Social media is a fantastic way to connect with audiences, share vital and real-time information, and foster transparency.

The newly released social media benchmarks from Hootsuite offers a valuable lens through which public sector agencies can evaluate performance and identify areas for improvement.

Understanding and utilising these benchmarks is essential for maximising the impact of social media strategies.

Determining the “right” number of engagements for your social posts can be tricky. Is 100 likes a lot or a little? The truth is, it depends.

So let’s dive in.

Why Social Media Benchmarks Matter

Social media benchmarks serve as a yardstick, allowing government agencies to measure their performance against industry standards.

These benchmarks provide a snapshot of what success looks like, highlighting key metrics such as audience growth, engagement rates, and posting frequency.

By comparing their data to these benchmarks, agencies can identify strengths, pinpoint weaknesses, and set realistic goals for their social media efforts.

What Metrics Should You Measure?

• Profile impressions
• Profile reach
• Followers
• Audience growth rate
• Total engagements
• Engagement rate
• Video plays
• Average video dwell time
• Total video view-time
• Posting frequency
• Clicks
• Shares

Key Benchmarks for Government Social Media

The latest data reveals the following benchmarks for government social media performance:

Facebook:

  – Page impressions: 1.9 million

  – Audience growth rate: 0.63%

  – Average post-engagement rate: 1.54%

  – Posting frequency: 0.63 posts/day

Instagram:

  – Profile impressions: 1.3 million

  – Audience growth rate: -1.28%

  – Average post-engagement rate: 2.31%

  – Posting frequency: 1.01 posts/day

But how do these compare to other sectors?

Finding Your Own Social Media Data

To effectively use these benchmarks, it’s crucial to first gather your own social media data. Here’s how:

1. Access Analytics Tools: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer built-in analytics tools (Facebook Insights and Instagram Insights) that provide detailed information about your page’s performance.

2. Identify Key Metrics: Focus on metrics that align with the benchmarks, such as impressions, audience growth, engagement rates, and posting frequency.

3. Compile Your Data: Regularly track and compile this data to monitor trends and measure progress over time.

What to Do If You’re Underperforming

If your social media performance falls short of the benchmarks, don’t despair. Here are actionable steps to get back on track:

1. Analyse Content Quality: Evaluate the quality and relevance of your posts. Are they engaging and informative? Do they resonate with your audience?

2. Adjust Posting Frequency: Ensure you’re posting consistently but not excessively. Strive to maintain a frequency that aligns with the benchmarks.

3. Enhance Engagement: Foster interaction by responding to comments, asking questions, and encouraging user-generated content. Higher engagement can lead to better reach and growth.

4. Targeted Advertising: Consider using targeted ads to boost visibility and attract new followers, particularly if your audience growth is lagging.

5. Collaborate and Learn: Network with other government agencies or social media professionals to share best practices and learn new strategies.

Let’s Elevate Your Social Media Strategy

Navigating the complexities of social media can be challenging, but you don’t have to do it alone. As a seasoned social media strategist, I am here to help you enhance your online presence and achieve your goals.

Whether you need a comprehensive strategy overhaul or targeted training for your team, let’s work together to unlock your full potential.

Request a Free Call

Book a call in my calendar here.

Ready to take your social media performance to the next level? Request a call with me today to discuss your social media strategy and training needs.

By understanding and leveraging social media benchmarks, government agencies can not only measure their success but also continually improve and adapt to the ever-evolving digital world.

The post NEW RESEARCH: Social Media Benchmarks in Government appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

With that in mind, I am recommending Adobe Express and its raft of Gen AI features to help you create quality content seamlessly.

Here are seven ways you can leverage these tools for social media success:

1️⃣ Automated Content Creation

 Adobe Express Gen AI excels in automating the content creation process. With its AI-powered suggestions, users can generate high-quality graphics, videos, and posts without needing advanced design skills.

Simply input your ideas, and the AI will provide a range of templates and design suggestions tailored to your needs. This feature saves time and ensures your content is always visually appealing.

