Find out more in Civic Web Media‘s annual breakdown of the most popular social media sites in Australia as we begin 2019.

Update: Australia’s most popular social media sites 2020

How many Australians use social media in 2019?

The latest Yellow Social Media Report released in June last year found that almost 9 in 10 people (88%) have a social media profile in Australia. This figure is up from 79% in 2017 and 69% in 2016, showing remarkable growth over a relatively short period.

The average Australian now owns 3.5 internet-enabled devices, with most preferring to use their smartphones to access social media. 60% of people say they use the internet more than five times per day.

How do customers interact with businesses on social media?

The Yellow report found that 44% of consumers follow brands on social media. This increases to 52% for females and 65% for people aged 18-29.

More than 50% of social media users say they value brand interactions on social networks and are more likely to trust a business if it offers engaging and relevant content on a regular basis.

Discounts (62%) and giveaways (51%) are the most popular reasons people follow brands.

Top 10 social networks in Australia 2019

Statistics compiled by SocialMediaNews.com.au for December 2018. Source: Vivid Social – Social Media Agency. Figures correct as of 31/12/18.

1. Facebook

15,000,000 unique active monthly users

Facebook’s dominance and popularity have remained stable since this time last year, despite the organisation’s high-profile data scandals in early 2018 that saw users worldwide being urged to ‘Delete Facebook’. Around 60% of the Australian population has a Facebook account and around 1 in 2 people check it every day.

According to Yellow, 91% of Aussies who use social media are on Facebook, which includes more women than men (95% vs 88%). The average user spends almost 10 hours a week on the platform and more than a quarter (28%) watch live streaming videos on Facebook Live.

More Australian businesses use and advertise on Facebook than any other social platform – around 9 in 10 SMBs and large businesses. This connects them with Australia’s biggest online audience.

2. YouTube

15,000,000 unique monthly visitors

More than half of the population (53%) watches videos on YouTube. This includes slightly more men than women (56% vs 50%) and 65% of people under 30. 46% of people share videos or photos on social media.

Video is one of the most engaging types of content for consumers, but most businesses are still hesitant to produce video content due to the time and effort involved in making it look professional.

3. Instagram

9,000,000 active monthly users

Instagram is still Australia’s favourite image-sharing website, retaining a stable user base over the past 12 months after having doubled its users the previous year. The site is more popular with women than men (44% vs 34%).

Instagram users are more likely to follow brands than users of other social networks at 44% (compared to 39% of Facebook users). Formerly more popular with SMBs, the number of large businesses advertising on Instagram has more than doubled in the past year from 20% to 46% according to the Yellow survey of Australian businesses.

Read more: Hashtag hacks: Everything you need to know about hashtags

4. WhatsApp

7,000,000 active users

Steadily rising through the ranks – gaining two million users each year for the past two years – WhatsApp is Australia’s second most popular social media messaging service after parent company Facebook’s own Messenger.

5. Snapchat

6,400,000 active monthly users

Snapchat is once again the fastest growing social media app in Australia, rising two places from last year’s count. As well as its high monthly user base, more than 4.5 million Australians use Snapchat every day – around 36 times per week on average.

Snapchat is more popular with younger demographics, with almost half (49%) of 18-29 year olds on social media using the platform. It’s also used by more males than females (28% vs 17%).

6. WordPress.com

5,800,000 monthly users

Australia’s favourite CMS platform had a modest gain of 100,000 users over the past year. Its free business model, ease of use and extensive customisation makes WordPress the go-to option for many bloggers and SMBs creating websites and blogs.

7. Twitter

4,700,000 active monthly users

Twitter is gaining popularity in Australia, rising from 9th place and 3,000,000 users this time last year. Unlike most social networks, Twitter is most widely used by people in their 30s. It’s also much more popular with men than women (26% vs 13%). Aussie Twitter users check the site 23 times per week on average.

Twitter’s speed and ease of use make it popular with large businesses, of which 60% advertise on the platform. Small businesses are much less enthusiastic however, with use dropping to just 14%.

8. LinkedIn

4,500,000 active monthly users

Dropping down the ranks, but still gaining users, the “Facebook for professionals” is notably more popular with men than women (28% vs 17%). LinkedIn reports that approximately 8 million Australians have signed up for LinkedIn accounts, which means that just over half log in to their account regularly.

Naturally, LinkedIn is widely used by businesses. It’s the second most popular social media site after Facebook for large businesses (used by 73% that use social media) and medium businesses (48%). It’s less popular with small businesses though, which are more likely to use Instagram.

9. Tumblr

3,700,000 monthly users

The only site on this list to lose rather than gain users over the past year (though only by around 100,000), Tumblr’s slow decline continues. However, the microblogging site retains a loyal user base.

