Avoiding Facebook fatigue

Facebook’s decision to block professional media outlets from sharing its content had an unlikely side effect – a number of councils and government departments suddenly found they too were unable to communicate with their stakeholders.

While for some social media is simply used as a channel to share opinions and personal updates, for others – like non-profit organisations, rural firefighters, or local utility and traffic authorities – being able to communicate quickly and effectively with people in the community has become relied upon.

At Datacom, we have been working with our local authority partners to come up with a more direct way to communicate with the people in your community.

Antenno looks and feels to a user like any social media app but it helps councils to send out updates and news in a targeted way. Because it’s your app, nobody is selling random advertising around the content and the user has made a conscious decision to engage with their council through the app, so engagement rates are a lot higher for communications sent via Antenno.

An average Antenno post gets a 41 per cent impression rate (that is, people seeing the post in their feeds) and an 18 per cent open rate. This means you’re reaching far more people than posts sent via the big social media platforms. You can also control the message without inflammatory and inaccurate comments derailing the content you’re trying to share, which, if allowed to spiral, can upset other readers and potentially turn them away from your content.

Antenno also enables and empowers community members to engage with their local councils and authorities. If you see a pothole or a streetlight that is out, take a photo and let them know directly – no more waiting till you get home to look up the phone number or trying to use a webform from your computer. Just action it on the spot and it is pumped directly into the council’s system.

Antenno also allows people to save locations they particularly care about and receive updates on the places that are relevant to them, without getting bombarded with posts that don’t matter. They have the power to opt-out of topics that they aren’t interested in, further reducing the clutter. Don’t have a dog? No need to get reminders that you have to renew a dog licence. It is that simple.

Antenno is about reducing the level of noise, increasing the engagement rates between councils and their people and getting the word out to the largest audience when it’s needed the most. All the more important when the largest social media site in the world inadvertently blocks councils and government departments from communicating with their stakeholders.