2️⃣ Enhanced Image Editing

High-quality images are crucial for capturing attention on social media. Adobe Express Gen AI includes advanced image editing tools that are powered by artificial intelligence.

These tools can automatically enhance photos by adjusting brightness, contrast, and colour balance. Additionally, features like background removal and object detection allow for precise edits, ensuring your images are always professional and polished.

3️⃣ Personalised Templates

Consistency is key to building a recognizable brand on social media. Adobe Express Gen AI offers a vast library of customizable templates that can be tailored to fit your brand’s aesthetics.

Whether you’re creating Instagram stories, Facebook posts, or YouTube thumbnails, these templates provide a cohesive look across all your platforms. AI personalisation ensures that the templates adapt to your content, making them unique and engaging.

4️⃣ AI-Driven Copywriting 

Captions and text content are just as important as visuals in social media posts. Adobe Express Gen AI features AI-driven copywriting tools that help generate catchy headlines, engaging captions, and compelling call-to-actions.

By analysing the tone and style of your brand, the AI can produce text that resonates with your audience and drives engagement.

5️⃣ Video Creation and Editing

Video content is becoming increasingly important on social media platforms. Adobe Express Gen AI simplifies video creation with its intuitive tools and AI-powered editing features.

Users can quickly produce professional-looking videos by selecting from pre-made templates, adding text overlays, and incorporating transitions. The AI can also suggest the best cuts and edits to keep your audience engaged from start to finish.

6️⃣ Social Media Analytics Integration

 Understanding the performance of your social media posts is crucial for success. Adobe Express Gen AI can integrate with social media analytics tools to provide insights into your content’s effectiveness.

The AI analyses engagement metrics, such as likes, shares, and comments, to offer recommendations on optimizing future posts. This data-driven approach ensures you are always improving and refining your social media strategy.

7️⃣ Interactive Content Creation

To stand out in the crowded social media space, interactive content is a game-changer. Adobe Express Gen AI supports the creation of interactive elements like quizzes, polls, and dynamic infographics.

These interactive posts can significantly boost engagement by encouraging users to participate and share. The AI helps in designing these elements to be visually appealing and seamlessly integrated into your social media feeds.

Will you give it a try?

In conclusion, Adobe Express Gen AI provides a comprehensive toolkit for enhancing your social media presence. Experiment with the free version here.

By automating content creation, enhancing image and video quality, personalising templates, generating engaging copy, analysing performance, and enabling interactive content, this platform will empower public sector pros to achieve social media success with ease.

Trust me, a bit of testing and learning will go a long way!

#AD #AdobeExpressAmbassador

The post 7 Ways to Use Adobe Express Gen AI Features for Social Media Success appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

They are quietly quitting X.

If I’m honest, in the past 12 months the number of requests for strategy or training on X has been pretty low. In discussions around social media strategy the frustration with X is the level of vitriol, disinformation and lack of moderation which public sector pros says is hampering effective social communications.

There is what I would describe as a ‘waning appetite’ because of continuing struggles around relevant reach, increased hate, attacks from bot and fake accounts and the removal of verification and analytics from basic accounts.  

Furthermore, the lifeblood of social media – engagement – is almost becoming impossible on this social network.

Moderation teams in the European Headquarters Office in Dublin have been let go since Elon Musk took over in 2022.

The algorithm is increasingly political and just last week the European Commission opened proceedings against X under the new Digital Services Act (DSA). More specifically, areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers are under investigation.

In particular the EU Commission casts an eye over X’s cunning verification policy. It said X’s so-called blue checks had misled users into thinking some content was trustworthy when it wasn’t necessarily.

It went on to say that X’s blue checks policy was deceiving and had been abused by malicious actors. The checks were initially created as a way to verify users like government officials, public figures and journalists, in efforts to limit misinformation, but Musk changed that policy, allowing users to buy blue check accounts.

