time is a great time to educate legislators and cultivate support for community initiatives on a larger level. Take stock of these initiatives and make sure that they are widely communicated to your staff and elected officials.
Happy Spring!
For more information on how AE2S Communications can help you spring clean your communications, contact Andrea Boe at Andrea.Boe@ae2s.com.