10. Tinder

3,000,000 users

Just holding on to 10th place, Australia’s most popular dating app has an estimated 3 million users. This has remained stable over the past year, after increasing in 2017 when premium paid services were introduced.

Hot on Tinder’s heels in 11th place is WeChat with around 2,900,000 active monthly users. Hugely popular with Australia’s Chinese community, WeChat and other Chinese social networks such as RenRen and Weibo are expected to increasingly challenge traditional social networks in the coming years.

For more industry news and online marketing tips for your business, follow the Civic Web Media Blog.

According to ABS statistics, for businesses established in 2013-14 with fewer than 20 employees, there was a 64% survival rate by 2016 (not a 60% failure rate as is often cited online). This drops to 55% for surviving a fourth year – a select group we intend on joining.

Deciding when our anniversary should be wasn’t as easy a choice as you might think. While a bricks and mortar store might have a more obvious first day in business, we had different anniversaries for:

• Registering our ABN,
• Registering our business name,
• Purchasing our domain and hosting,
• Becoming ‘LinkedIn official’,
• Having our first business meeting,
• Invoicing our first client,
• Our first client paying us (within two days!)

In the end, we’ve gone with registering our business name as our official anniversary, as that’s the day Civic Web Media was truly born. There have been major achievements in that time for us:

• Each year, we’ve had more income (and more tax to pay, including GST),
• Each year, we’ve grown our client numbers (both in Newcastle and overseas),
• We’ve gone from a home office to working in a shared office space of creatives at The Roost,
• We were invited to speak at an industry event,
• At the start of 2018, we invited one of our freelancers to work for us on a more official basis.

We also recently celebrated payment of our 200th invoice. While this isn’t always the best measure of success (for example, our biggest invoice contains 60x as many items and is worth 200x more than our smallest), it feels like an important landmark nonetheless.

When we started in business, we made the decision to make a donation after every 100 invoices – a local business helping the local community. The first time round we donated to the Hunter Wetlands; this time we’ve supported Newcastle Toy Run.

We’ve got a lot to look forward to – a celebration of a fourth anniversary and our 300th invoice among them – and every day in business is another reminder that we’re doing something right.

But before then, let us eat cake.

Enter Newcastle, a place that many people in Australia refer to as a country town. It’s hardly NYC, but definitely not the outback. Over the last decade, Newcastle has been experiencing a rebirth and renaissance of sorts. The creativity is oozing and the community engagement is thriving right down to local banks and building societies and how they manage their content.

Today we’ll be comparing and contrasting the social media campaigns and content of The Greater Bank and Newcastle Permanent.

Despite the fact that both are based in Newcastle, one clearly has a Greater social media presence. Big jokes aside, The Greater is casting a wider net to generate and interact with customers, but first let’s look at Newcastle Permanent and how they are going.

Newcastle Permanent on social media

To start with, Newcastle Permanent has a YouTube channel. Here you can find videos that have been viewed 12 times, and videos that have been viewed 75,000 times. This 10-second commercial with a Newcastle Permanent logo in the cappuccino leads to reflection on latte art and interest rates. Their annual general meeting didn’t quite garner the same attention with fewer than 60 views, but it is a meeting, and meetings are boring.

Releasing these two videos on the same platform to the same audience may show a lack of foresight into who they’re targeting. On top of this, the Permanent’s videos appear to be arbitrarily released as well, which might lead customers to believe their YouTube channel is not their number one priority.

Their YouTube channel is by no means terrible, but their Facebook is better. The first thing you see is events they’re holding in the community, which is a big part of their branding. Clearly their events coordinators and their marketing team are working in harmony to release a clear message.

Another article could be written about the benefits of businesses giving back to the community, but good deeds aside, they’ve got a clear and engaging content marketing plan. They post almost every day, sometimes twice a day, and while you will find blatant advertisements in their content, as well as the occasional blog post, the vast majority leads you to believe that this company does good for the community.

The Greater Bank on social media

Although Newcastle Permanent has done well, The Greater has been a little bit more engaging in the online field.

Upon the time of writing, their YouTube channel had uploaded eight new videos just three hours ago, and their highest number views came in at more than half a million for the 15 second video of Alex the first home buyer. The Greater joined YouTube in 2009, two years later than Newcastle Permanent, but with more views and more subscribers, they are clearly fast learners.

If you head to their Facebook page for a comparison, two things are immediately evident. Number one, The Greater is not holding free events for the community, and number two, their background photo’s moving image is more sophisticated than Newcastle Permanent’s. However, The Greater is specifically catering to Newcastle Jets fans, so if you happen to not be into sports (and/or have kids) the childish Facebook background that advertises free activities from Newcastle Permanent is probably more appealing, despite its lack of motion.