X on X

“In our view @X doesn’t comply with the DSA in key transparency areas. It misleads users, fails to provide adequate ad repository and blocks access to data for researchers. It’s the first time we issue preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act.” Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission EU fit for Digital Age and Commissioner for Competition.

To which Elon Musk responded

“The DSA is misinformation.”

What’s your LinkedIn Strategy?

If you want to develop a bespoke LinkedIn strategy for your team our organisation let me know. It will be straightforward yet very effective.

Book a call with me here to discuss or find out more. 

The post The Mass Exodus of Public Sector From X to LinkedIn appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

In today’s episode, I’m getting serious. Serious about the disruption of mainstream media, attacks on journalists and the threats to our democracy. 

Online hate is increasing, politicians are hanging up their political boots as it has become too much and decision-makers fear backlash and personal attacks.

I’ll talk about the challenges to democracy and the role of media, social media, and the challenges governments, politicians and the public sector are facing right now. 

I really do worry about the future of democracy, and it is something we cannot take for granted. I really understand that people are angry and that social media has democratised society in a way like never before. We can all have our say on any issue and reach tens of thousands of people on our own social networks. 

But while citizen journalism has added a new dimension to media as we know it, we need strong and independent as well as strong state media outlets like never before. 

I speak to an expert in this field, Marius Dragomir, who is the Director of the Center for Media, Data and Society. 

Let’s dive in!

Column – Is democracy at threat because of social media or a more untrustworthy mainstream media?

This is a really big question, and probably not one I can answer in a 40-minute podcast. However, what I can say, is that I have been studying media, journalism and social media for over 20 years and I have seen how its evolution is re-shaping society. 

First of all, let’s look at some evidence. Research by Reuters and University of Oxford. Mainstream media is and will continue to be disrupted. 

314 news leaders from 56 countries surveyed:

News avoidance and news fatigue remain a major concern.

63% are worried about a sharp decline in referral traffic to media websites from social media. Chartbeat data shows traffic to news sites from Facebook fell 48% in 2023, with traffic from X/Twitter declining by 27%.

Shift in content formats a priority ​- more video (+64), more newsletters (+52), more podcasts (+47) 

Shift in focus on core social networks

        Facebook (-38 net score) ​ Twitter (-39) ​ TikTok (+55)​

        Instagram (+39)​ YouTube (+44)​ WhatsApp (+61)

Interest in TikTok reflects a desire to engage with under 25s, and experiment with vertical video storytelling.

Consulting – The important role of journalism in society

Journalism asks questions of our governments, our politicians, our public sector, it asks questions off big business, pharma, NGOs. 

Their job is to ask questions, to scrutinise and probe and investigate. I used to be a journalist and I really relished my role in researching and reporting on stories in the public interest. 

But journalists or media companies are not the sole owners of stories and news anymore. 

In fact an European Parliament Research Service study of 2016 stated that news and media is now a commodity owned by anyone willing to create it. 

A recent Core Media report in Ireland showed that the media advertising market is worth 1,533.6 million in 2024, up 4.1% on 2023.

Digital taking the biggest slice of the advertising pie! 

Total media spend across offline media is expected to contract by 1.9% to €549.1 million in 2024, while digital channels will increase by 7.9%.

Media is being disrupted, journalism needs to hold firm and as citizens we must realise the importance and impact of our own voice online.

For what is at stake, is democracy, something we cannot take for granted as war rages in the Middle East, Europe and beyond.

Interview |  Marius Dragomir

Marius Dragomir is the Director of the Center for Media, Data and Society. He previously worked for the Open Society Foundations (OSF) for over a decade. Since 2007, he has managed the research and policy portfolio of the Program on Independent Journalism (PIJ), formerly the Network Media Program (NMP), in London. 

He has also been one of the main editors for PIJ’s flagship research and advocacy project, Mapping Digital Media, which covered 56 countries worldwide, and he was the main writer and editor of OSF’s Television Across Europe, a comparative study of broadcast policies in 20 European countries.

