Directorate-General Communication and Information - COMM

Directorate Media and Communication

Council of the European Union

General Secretariat

Advisor to the Director for Media and Communication

Alexandra Ekkelenkamp

Build your social media strategy Taking your next steps

Why social media?

Why social media?

Media use in the EU

Source: Media use in the European Union, Standard Eurobarometer 88 (Autumn 2017)

4 in 10 Europeans use social media daily

Source: Media use in the European Union, Standard Eurobarometer 88 (Autumn 2017)

Social media platforms – users (global)

45% of the world’s population are now social media users (that’s 3.5 billion people)

2.2 bln MAU Emotions, friendships. Videos & images, live engagement Everybody

330 mln MAU News, 2nd screen (TV), live events Influencers

187 mln DAU Mobile only, ephemeral, vertical video Very young demographic

250 mln MAU Professional network Experts, influencers

1.5 bln MAU Viral videos, live streams, vlogs, documentaries Everybody

1 bln MAU Mobile first, image driven Younger demographic (300 mln DAU IG stories)

Twiplomacy: how

governments and

world leaders use

Twitter (and other

social media).

Worldwide, only 6

countries are not

on Twitter (Laos,

Mauritania,

Nicaragua, North

Korea, Swaziland,

Turkmenistan)

source:

https://twiplomacy.c

om/blog/twiplomacy

-study-2018/

Twiplomacy

Do you need a social media strategy?

Our strategy

3 pillars:

1. increasing the impact of

our communication

activities

2. mainstreaming

communications

3. cultivate continuous

innovation

The Council on social media

• Hard news, human touch. Reliable & Real-time.

• Live and visual: Facebook Live, live tweets, Instagram stories

• Information to press, academics, experts, interested EU citizens

• Accessible: answering questions, “behind the scenes” of the Council

• @eucouncil on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn

What does success look like?

Creative

Strategic

User-centric

Data-driven

Flexible & fast

Innovative & adaptive

Optimised for impact

Supported by all

• Social media integrated in your overall strategy

• Strong core team (specialist vs. hybrid profiles)

• Strong content pipeline (capacity, innovation, flexible)

• Lean sign-off structure (trust + freedom)

• Top-level buy-in (champions)

• Social listening (intelligence + community management)

• Social analysis (KPIs that make sense)

• Continuous optimisation (experiment + measure)

• Social media advertising (paid)

• Staff as ambassadors (invest in skills, training)

What do you need for success?

Social media: 2019 and beyond

• Mobile first

• Video video video

• Live (video & engagement)

• Paid social media ads

• Dealing with “fake”

• Fighting the filter bubble

• Influencers & multipliers

• Creativity & authenticity

• 360? VR? AI? Bots?

Further reading

Mashable, Business Insider, Tech crunch, The Next Web, Social Bakers, We Are

Social, Buffer

Digital in 2019 (We Are Social, 2019)

https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019

Twiplomacy Study 2018 (Burson-Marsteller, July 2018)

https://twiplomacy.com/blog/twiplomacy-study-2018/

State of Digital Diplomacy 2017

http://www.sodd16.com/

Glocalities report: why elites are failing and people revolt (Motivaction 2017)

https://www.glocalities.com/reports/trump.html

Media use in the European Union (Eurobarometer 88, Autumn 2017)

https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/ResultDoc/download/Docume

ntKy/82786

The European Political Twitter sphere (GfK/Vienna University, June 2014)

http://www.gfk.com/Documents/whitepaper/EuroTwittersphere_FINAL.pdf

Stay in touch

Alexandra Ekkelenkamp Advisor to Director Media & Communications

@alexekkelenkamp alexandra.ekkelenkamp@consilium.europa.eu