Brand power is all around us in the Corporate World. Similar to how public pressure is being put on companies to reveal a stake in their communities, constituents of your agency want accountability from their public servants. In this presentation, Walton County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Corey Dobridnia discusses the importance of promoting your brand BEFORE crises hits and why it's critical now more than ever.

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Your opportunity to build an online community through Facebook has never been stronger. Come learn about some of the latest tools, tips, and best practices that can help you better reach and connect with your followers. Whether you’re already using Facebook or considering it, you’ll leave this session with insights on how your agency can best leverage Facebook through its many tools like Local Alerts: a crisis communication tool for local government, public health agency, and first responder Pages to keep people in their communities safe and in-the-know.

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It’s not your everyday incident, maybe it affects an entire community or a single person; wildfire, mass casualties, active shooter, a child trapped in a mine, or some other catastrophe and it is getting a lot of attention.  It is what we call “the big one.” The one call you have been dreading but knew could happen at any time.  Are you ready?

After working with the media as a Public Information Officer for nearly 40 years, I have come to learn that Social Media is a vital asset in getting information out and quickly both to the media and the general public. It can be a useful tool, or it can be a nightmare.  It’s all in the way you use it and which platform you use.

I have worked at several significant incidents, some of which drew national media attention.  Each time my job got a little easier because of the advances of social media.  The key was knowing how to use it, being prepared, and practicing what to do so when the time came.

In this course I will cover:

• Which social media platforms to use and why?
• What are the ups and downs of social media during a critical incident?
• What tools do I use and why?

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You know your content needs to be accessible, but do you know how to make it happen? In this presentation, you'll learn how to create, test, and save time when creating social media content that is accessible to your entire community. Attendees can participate and follow the content creation process step-by-step using their devices in real-time in order to post accessible messages and images for most social media platforms. Attendees will leave this session with the understanding of how to post accessible digital content, tips to minimize the process, and ways to test messaging.

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2020 saw a massive increase in traffic on social media, particularly on public sector accounts. People stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic turned to social media to seek advice, information, and aid at unprecedented levels. They also used official public agency pages as an outlet for the frustration, anxiety, fear, and anger they were feeling not just about the pandemic, but also about elections, wildfires, protests, and more.

Before 2020 went sideways, we surveyed hundreds of government, law enforcement, and public education entities for our annual State of Social Media Public Sector benchmark report. What we found was that many of the best social media strategies revealed in the survey helped position agencies to weather even the worst of 2020. Join us as we share insights from your peers on long-term best practices, and how you can optimize your social media presence and security for stronger communication and engagement no matter what comes your way.

Takeaways include:

• Gain a snapshot of how other agencies pivoted their strategy to manage social in 2020
• Find out where you should focus your limited resources for maximum impact
• Access tips to save you time and mitigate risk on social media content

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Don’t report on your social media successes using data? You should be. Not only do key performance indicators (KPIs) tell you what challenges and opportunities exist, they also give your organization’s leadership an objective measure of success. These measures can be used to advocate for anything from resource requests to strategic course corrections.

Join me for the session: Social Media Analytics & Measurement for Government Agencies — Leveraging Insight to Improve Your Online Presence. We’ll talk about what works and what doesn’t in using analytics to drive strategy. At the end of the session you will learn to:

• Identify your organization’s KPIs
• Create monthly and quarterly reports
• Use data to advocate for increased resources

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Over the past few years, the Fort Worth Police Department has had great success with their video recruitment advertising and it cost next to nothing to create!  

PIO/Videographer Officer Brad Perez implemented a simple formula with his creative recruitment videos that Fort Worth gained enough applicants to reach max capacity.  At one point, he was actually instructed not to create anymore recruiting content because they were full.  Wouldn't that be a great problem to have? 

In his presentation, you will see how it all began and the rate of success it provided to get people not only wanting to join - but actually doing it!