Marius has spent the past decade in the media research field, specializing in media and communication regulation, digital media, governing structures of public service media and broadcasting, spectrum management, and ownership regulation. He has authored expert studies and articles on journalism and media policies that have been published and translated in more than 60 countries.

He started his career as a journalist some 25 years ago in his native Romania where he worked for several local dailies, radio, and TV stations. Since 1999, he has been working for English-language media.

In 2015, with a group of journalists and researchers, he co-founded MediaPowerMonitor, a community of experts in media policy covering trends in regulation, business, and politics that influence journalism.

Thank You for Listening!

Thank you for tuning into episode 104. If you are a regular listener, please rate and review our show.

Don’t forget to get in touch with your questions. I love hearing from my listeners, don’t be a social media stranger. Contact me at @JSTweetsDigital

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch. Email info@publicsectormarketingpros.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Public Sector Marketing Show or your preferred podcast platform.

The post The Important Role of Media to Safeguard Democracy appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

In today’s episode I’m asking the questions:

• Are we better off at work now than before the pandemic?
• What is workplace wellbeing?
• How can we master it as employers and managers?

I take a closer look at how workplaces are changing for the better and some of the innovative strategies that organisations are introducing and implementing. 

I interview Dolores Andrew who recently held a national Workplace Wellbeing event on National Workplace Wellbeing Day. As a specialist in this field, she shares her tips, tricks, and insights into how we can all be better managers and why we should embrace doing less.  

Let’s dive in!

Column – What is workplace wellbeing in the remote working age?

In preparation for this episode, I got me thinking about how our world of work has dramatically changed since the pandemic.  

We are remote working a lot more.

We are traveling less – whether that’s commuting for work, or in my case traveling on planes, trains, and across motorways to meet clients. 

We are accessible around the clock.

We are more mindful of our mental health and wellbeing and that of our colleagues. 

But are our mental health, well-being, and overall health better now in the remote working age? This is a question I asked Dolores.

But other things are happening.

4-day working week

Right to switch off after working hours

Breastfeeding at work

Neuroinclusion

Consulting – Workplace Wellbeing in Practice 

According to Healthy Ireland workplace well-being programmes contribute to a healthier workforce and can benefit employers by:

Increasing employee productivity

Increasing employee job satisfaction and loyalty

Reducing absenteeism and presenteeism

Reducing injuries and Health and Safety costs

Improving the organisation’s reputation and social responsibility efforts

So I decided to share with you our workplace wellbeing bad practices but my ambitions to improve. 

4-day working week

4-6 weeks holidays

Family / child days

Mental health days

Sick days

Pet time (or bring your pet to our team meeting)

Software and systems that make our life easier

Helping each other out

Case Study, Central Statistics Office 

Senior management assigned dedicated staff and budgetary resources to support the development and implementation of a well-being programme for staff across four areas – Health, Fitness, Nutrition and Mind & Body. 

Evaluations were built into most initiatives and included gathering feedback pre and post-initiative, measuring participation rates and an annual staff survey.

Outcomes

Culture of health and well-being embedded in the organisation

Staff given the opportunity to raise personal awareness and knowledge in health-related areas as part of their working environment

Reputation of the organisation as a positive working environment and an employer of choice is promoted

Staff are given the opportunity to manage initiatives and demonstrate leadership skills

Read the full case study here. 

What fun or unique or quirky workplace wellbeing practices do you have in your workplace? I’d love to know! Send me a DM on Instagram to @jsgrams digital.

Interview |  Dolores Andrew

Dolores Andrew is a Workplace Wellness Trainer and Holistic Life Coach. 

She is dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of organisations and their employees. 

Dolores brings 11 years coaching experience into delivering comprehensive wellness programs tailored to the unique needs of each workplace.  Her expertise includes effective communication, stress management, developing both confidence and resilience, and empowering leaders and employees to achieve their best selves. 