Like Newcastle Permanent, The Greater also plugs all the feel good things it’s doing in the community, from partnering with CanTeen Australia to fight cancer to videos of happy families with adorable babies balancing their lifestyle and budget. They’re heavier on videos compared to Newcastle Permanent, and they often post two to three times per day.

Overall, it seems they have the hang of well-produced content, and their biggest risk is getting so heavily invested in the Newcastle Jets, which isn’t political or controversial, simply runs the chance of abandoning customers who also aren’t sports fans.

It’s not really possible to compare The Greater and Newcastle Permanent when it comes to Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Instagram other to say that The Greater uses them and Newcastle Permanent doesn’t. The Greater tends to recycle their Facebook material on all of LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram and Twitter to increase their reach, and it’s interesting to speculate why Newcastle Permanent doesn’t do the same. It wouldn’t be much more costly to include the same content across all platforms and engage more potential customers.

Ultimately both businesses have recognised the importance of involving the community in what they are doing, and each have clearly identified a direction in which to corner their customers. From videos and blog posts to family events and sports teams, these two businesses are making bank from being involved.

Read more social media comparisons from Newcastle

Newcastle City Council vs Lake Macquarie Council

Newcastle Jets vs Newcastle Knights

The rise of social media has made it easier (and cheaper) for sport teams to connect with their fans. As well as following the personal accounts of their idols – often professionally managed to some degree, to avoid the sort of social media gaffes that could reflect badly on the team – it’s a given that loyal fans will add and follow their team’s accounts on their social networks to show their support.

A well-managed social profile is more than just a badge. To see how two local sporting clubs are stepping up to the task, we’ve compared the social networking activities of the Newcastle Jets and the Newcastle Knights.

The McDonald Jones Stadium mates don’t start out on an equal footing – NRL has a considerably larger following than the A-League, of course, and the Knights have a few years on the Jets as an established local name. Social media can be a great equaliser, and any brand can build a loyal online following when it provides valuable content that people are interested in.

Official websites

Before we compare their performance on the leading social media sites, we’ve taken a look at how their own websites fare. Your official site represents your brand, and should tell visitors everything they need to know, as well as making it easy for them to follow your activities elsewhere on the web.

newcastlejets.com.au

The Newcastle Jets homepage has convenient buttons taking users directly to their most active social accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, alongside links to their official shop and app. These are at the top of every page and easy to spot.

newcastleknights.com.au

The Newcastle Knights site has a similar set-up with the same easy social buttons, but the whole site is pushed down by a dominant banner advertising owner Telstra’s other enterprises. This corporate weight likely means there’s more funds and personnel available for managing their marketing activities, but it’s not the most welcoming message for fans who are visiting the site to find out about their team, not the suits.

newcastleknights.com.au

The Knights website includes a wider selection of social media links further down the page, as well as a prominent Facebook banner inviting likes and a live Twitter feed. The Jets also have a live Twitter widget.

newcastlejets.com.au

Both sites keep fans up-to-date with the latest news on and off the pitch, with articles, videos and photo galleries. Once published, these are shared on their social networks, helping to drive traffic to the official sites.

 newcastlejets.com.au

The Jets site encourages further social interaction by including like/share buttons and comments via the Disqus platform, but this can be overkill when it’s done for every single page. There’s little incentive for people to share functional content such as a ‘contact us’ page, and when all the stats sit on zero, it can have the adverse effect of making your site look unpopular.

newcastleknights.com.au

While the Jets videos are mainly highlights and repostings of third party interviews, the Knights invest more effort in creating their own video content under the ‘Knights TV’ banner. Hosting this on their own website brings in more traffic, but ignoring the sizeable YouTube audience is a major oversight, as we’ll discuss later.

Social media platforms

Both clubs have a presence on many of Australia’s most popular social media sites, but some of these accounts are more active than others – and there are some glaring omissions.

Facebook

facebook.com/newcastlejetsfc

facebook.com/NRLKnights

With more than 17 million regular monthly users in Australia (more than 70% of the population), a Facebook account is all but mandatory for any customer-facing business, and both teams have brushed up on good Facebook practice.

They both post regular updates (the Knights more frequently), and every post features an image or video to make it more appealing and more likely to be shared. This content attracts a decent number of likes and comments on both accounts.

The Newcastle Jets page has been ‘liked’ by around 51,000 people, and the Newcastle Knights page almost triples that figure. This is to be expected when rugby league goes up against soccer, and it doesn’t necessarily reflect on either team’s Facebook technique.

