Agenda at a Glance

In this interactive workshop, the experts at Social Simulator will explore various types of misinformation and best practices to manage it. Attendees will learn about different forms of misinformation and their impacts, how AI has changed the landscape, how to verify content, and how to combat misinformation with the tools you have on hand.

During the session, Social Simulator will combine theory and practice, providing a hands-on tabletop scenario that encourages participants to apply misinformation best practices in a realistic simulated crisis. Join us for this detailed exploration of modern misinformation to equip your team with everything they need to navigate the information landscape.

By the end of this session, participants will:

• Understand the full spectrum of misinformation and the motivations behind it, from false narratives to AI-generated synthetic media
• Recognize how artificial intelligence is reshaping the spread and perception of misinformation
• Apply practical verification techniques to assess and respond to questionable content
• Strengthen their ability to communicate clearly and credibly under pressure
• Practice coordination and decision-making via an immersive, scenario-based tabletop exercise.

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With so many platforms and audiences to reach, a one-size-fits-all approach to government social media simply doesn’t work. In this session, Crystal Robertson, a strategic leader behind the U.S. Postal Service’s evolving social media presence, will walk through the process of developing a channel-specific strategy that meets people where they are—whether they’re baby boomers on Facebook, Gen Z on Threads, or job seekers on LinkedIn.

Crystal will share how USPS defined its brand voice, mapped its audiences, and tailored platform strategies to deliver the right message in the right tone—without losing sight of its public service mission. Attendees will gain a blueprint for balancing creativity, clarity, and consistency across a complex digital ecosystem.

Key takeaways:

• How to define your brand voice and flex your tone by platform without losing authenticity.
• Ways to segment audiences across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Threads.
• Content examples that resonate across different generations and interests.

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When disaster strikes, your social media strategy can mean the difference between chaos and calm in critical moments. This session will explore how the City of Tampa has effectively leveraged social media to safely guide its residents through life-threatening natural disasters, like hurricanes. Join us to gain insights on how to communicate to your audience before, during, and after an emergency, highlighting the importance of branding, action-oriented visuals, and overcommunication. This session will provide actionable crisis communication tactics to efficiently deliver life-saving information, foster community confidence, and build trust.

Attendees will gain valuable lessons on:

• Branding crisis communications messaging.
• Selecting subject matter experts as principal voices for your organization.
• Using social media platforms' native features to your advantage.
• Developing engaging content with a consistent cadence.

Learn from the City of Tampa’s recent experiences to enhance your own agency’s social media strategy when it matters most.  

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• Tips for framing social media ideas as solutions to leadership priorities
• Strategies to build credibility and trust with decision-makers
• Real-world examples of what works (and what doesn’t) when trying to get buy-in
• Ways to build momentum through small wins before asking for big ones
• Tools to prepare and present ideas with confidence

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Government agencies do great work, but too often, it gets buried. This talk will explore how small comms teams can use existing social media, photos, and resident posts to visually show impact, build trust, and connect with citizens, without needing to start from scratch every time.

Instead of defaulting to press releases and long updates, we'll look at how to repurpose and display existing content (including resident voices) in ways that boost visibility and civic pride.

Takeaways include:

• Why traditional communications (press releases, PDFs, static updates) often go unseen

• The value of “showing, not saying” in public communications

• Sharing examples

• How to surface existing social posts from departments or staff teams

• Guardrails for moderating and approving content safely

• Small steps to start: one campaign, one feed, one improvement

• How this builds public trust and saves comms teams time

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Measuring social media success is an ever-evolving target. Remember the days when it was a simple as tracking your follower count?  Those days are gone, but what should you be tracking and how do you get your leadership on board with measuring what matters?

This session will explore the different categories of social media metrics, how to identify the best measurements for you to track, and why this can help you get the most out of your posts.

Key Takeaways:

• How to connect metrics to tangible results that your leadership will understand
• Using data visualization to create leadership reports
• How to create a social media report and find the key performance indicators that matter
• Updates on changes to analytics and metrics on major social media platforms

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These breakout rooms are the best opportunity to meet other attendees in small, approachable groups. Like a speed networking event, we'll create small breakout rooms of 5-6 people with provided discussion topics and switch up the rooms every 15 minutes to help you connect with other gov pros.

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Building community on social media takes more than clever posts—it takes authentic, two-way communication. For government social media managers balancing limited time and big responsibilities, creating meaningful engagement can feel like a challenge. This session dives into how public agencies can move beyond likes and impressions to foster genuine trust, dialogue, and connection. Hear how other government communicators decide when (and how) to respond, adapt engagement strategies across platforms, and craft content that serves community needs—without resorting to controversy or clickbait.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand why responding to comments and messages is essential to building public trust—and how to make it manageable within your workload.

• Learn practical frameworks for deciding when and where to engage, based on your team’s goals and resources.

• Explore platform-specific engagement strategies and how tone, timing, and format can differ across channels.

• Discover ways to create content that sparks authentic connection and civic participation—without chasing conflict or viral trends.

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You don’t need an intern—or endless scrolling—to keep your government social media creative. What you need is a system. This session will walk you through a repeatable, realistic process to find inspiration, track trends, organize ideas, and turn them into content that works for your agency. 