As a trusted advocate for workplace wellness, Dolores is dedicated to creating healthier, happier, and more productive teams, one wellness initiative at a time.
For more information visit Dolores’ website and find out details about her Workplace Wellbeing packages.

Thank You for Listening!

Thank you for tuning into episode 103. If you are a regular listener, please rate and review our show.

Don’t forget to get in touch with your questions. I love hearing from my listeners, don’t be a social media stranger. Contact me at @JSTweetsDigital

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch. Email info@publicsectormarketingpros.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Public Sector Marketing Show or your preferred podcast platform.

The post How to Master Workplace Wellbeing in the Remote Working Age appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

The rules of PR and marketing are changing so fast, faster than we can say transformation. 

But in today’s show I want to look more specifically at our work in public relations – how we engage target audiences and get them to know, like and trust us. 

It’s becoming more difficult for sure, with AI, Deep Fake and the misinformation revolution online trying to divide and conquer. 

So, I’m going to try to unpack how we can revive our PR skills of old in the new digital age. 

I interview Nicholas Bruneau who recently launched his debut title, Engage with Impact. 

Let’s dive in! 

Column – What are the new rules, Joanne?

In preparation for this podcast episode, I took some time to think about this question. It brought me back to my own book, Public Sector Marketing Pro and one chapter in particular – Chapter 8: How to Build Public Trust Online. 

This chapter shares a series of case studies from government and public sector with anecdotes and insights from their communications managers. 

I start off by signalling that we must put our focus on building ‘meaningful engagement’ as opposed to a ‘post and go’ habit of communication online.

So here are five new rules from that chapter that I think all PR pros need to lean into in 2024.

1⃣ Agility over predictability

2⃣ Eliminate the monopolistic mindset

3⃣ A more conversational world

4⃣ Embracing the future of work

5⃣ Testing tech because resistance is futile

Consulting – How do we move forward when we are stuck looking back?

In my daily work, I speak with, train and coach public sector communications professionals. 

Very often their frustrations are around an inability to move their PR, marketing, and communications forward.

Here’s the top grievances I note that is keeping public sector comms stuck looking back and unable to move forward.

Under-funded, under-resourced, under-valued

Too many chiefs, not enough cooks 

Fear of public attack, online trolling 

Lack of knowledge and skills in-house in certain disciplines

Fear of change, comfort in the ‘always do what we always did’

Decision-making relay

Interview |  Nicholas Bruneau

Nicholas Bruneau is a communication strategist with decades of experience. His expertise lies at the intersection of digital communications and purpose-led marketing.

Nicholas has worked for intergovernmental agencies from the UN, World Bank, and EU, as well as non-profits, associations, media and political groups. He has led numerous digital advocacy campaigns on international development, education, sustainability, and climate change issues.

Nicholas works from his home office in Cascais, Portugal, which uses 100% green electricity and reduces emissions thanks to domestic solar panels and Ecologi climate impact membership.

For more info visit: nicholasbruneau.com

Thank You for Listening!

Thank you for tuning into episode 102. If you are a regular listener, please rate and review our show.

Don’t forget to get in touch with your questions. I love hearing from my listeners, don’t be a social media stranger. Contact me at @JSTweetsDigital

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch. Email info@publicsectormarketingpros.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Public Sector Marketing Show or your preferred podcast platform.

The post The New Rules of PR in 2024 appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

In a recent episode, I talked about the value and power of influencer marketing in 2024. 

But in today’s show, I’m going down the ethics road and asking some tough questions about the grey areas of this marketing discipline. 

Did you know that there are laws in some European countries around child labour and influencer marketing?

Did you know that Ireland is also conducting research in this area?

Stay tuned for more on this and other ethical considerations brands, influencers and public sector should be mindful off. 

Column – A reminder about the ethics in marketing

What are the four ethics in marketing?

Marketing ethics refers to the principles and values that guide the behavior of marketers:

1⃣ Honesty

2⃣ Responsibility

3⃣ Fairness

4⃣ Respect for consumers and society

Whether we are doing influencer marketing or PR, digital marketing, or social media marketing, it’s a good idea for all of us to be mindful of the core ethics in our work.