Twitter

twitter.com/newcastlejetsfc

twitter.com/NRLKnights

We start to see some interesting differences when we compare the teams’ Twitter profiles. This time, the Jets aren’t lagging behind by the same degree, with around 32,000 followers compared to the Knights’ 50,000.

Both accounts post frequent updates to keep their followers in the loop, so why the comparative boost for the Jets? It’s likely due to their greater commitment to connecting with their fans – the Jets follow 710 Twitter accounts, while the Knights follow less than half as many, despite their greater number of followers.

Spending more time engaging with their fans could see the Knights’ following grow substantially, but considering Twitter’s lack of popularity compared to other social networks (only used by around three million Australians each month), that time could be put to better use elsewhere.

Instagram

instagram.com/newcastlejetsfc

instagram.com/nrlknights

Once again, the Newcastle Jets take the time to follow more of their fans in return than the Knights do. But this time, that doesn’t have a noticeable pay-off in terms of followers – around 14,000 for the soccer team vs. 42,000 for the rugby club.

The Newcastle Knights’ Instagram is one of their most active profiles, likely because the content has already been created for other platforms and is simply being reposted. It doesn’t hurt that their action shots tend to be higher quality and more dynamic too.

LinkedIn

linkedin.com/company/newcastle-jets-fc

linkedin.com/company/newcastle-knights-limited

Both Newcastle teams maintain LinkedIn profiles for people who are interested in the business side of things. The Jets have significantly more connections, which is unexpected with their smaller organisation size, and might again be down to an emphasis on networking.

However, the Newcastle Knights are more active in keeping their followers updated with the latest details of employment opportunities, sponsorships and other corporate interests. They also promote their LinkedIn profile on their website, which the Jets don’t, meaning they could be on track to overtake the the soccer side.

YouTube

youtube.com/user/JetsNewcastle

Both teams prefer to host videos on their own sites and through their Facebook and Twitter feeds than on YouTube. While they’re likely to reach many of the people who are interested on Facebook, ignoring the YouTube audience is a decision that will cost them potential views and interactions.

YouTube is Australia’s second most popular social network after Facebook, visited by more than 15 million Australians every month. The Newcastle Jets do have a YouTube channel, but it was seemingly abandoned several years ago – with Emile Heskey still featuring prominently – and only contains old news that won’t be of interest to anyone. In the absence of an official channel for the Newcastle Knights, several unofficial channels have sprung up to fill the void and share relevant content with fans, which shows that the interest is there.

Considering both teams create video content already – the Knights being the most prolific with their ‘Knights TV’ branding – reposting this content to YouTube would be a simple way to reach many more people at minimal extra effort.

Takeaways

It’s not surprising that the Newcastle Knights are enjoying the greater success on social media as a whole, given their larger fan base and (presumed) marketing budget. They’re also more eager to keep up with new trends to reach their fans in more places, demonstrated by their joining Snapchat in 2016.

However, as hinted with their Twitter and LinkedIn success, the Newcastle Jets have proven that it’s possible to build on a small audience and form more meaningful relationships by taking the time to connect with their followers and answer their questions, rather than simply re-posting content they may have already seen elsewhere.

Frequent posting of high quality content is the simple key to social media success, although maintaining this level of activity in the off season can be a challenge. Both organisations could take inspiration from sport teams around the world that have built stronger relationships with their fans by featuring them on their social platforms and encouraging their followers to participate in content creation.

For more social media comparisons, see our breakdown of two local councils in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie and our case study of CSR.

What social networking sites do Australians love the most? If you’re thinking about social media marketing for your business, it’s useful to know which platforms your customers use, so you can target your promotions in places where they’re most likely to be seen and shared.

It’s getting on for two years since we last gave a rundown of Australia’s favourite social media sites. While overall trends haven’t changed significantly in that time, there are enough exceptions that we really needed a new stats post to keep linking back to.

This is what Australia’s social media landscape looks like in 2017, combining the latest data from SocialMediaNews.com.au and the Sensis Social Media Report.

Top 10 social networks in Australia

1. Facebook

17,000,000 monthly visitors (unique Australian visitors)

Facebook is the world’s most well-known social media site, so it’s no surprise that it comes out on top for Australia too. As the network approaches two billion users worldwide, around 17 million of these are Australians – more than 70% of our population.

According to Sensis data, 95% of Australians who use social media sites have an active account on Facebook. It’s also by far the most popular social site for businesses to use, with between 79% and 89% of Australian businesses having a Facebook account.

Check out our social media comparison to see what local NSW councils are doing right on Facebook and other major platforms.