Marie will explore how to set up lightweight systems that fit into your existing workload, so content creation doesn’t feel like another full-time job. You’ll learn how to use content pillars as a filter, so you can quickly decide if a trend or idea is worth your time. Along the way, you’ll see real examples of government teams adapting trends in ways that educate, inform, and engage their communities without chasing every viral moment. The goal is to build confidence in your creative process and give you tools to sustain it, not add pressure to produce or scroll nonstop. 

You’ll learn how to: 

• Spot fresh inspiration that sparks creative risks 

• Build your own “trend radar” (even if you’re not on TikTok all day) 

• Define content pillars so you know what’s worth posting 

• Organize content ideas without drowning in emails or tabs 

• Write out ideas in a simple social media plan that gets leadership buy-in and approval for posting 

• Write short-form video scripts your boss will actually understand 

• Pitch a trend or meme with confidence and structure 

You’ll leave with a content idea-tracking template, a plug-and-play post checklist, and a practical one-page social media plan you can use to turn your “Saved” folder into approved posts that engage your community—without burning out.

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Between creating content, managing approvals, and responding to your community, government social media work can feel like a nonstop juggling act. The right digital tools can make all the difference—helping you streamline workflows, boost collaboration, and focus more time on what really matters: connecting with your community. In this session, you’ll hear from fellow public communicators about the tools and systems that have transformed their day-to-day work, improved cross-department coordination, and supported creative, data-driven storytelling.

Key Takeaways:

• Discover digital tools that simplify scheduling, approvals, monitoring, and reporting—so you can focus on impact, not busywork.

• Learn how to create efficiencies that free up time for creativity, engagement, and proactive communication.

• Find out which free tools can get the job done—and when it’s worth investing in paid platforms for greater performance or security.

• Get practical ideas for smoother onboarding and collaboration across teams, inspired by examples like Seattle’s interdepartmental communications model.

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In this presentation, Serena will go behind the scenes of social media creation to explore how video content is strategically planned, created, and delivered to the public. This session will walk attendees through the full content pipeline from the first idea to the final post, demonstrating how digital media individuals or teams balance creativity, compliance, and clarity in their messaging. Attendees will gain a firsthand look at the tools and workflows that support effective content development, including how videos can fit into broader goals.

Featuring real examples and tool demos, this session aims to build transparency and inspire those to create videos with purpose and confidence.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the full lifecycle of a video from concept to post.
• Learn how to use tools like Canva, Adobe, and CapCut to streamline production.
• Discover ways to align video content with agency goals (recruitment, public awareness, safety messaging, etc.).
• Gain practical tips for staying creative while maintaining public trust and accuracy.
• See how transparency in the creative process helps build credibility with your audience.

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In a time when misinformation spreads faster than facts, government communicators play a critical role in safeguarding public trust.  And when it comes to fibs, myths, and tall, TALL tales, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has probably seen them all! 

In "Truth vs. Trolls," we will explore strategic approaches used to combat these misguided comments that the Pennsylvania Game Commission has seen in recent history.  We will discuss the tactics used by bad actors to mislead the public and provide strategies for identifying, responding to, and mitigating the spread of fake news.  

Attendees will leave with tools to promote transparency, strengthen credibility, build trust, and stay one step ahead of the trolls.

Attendees can anticipate learning more about:

• Identifying misinformation vs. disinformation and understanding WHY it matters.
• Building a rapid response strategy with your Social Media Preparedness Toolkit.
• Best practices for providing clear, consistent, and credible information.
• Leaning on your ‘trusted followers’ to help soften the blows of misinformation.

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While the ocean covers 71% of Earth’s surface, we’d like to cover 100% of our community in some way. That requires public trust. Dive into the lessons from the ocean on crisis communications, transparency and unlocking the extraordinary among your ordinary. Explore the power of “no, but” when engaging with leaders and stakeholders across your organization. Test the waters of letting data build your case for accountable, accessible content that keeps your community engaged and on your side.

Attendees will gain valuable lessons on:

• The role of social media in building, retaining, and losing public trust
• The necessity of trust in a crisis
• How to rebuild trust when you lose it

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You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the jackknifed semi. The Washington State Department of Transportation social media accounts have built a national reputation for their personal tone and Microsoft Paint doodles, but they are also known locally for their timely and consistent updates during emergencies. To do both successfully means striking a balance between structure and adaptability. It’s working closely with internal teams to plan for what's coming: major construction milestones, seasonal safety campaigns, and community outreach initiatives. But the key is flexibility. Crashes, wildfires, winter storms in mountain passes, or a rogue cow in a roundabout can suddenly take center stage. Our calendar must bend without breaking (or braking).

Join us to learn how we structure our schedule like a Tetris board: anchored by key pieces but with space intentionally left open just in case one of those vertical pieces comes along. You’ll hear how we prioritize clarity over quantity, how we pivot in the face of emergencies, and build trust with our audience by doing both consistently.

Takeaways:

• Build a calendar framework where flexibility is a feature, not a flaw.
• Establish a “content triage” mindset (what runs now, what gets held, what gets modified).
• How to build a stash of “rainy day” content that’s ready to go during that rare quiet week.
• How to leverage analytics to inform future planning and prioritization.

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