Consulting – What are the ethical concerns associated with influencer marketing?

Some people love it, some people hate it, some people have no opinion on it. 

But whatever you think about influencer marketing it is big business and it is here to stay. It’s forecast to be worth almost $150 billion by 2030. 

We are living in the Creator Economy where self-made TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram stars are creating six-figure incomes from the comfort of their own homes. 

This new economy is being driven by social networks whose business model is built on our ATTENTION + PERSONAL DATA.

But what of the ethical concerns, what do we need to worry about?

Authenticity

Consistency

Disclosure

The Mirror Effect

Interview |  Dr Francis Rees

In this episode, I have a fascinating interview with Dr Francis Rees her research which considers the impact of digital child labour on child performers (under 13) on social media sites such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. 

Effectively, her research says that children do not appear in their own right (as they are underage), but the parent or guardian acts as a conduit, managing the account and curating the content.

Follow Francis on Instagram @childinfluencerproject

Read more about her work here: https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/child-influencer-project

Thank You for Listening!

Thank you for tuning into episode 101. If you are a regular listener, please rate and review our show.

Don’t forget to get in touch with your questions. I love hearing from my listeners, don’t be a social media stranger. Contact me at @JSTweetsDigital

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch. Email info@publicsectormarketingpros.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Public Sector Marketing Show or your preferred podcast platform.

The post Social Responsibility & Influencer Marketing Ethics  appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

It’s Episode 100, and we’re celebrating in a big way!

This milestone episode was marked with a special live webinar to launch our new website and discuss Social Media & AI Trends.

We explore how AI is driving engagement and personalisation across platforms through chatbots and content recommendation systems.

We were thrilled to have an exciting lineup of special guests from around the world, including both familiar faces and new voices, join us for this momentous occasion.

The live format allowed us to answer your questions in real time, making it an interactive and enriching experience for all participants.

Interview | Andy Lambert

This week, I interviewed Andy Lambert, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Adobe Express. Andy shared his insights on the impact of AI on social media trends. His perspective on the future of social media and AI was both enlightening and inspiring.

Free Accredited Course and Book Giveaway

To make the celebration even more special, we gave away free accredited courses and books to selected attendees of the live webinar.

It was our way of saying thank you to our loyal audience for their continued support over the past 100 episodes.

Thank You for Listening!

Thank you for tuning into episode 100.  If you are a regular listener, please rate and review our show.

Don’t forget to get in touch with your questions. I love hearing from my listeners, don’t be a social media stranger. Contact me at @JSTweetsDigital

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch. Email info@publicsectormarketingpros.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Public Sector Marketing Show or your preferred podcast platform.

The post Celebrating 100 Episodes appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

The influencer marketing industry is worth over €21 billion euro and growing. 

For anyone scoffing at this sector, you would do well to sit up and take note. 

We are living in the creator economy where social networks are paying influencers to create and brands paying influencers to sell their product or service. Creators are winning on the double! 

But what does this mean for public sector marketing and how can you capitialise on the valuable reach and engagement for targeted groups?

Let’s dive in! 

Column – Is it time to embrace influencer marketing in the public sector?

I have asked this question before on this podcast. 

So let’s see if the answer has changed in 2024?

The simple answer is no. I still say that you should embrace influencer marketing. 

 Influencer marketing is powerful for public sector for a number of reasons. 

1. It provides you with relatable content 
2. It brings attention to a serious public interest campaign or set of messages 
3. It influences citizens to inform themselves at a deeper level
4. It makes your public sector role more tangible
5. It allows you to access audiences that are hard to reach
6. You can have a TikTok presence without being on TikTok
7. You can grow Instagram or other key social networks
8. You can start a national conversation 

So there are lots of reasons to embrace influencer marketing in 2024, would you add any others?