2. YouTube

15,100,000 monthly visitors

Not far behind Facebook is YouTube. More than 15m Australians watch at least one video on the site every month – more than half the population.

Even on other sites like Facebook, videos are one of the most engaging types of content and hold someone’s attention for a long time. Around 41% of large businesses have YouTube accounts featuring their own branded content.

See how CSR uses YouTube videos as part of their content marketing activities.

3. WordPress.com

5,100,000 monthly visitors

Australia’s favourite CMS is also its third most popular social network, with users following their favourite bloggers or discovering new content and posting comments.

If you’re just getting started with your business website, WordPress can host your site or your business blog for free. Find out more about how to get started.

4. Instagram

5,000,000 monthly active visitors

Instagram is still Australia’s favourite dedicated image-sharing site, especially among younger people aged 18-29. One in five people has an Instagram account.

However, unlike most of the social networks on this list, its user base hasn’t noticeably changed over the last two years. This could see Instagram start to slide down the rankings as it’s overtaken by up-and-coming platforms.

If you’re on Instagram or you need to source images for your business blog, read our guide on to how to use images legally.

5. Snapchat

4,000,000 daily visitors

The fastest growing social media site/app, usage of Snapchat among social network users increased from 15% to 22% last year. It’s now used by four million Australians – one in six people use the app every day.

The ephemeral image and video sharing app appeals mostly to young people under 30, who use it to share visual content that disintegrates shortly after viewing.

Snapchat was such an instant smash, Facebook supposedly offered to buy the start-up for $3 billion. Snapchat declined.

6. LinkedIn

4,000,000 monthly visitors

Often described as a Facebook for professionals, LinkedIn falls just short of the top five. More than half of medium and large sized businesses use the network, according to Sensis. Its users are also more likely to be male, aged 30-64, working full-time and earning above-average income.

The site is steadily attracting more Australian users every year (up from 3.6m in 2015), although the proportion of Australians who use social media and also have a LinkedIn account is decreasing – from 28% in 2015 to 24% in 2016.

LinkedIn allows you to keep in touch with former colleagues, build business networks and share industry updates.

7. Tumblr

3,900,000 monthly visitors

Tumblr is still popular with many younger Aussies, but the micro-blogging site has dropped a couple of places and around 400,000 regular users since our last count.

Many of the most popular Tumblrs revolve around comics, reaction gifs and film quotes, but some game creators, TV stations and newspapers have had success there too.

8. WhatsApp

3,100,000 active users

This versatile instant messenger service is used by over a billion people worldwide, and it’s getting more popular with Australians every year.

Facebook bought WhatsApp for a record $22 billion in 2014, but it still can’t compete with the company’s own messaging service. Facebook Messenger is used by around 6.5m Australians on mobile devices – over twice as many as WhatsApp, and over a quarter of the population.

9. Twitter

3,000,000 monthly active users

Twitter continues to be less popular locally than it does globally, but the micro-blogging site has seen modest growth in Australia over the past two years – up from 2.8m in mid-2015. 19% of social media users visit Twitter regularly.

However, Twitter is also the platform with the highest drop-off rate. More than a third of people who stopped using a social network in 2016 named Twitter among the sites they no longer visited.

Twitter is more popular among businesses than the general public, with 43% of medium-sized companies and 61% of large businesses maintaining accounts. 21% of Australian Twitter users follow a brand or business.

Read more about how Australian brands use social media.

10. TripAdvisor

2,600,000 monthly visitors

Whether they’re checking out a local business or travelling somewhere new, TripAdvisor is a trusted source of information for many Australians. Its user base is also slowly climbing each year.

The website’s user-generated content and reviews can offer a more authentic perspective than branded content, but you should still make sure your business is correctly listed to help people find you.

Key takeaways

Facebook remains the dominant force in Australian social media, but a good content marketing strategy should cover all the relevant bases for your target audience.

Visual content (images and video) and instant messaging platforms are the fastest growing segments, especially among young people.

Twitter isn’t as popular as most businesses think it is, though it’s still worth having an active account to keep you followers updated.

With 80,000 active monthly users, social dinosaur MySpace is more popular than Google+ (60,000 users approx).

If you’re new to social media, find out more about how it benefits your business.

Statistics compiled by SocialMediaNews.com.au for March 2017. Stats and research provided by the Vivid Social – Social Media Agency. Figures correct as of 31/03/17.

Keeping multiple accounts up-to-date and ensuring a consistent tone across various departments takes a lot of work, but it also has major benefits. Like:

• reducing the need for phone calls and paper correspondence
• demonstrating that the council is listening and responding to concerns
• establishing the council’s authority as a trusted source of information, especially in times of crisis.