Takeaways include:

• Why going viral IS important for recruitment
• How to brand your agency
• How to create professional-looking videos practically for free
• The winning formula for successful recruitment videos

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Being a leader in public safety requires transparency, communication, and the ability to form a foundation of trust with your community. However, the social media platform accounts we use are often blurred between your personal life, public image, and responsibilities and professional responsibilities.

This session takes a deep dive into how best to establish your personal professional brand for community-facing social media. It provides practical concepts and tools for establishing your public safety professional voice, how to make you more relatable to who you serve, and how-to avoid creep between your personal life/views and the information you need to convey as a community leader.

Takeaways:

• Key factors for content, voice, and imagery when developing your professional brand. How to seamlessly connect your professional accounts with your organization's social media platforms to help ensure they accentuate each other.
• An understanding of how your personal brand can amplify your message and image when personal detractors are removed.
• How establishing your individual professional presence supports credibility, communication, and transparency not only of you - but of your organization.

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During 2020 the South Metro Fire Rescue YouTube channel gained an organic following of over 100,000 subscribers. South Metro Fire became the second public safety agency in history to reach that benchmark. This session will be a case study of South Metro Fire's YouTube success, time commitment, positive, negative, and unexpected results, along with concrete steps you can take to start your own channel. 

Key takeaways:

• Compelling statistics and real-life examples to justify their own official agency YouTube channel to policymakers.
• Learn from Eric's successes and mistakes when it comes to the technical aspects of video including capturing, editing, and producing
• Quick tips to improve their on-camera and storytelling presence.
• An understanding of what comes next once the channel is launched.
• How to prepare for the results of your success, and how Eric accommodated the demand for more content, the fan mail, the visits from subscribers on vacation, and the requests for agency merchandise

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Do you ever look at a brand’s social media presence and automatically assume a team of 20 is making that magic happen? Chances are it is actually a smaller team, a team of one. In this session, Katelyn Brower, Social Media Manager of Sterling, will help you become a stronger social media manager as you act as a team of one for your organization. You'll learn how to better strategize, prioritize, partner with teams across the organization, and most importantly deliver results. Strength comes in small numbers, let Katelyn show you how!

Takeaways include:

• Working across the entire organization (not just marketing) to boost brand awareness, lead generation, and client success/support
• Optimizing content to fit across multiple social media platforms, multiple times
• Prioritizing your time and projects as a one-person team

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Earning your customer’s attention is everything. Nothing can be achieved without it. Only once you’ve captured it can you ask someone to share, subscribe, or buy. (And winning attention is hard to do when a person is scrolling through 300 feet of mobile content per day). Video as a creative medium is unparalleled in its ability to grab attention, build brand love, and drive action.

This session teaches marketers to build strategies that stop-the-scroll by:

• Understanding the key differences in user mindset and creative strategy across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok in the eyes of a marketer and a user. 
• Applying universal creative best practices across platforms and the neuroscience behind why they work.
• Efficiently creating video assets that will capture attention and drive action.

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Almost all brands have a presence on social media, but the bigger question is if they are on the right platforms to reach their target audience and if they are leveraging those platforms to their fullest.

With new social media platforms emerging and younger audiences with more buying power, is it time for your brand to re-evaluate your channel strategy?

During the presentation, we'll cover:

• Using target audience research to determine the best platforms
• How to identify the right channels and KPIs for your objectives
• Ideal content types and messaging by platform
• Key tactics that are driving the best results on those platforms

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Twitter could arguably be the most cluttered social media channel in North America. Marketers and brands looking to break through to their audiences need to understand how. With just seconds to stop a user in their timeline scroll, knowing what works and why can help your content­–which is competing for attention against topics like politics, weather, current events, sports, and more–get in front of the right people.

While this session will be heavily focused on paid social, we will cover:

• A quick overview of creative for organic engagement
• Deep dive into copy and creative best practices for paid social
• Why it’s smart to keep ads separate from organic posts
• Paid social creative dos and don’ts
• Paid social copy dos and don’ts

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