03 Jun Posting with Purpose: Best Practices for Sharing Your Community’s Story Across Social Media
Social media isn’t just about posting pretty pictures; it’s about sharing the heartbeat of your community. When used strategically, it becomes a powerful way to highlight what makes your community special, from government updates to big events and hidden gems.
By leaning into platform-specific best practices, you can craft content that not only captures attention but also builds a real connection. In this blog, we’ll break down how to bring your community’s story to life across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.
Use Instagram to inspire and visually showcase your destination. Share eye-catching, authentic photos and create 15-30 second Reels that highlight local experience, culture, and charm. Stories are great for increased engagement, and incorporating relevant keywords in your captions helps boost visibility.
Examples of this can be found in the content we created for our client in Manchester, New Hampshire. We crafted a carousel post and a Reel for “A Perfect Day in Manchester, NH” content series that walked viewers through a full itinerary, from morning coffee to afternoon art, shopping, and a night out with food and drinks. The content gave a snapshot of what makes the city so inviting, while also tagging local businesses.
Additionally, since Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links in captions, it’s best practice to set up a Linktree in your bio to house external links like event pages featured in your posts. Keep it updated so it always reflects your most current content.
Like Instagram, Facebook is great for sharing a mix of photos and short videos. However, on Facebook, you can add clickable external links to your post copy. This makes it especially useful for directing followers to landing pages where they can read relevant news articles, watch a recording of a public meeting, or RSVP to an event.
Examples for Facebook are to create a Facebook event for an annual food festival, share teaser photos leading up to it, and encourage local businesses and ambassadors to share the event and content on their channels and in relevant Facebook groups.
Use LinkedIn to share economic development news, business growth updates, and community spotlights to attract investors, entrepreneurs, and professionals.
An example of this is to post a profile of a new business opening and tag the business to showcase community support, opportunity, and growth.
X
Use X for quick updates, live event coverage, engaging with visitors, and sharing real-time news. An example of this is to live-tweet highlights from a music festival with photos or post updates for road closures and maintenance projects.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-centric platform. Youtube is a great platform to livestream meetings and post regular updates. Consider having the mayor or communications director record a three-to-five minute video with the month’s most important updates. YouTube can also be leveraged to tell your community’s story through long-form destination highlights and Shorts. Optimize titles and thumbnails on your videos to increase reach.
An example of content to leverage is a video series that highlights different ways to experience your destination. Each video could feature an itinerary like “Family-Friendly Fun,” “Hidden Gems to Explore,” or “Best Places to See Live Music and Local Art.” This not only gives viewers a clear picture of what they can do, but also encourages repeat engagement with your channel.
Break up longer videos into Shorts to tease the full videos and drive more views. You can also repurpose this content across other platforms using shorter clips on Instagram and Facebook to promote the full video on YouTube and drive traffic back to your page.
Put Your Place on the Map
When telling your destination’s story, it’s important to keep your audience in mind because not every platform reaches the same people. Younger audiences are on Instagram and YouTube, while Facebook and X connect with families and older generations. LinkedIn, on the other hand, engages professionals. Tailoring your message to each audience ensures your place resonates far and wide and stays top of mind. It’s also important to stay informed about platform updates, as they continue to evolve and change.
Craft your social media content with purpose or leave it to us, and we’ll make your community shine.