With this in mind, we’ve compared how two local authorities in New South Wales are using social media to engage with the public and local businesses: Newcastle City Council and Lake Macquarie Council.

Council websites

Even if you’re more active on social networks, your own website should always be the hub of your online activity, where customers can go for in-depth information on evergreen topics.

Follow buttons

Just as your social media posts should link back to relevant pages on your site, your site should also promote your social accounts in prominent locations to encourage interaction.

newcastle.nsw.gov.au

lakemac.com.au

Both councils display a selection of social media buttons on their websites, but Newcastle City Council’s are much more visible. That’s because they’re in the top-right of the page header as well as the footer, while Lake Macquarie Council’s are only in the footer.

Newcastle City Council also keeps things more concise, with buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, while Lake Macquarie Council adds LinkedIn and Pinterest to the mix.

LinkedIn is a valuable addition for business users, but Pinterest’s lack of popularity compared to other image sharing sites makes its presence less essential, especially next to the more popular Instagram.

Share buttons

Both councils’ websites recognise the value of social share buttons for encouraging site visitors to share their content, which increases traffic to their websites and improves SEO.

newcastle.nsw.gov.au

lakemac.com.au

Share buttons are also a reminder to creators that their content needs to be worth sharing. In this case, both websites feature an impressive array of pages covering diverse topics to answer the queries of a broad range of site visitors.

Interaction

As well as the requisite contact details, both websites also invite members of the community to get in touch and share their opinions on current topics of interest in their local government area.

Newcastle City Council gives over a section of the website to feedback, but Lake Macquarie Council goes a step further by dedicating an entire website.

News

Maintaining a regular blog on your website doesn’t just improve traffic and SEO – for public institutions such as councils, it also helps to build your authority as a trusted news source.

This is where the Newcastle City Council website falls down hard. With a ‘latest news’ section that’s empty and seemingly abandoned, the only source of ‘news’ is archives of the council newsletter, sent out four times a year.

By contrast, the Lake Macquarie Council media centre is updated with new content twice a day on average, supplementing and informing their social media posts.

Social media activity

Both councils have taken the step of registering accounts with the main social platforms, but are they using them to their full advantage?

Facebook

facebook.com/newcastlecouncil

facebook.com/lakemaccity

Facebook is Australia’s most popular social media site, and both councils make adept use of the platform to keep their followers informed of upcoming events and campaigns and to make information requests. Every post is accompanied by eye-catching images or video, and staff respond to comments in a timely manner.

Rather than being a measure of quality, the larger number of followers for Lake Macquarie Council’s Facebook page likely reflects the larger population of that local government area.

Twitter

twitter.com/citynewcastle

twitter.com/lakemac

Twitter comes much further down on the list of Australia’s favourite social platforms, but with its short and snappy updates, it’s less time-intensive than most other networks. As well as reaching the people who do use Twitter, tweets often make their way to the front page of Google and can be highly effective for establishing a council’s authority during key events.

Both councils have a comparable number of Twitter followers, despite going about things differently. Lake Macquarie Council has posted over twice as many updates as Newcastle City Council over the years and follows more than three times as many users, but this hasn’t made a substantial difference to their own following.

Instagram

instagram.com/citynewcastle

instagram.com/ourlakemac

With over five million monthly users in Australia, the reach of Instagram shouldn’t be underestimated. It seems Newcastle City Council did just that, only attracting a minor following for their infrequent posts compared to Lake Macquarie Council’s more impressive figures resulting from dedication.

Surely two local councils should have similarly inspiring images worth sharing? Their Facebook posts are full of them.

YouTube

youtube.com/user/NCCclips

youtube.com/user/lakemaccity

Once more, Lake Macquarie Council proves to be the earlier and more dedicated adopter of social media, publishing over twice as many videos to YouTube as Newcastle City Council over the past six years.

Audience figures for both councils varies depending on the merits of each individual video, but Lake Macquarie’s videos tend to get more views. Their most popular video has racked up over 10,000 views compared to Newcastle’s 4,000.

Takeaways

For two similar bodies with similar preoccupations, the City of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Council demonstrate how different approaches to social media affect how informed and engaged your followers are.

While both councils create and share engaging content on a regular basis, Lake Macquarie Council shows greater eagerness to embrace the most popular platforms, while Newcastle City Council focuses on a select few while neglecting others – including areas of their own website.

Whether you run a local government office or a business, being social media savvy isn’t enough if your own website’s letting you down.

If you’re sceptical about how content marketing can work for your company, take a look at how Australia’s leading sugar brand CSR has done it.