Consulting – How to plan a public sector influencer marketing campaign based on 2024 influencer marketing trends

Employee Advocacy: Internal voices for external impact 

Sonic Influence: The sound of influence

The Year of Sport: Driving cultural impact beyond the field 

Live Streaming: From second screen to main screen

Sustainable Influence: Influencing a better tomorrow 

AI Influence Goes Hyper-Personal: Unlocking the potential of AI in influence

Interview | Dr Irene McCormick

This week, I interviewed Dr Irene McCormick, Senior Lecturer South East Technological University, Carlow.

Thank You for Listening!

Thank you for tuning into episode 99.  If you are a regular listener, please rate and review our show.

Don’t forget to get in touch with your questions. I love hearing from my listeners, don’t be a social media stranger. Contact me at @JSTweetsDigital

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch. Email info@publicsectormarketingpros.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Public Sector Marketing Show or your preferred podcast platform.

The post Influencer Marketing Trends 2024 appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.

I love the Internet and how it has democratised the voice of citizens, the world of work and media. However, it has some dark sides and the latest negative trend is deep-fake. 

The combination of the Internet, social media, generative AI give those with malicious intentions huge opportunities. And manipulated media is now mainstream and we all need to watch out for it. 

I already mentioned that it’s election year in a previous episode and I predict that deep-fake will be a massive feature this year. 

So let’s dive into the world of deep-fake and how you can protect public sector reputation and communications. 

Column – What is Deep-Fake and Why You Should Care?

Firstly, let me explain what Deep-Fake means.

It is a video of a person in which their face or body has been digitally altered so that they appear to be someone else, typically used maliciously or to spread false information.

So what are the different types of Deep-fakes and how can you spot them? Business Today wrote an article about it. 

1⃣ Face-swapping deep-fakes

2⃣ Voice synthesis

3⃣ Gesture and body movement manipulation

4⃣ Text-based deep-fakes

5⃣ Object manipulation

6⃣ Hybrid deep-fakes

7⃣ Malicious use cases

Source: https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/what-are-the-different-types-of-deepfakes-and-how-you-can-spot-them

Consulting – How to prepare and how to react to deep-fake attacks

Deepfake videos depicting public figures making incendiary comments or behaving inappropriately could also alter election outcomes and damage public trust in governments and public sector agencies. 

But what can be done?

Social media platforms that host this fake content have a huge responsibility. 

They should have AI deepfake detection technology embedded in their systems and tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta have already taken first steps towards achieving this goal.

Governments and legislators have a role.

The European Union has an updated Code of Practice to stop the spread of disinformation through deepfakes.

The US has introduced the Deepfake Task Force Act to assist the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to counter deepfake technology.

The EU code of practice is the world’s first international legal framework to have big tech companies commit to counter disinformation and deepfakes across their platforms.

The US states of California and Texas have even passed laws to criminalize the publishing and distributing of deepfake videos that may influence an election outcome.

In January 2022, China’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), published new guidelines for content providers that modify face and voice data, in an effort to counter the spread of deepfakes online.

So you need to be prepared for an attack, just as you would prepare for a cyber-security attack. 

Set up expansive digital monitoring for names and keywords linked to your agency

Have a fact-checking strategy to combat any deep-fakes

An agile digital team to counteract misinformation 

Large scale public awareness campaign to support after initial crisis comms.

Interview | Muiriosa Ryan 

This week, I interviewed Muiriosa Ryan, Social Media and Digital Marketing Manager at Ireland’s Health Service Executive.

Thank You for Listening!

Thank you for tuning into episode 98.  If you are a regular listener, please rate and review our show.

Don’t forget to get in touch with your questions. I love hearing from my listeners, don’t be a social media stranger. Contact me at @JSTweetsDigital

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch. Email info@publicsectormarketingpros.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Public Sector Marketing Show or your preferred podcast platform.

The post How to Manage the Threat of Deep-Fake in Public Sector appeared first on Public Sector Marketing Insitute.