In an increasingly health-conscious society where the product they’re selling gets a lot of negative press, CSR’s website and their other online activities shift the focus away from sugar itself and towards recipes, helpful advice and engaging with customers.

Self-appointed sugar experts

To be successful, your content marketing needs to be in tune with what your customers want. A timeless nugget of marketing advice is to talk about the benefits rather than the features of your product.

To take brown sugar as an example, features would be:

• made from cane sugar
• 16 Cal per serving
• available in 500g/1kg packs.

While its benefits include:

• used in dessert recipes
• adds sweetness to stir fries and sauces
• makes porridge edible.

Which approach has more potential for interesting, varied and shareable content?

Since CSR doesn’t sell products through its website, it’s free to focus entirely on marketing and information. The most prominent area on the site is recipes, which gets the first tab after the homepage as well as a dedicated search box. Every recipe includes a list of ingredients, which link to the CSR products you need to buy to bring the recipe to life.

The content is impressive, both in quality and quantity. By publishing useful step-by-step recipes for every dessert imaginable, CSR has positioned itself as an authority in the field, even if it isn’t at the level of more traditional recipe sites like Taste.com.au, Good Food and Gourmet Traveller in the search engine stakes.

Another section offers handy advice on the practical aspects of baking – what equipment to buy, how to weigh and measure, and crowd-sourced tips to get better baking results.

Also important for customers to know is how sugar relates to their health and nutrition. Stringent Australian advertising standards require that this information is included on the site, and CSR has complied – even if these sections are tucked away in the footer where they’re less prominent.

Building a baking community

Social interaction is all but mandatory on the modern web, and CSR has embraced this by hosting its own community of baking aficionados and curating the #BakingNation hashtag on social media.

Both the recipes and baking advice sections of the site invite users to contribute their own entries to the collection (writing CSR’s content and helping to grow their website for free), as well as to rate and comment on existing entries.

Users are also encouraged to join the Baking Nation to receive updates on exclusive promotions, new products and new recipes in their inbox. In other words, “sign up to our newsletter” with benefits.

Spreading the word

Even if you fill your site with quality content, it’s not going to reach its potential audience if you don’t actively promote it.

CSR is connected to all of Australia’s most popular social media sites that are relevant to its customer demographics and a good fit for its content. Namely Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube (there’s a @CSRsugar Twitter account too, but it’s never posted anything).

Facebook is the hub of the brand’s social media activity, with more than 13,000 likes and a healthy number of comments. The feed is updated several times a week to maintain interest, and includes a mix of product launches, industry news, cute stock photos (reposted to Instagram and Pinterest) and shout-outs to content from other sites in the baking community.

The brand’s most impressive commitment to social media is the original content they’ve uploaded to YouTube. Many recipes on the CSR site are paired with professionally made instructional videos that have been watched thousands of times and commented on.

Beyond their own social profiles, CSR also reaches out to established audiences elsewhere on the web. The guest posts they write for sites such as Sugar et al promote their products and link back to the main CSR site.

The ‘boring’ stuff

CSR does showcase its own products on its website, but this is a secondary focus and barely mentioned on social media.

Customers can read product descriptions and the same information they’d read on the packet in the store. But because this isn’t an e-commerce site, they’re more interested in developing positive associations with their brand and keeping it in your thoughts the next time you go shopping, just in case you were tempted to opt for the store brand.

As an example of creative content marketing in Australia, CSR is missing one notable ingredient – there’s no CSR Blog. While their recipes, how-to guides, Facebook updates and YouTube tutorials all make up a substantial body of original content published on a regular basis, a blog would be a convenient hub to collect all this together so that readers could get all their updates in one place.

What can we learn from CSR?

By focussing on the tasty end results and fun, fulfilling pastimes that its products can bring, CSR avoids having to address the controversial aspects of its products entirely.

Even if you’re not facing a similar ethical issue in your own business, you can take heart that any seemingly ‘boring’ product – from sugar to sheet metal, accounting software or carpet cleaning – can be made inspiring and engaging for your audience when you have an effective content marketing strategy.

If you’re struggling to make social media work for your business, check out how Australian brands made the best use of their social profiles in July 2016.

What social media sites do Australians use?

For your marketing efforts to be successful, you need to go where the people are. Researching Australia’s most popular social media sites will make it clear that a Facebook presence is essential, and a YouTube channel is just as important if you produce video content.

According to the latest data from StatCounter, more than 15 million Australians have Facebook accounts (62.5% of the population), while YouTube receives more than 14,400,000 unique Australian visitors every month.

Other social networks are also important, depending on your industry and the type of content you are producing. If you primarily market to business customers (B2B), a LinkedIn profile is essential for networking with the site’s 3,450,000 other Australian users (not to mention international users), while Instagram (5,000,000 users) and Pinterest (290,000 users) are useful platforms for sharing infographics and other images.

Twitter shouldn’t be neglected either, despite its comparatively smaller share of 2,800,000 users, as the microblogging site can be a powerful targeted marketing tool.

Most popular brands on social media

The Socialbakers July 2016 Social Marketing Report Australia reveals that Australian brands and customers are much more active on Facebook than on other social networks.

The top 20 brands made 312,994 interactions with Facebook users, compared to just 6,185 interactions on Twitter. The response rate was also higher for Facebook enquiries at 73%, compared to 42% of Twitter responses.

The most ‘liked’ brand on Facebook is McDonald’s, which has 1,229,969 likes as of the end of July 2016. This puts it ahead of other popular brands such as Lorna Jane, Garage Ink Tattoo and Samsung Australia, all of which have more than 1,000,000 likes. The most popular industry overall is e-commerce with 27,251,011 total fans, followed by retail with 23,047,732 likes.

Over on Twitter, Aussie airline Qantas has carved a niche for itself as the most liked brand month-to-month. YouTubers have consumed more videos from Telstra than any other brand (28,417,906 views), but MassiveJoes.com has the most subscribers at 103,953, showing more long-term engagement.

Most interactive brands

Images: Socialbakers

Collecting ‘likes’ is one thing, but companies that take the time to respond to their customers’ questions and comments can develop trusting relationships.

Online fashion store SHOWPO excels at customer interaction on Facebook, with a total 954,616 interactions earning the retailer a consistent lead since December 2015.

On Twitter, Sportsbet.com.au has become the most responsive brand with 36,362 interactions, while YouTube’s most interactive brands include Virgin Australia, ahm health insurance and Pedigree.

Even companies that have a smaller social presence can still build a reputation for caring for their customers. Kraft Nuts Australia & NZ interacted 445 times per 1,000 Facebook fans in July, following other brands such as Duracell, IXL Jam, Golden Circle in previous months.

The bar is set significantly lower on Twitter, with KFC being Australia’s most interactive brand despite interacting only 44 times per 1,000 followers.

Most socially devoted brands

Other brands impress with their dedication to answering as many questions as possible in the fastest possible time.

Telstra was the most socially devoted brand on Facebook in July (overtaking Woolworths in June), responding to 95.15% of enquiries in an average time of 213 minutes (3 hours and 33 minutes).

Australia Post was the most devoted on Twitter, again with slightly less impressive statistics of a 74.20% response rate and a 427-minute wait (7 hours and 7 minutes).

A socially devoted brand is defined as one that responds to at least 65% of its customers’ questions per quarter.

What were the most popular posts in July 2016?

The majority of social media posts are visual in nature, as brands aim to capture users’ attention with images and videos. Last month, 44% of Facebook posts were photos, 37% were videos and 18% were text links.

Facebook: Woolworths

Woolworths inspired the greatest reaction on Facebook in July by tapping into the cultural zeitgeist with a timely post related to Pokémon Go.

This post offered helpful advice to gamers about where to find some of those elusive Pokémon, while also weaving in references to fresh fruit and vegetables. Best of all, there was a creative image to go with it.

By the end of July, the post had provoked 70,878 total interactions, including 40,021 likes, 22,953 comments and 7,904 shares.

Twitter: KFC

KFC Australia also took note of current events by spotting that it was the birthday of 5 Seconds of Summer drummer/singer Ashton Irwin. The fast food giant sent Ashton a short video of birthday wishes that didn’t fail to promote KFC products in a big way.

30,276 Twitter users interacted with this post, including 18,441 likes, 11,185 retweets and 650 replies.

YouTube: Optus

Optus also went down the music route by offering fans of singer-songwriter Troye Sivan an exclusive soundcheck performance of his new single ‘Talk Me Down.’

Between its posting on 11 July and the end of the month, this video was watched 9,492 times, attracting 1,027 likes and 169 comments.

What can we learn from this?

It’s clear that Australia’s biggest brands devote more time and attention to Facebook than other social platforms, but there are still plenty of opportunities for smaller businesses to make a name for themselves as companies that genuinely care about their customers.

While the lower barriers to Twitter prominence also offer opportunities there, the comparatively small number of Australians who actually use that site means that Twitter probably shouldn’t be the main focus for your social media marketing.

With home-grown brands like SHOWPO and Lorna Jane holding their own against the multinationals, social media is revealed to be a democracy where the customer experience truly counts, not just big bucks. If you can regularly provide engaging and timely content to your followers, and your staff are committed to responding to enquiries as often and as quickly as possible, your business can look forward to achieving social media success.