How social media can save taxpayers’ money

Right now, public sector teams are facing more pressure than ever to find ways to save money. A combination of increased costs, economic uncertainties, and high debt levels mean that public sector budgets are stretched to their limits. And 80% of Britons believe that public services have worsened, reflecting a widespread perception of underfunding and inefficiency within the public sector. This leaves many organisations with their hands tied. There are only so many ways to reduce costs, and most organisations have tried nearly all of them by now.

However, while the landscape is tough, we’ve seen first-hand how top-performing public sector teams have used social media to maximise their budget. Here are some tried and tested tips for saving taxpayers’ money through effective social media use:

Social media has always had a lower barrier to entry compared with more traditional marketing tactics, such as print advertising and mailings, and paid social tends to offer a more affordable cost-per-click than other digital advertising tactics. Organic social is free and could be seen as a broadcast channel, meaning if the content is engaging, relevant and carries a strong message, it’s likely to reach many of your followers, and could entice more of your target audience in. Social media is also entirely trackable, allowing teams to determine the return on investment of their activities, understand what’s working, and make any necessary changes in real-time without incurring additional costs.

We’ve witnessed hugely successful social media campaigns from organisations that wanted to target a specific demographic and change their behaviour or perception in some way. To take a couple of examples, the following two campaigns delivered exceptional results:

In 2024, South Wales Police ran an innovative social media campaign during Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. Capitalising on the fan-driven friendship bracelet trend, officers created and exchanged bracelets promoting their #SaferSummer campaign, targeting a traditionally hard-to-reach young demographic. This approach significantly boosted engagement, with four Instagram posts reaching 321,000 users and generating 23,000 interactions. The campaign enhanced police visibility, fostered positive community relations, and successfully communicated the force’s key messages.

Police Scotland recently won an award for their social media campaign focused on improving public confidence and encouraging survey participation. Using targeted content showcasing local policing efforts and addressing community concerns, the campaign generated nearly five million impressions across Facebook and Instagram. Results included a noticeable increase in positive sentiment towards the police, with 79% of respondents feeling safe in their communities and 62% finding officers approachable. This initiative successfully enhanced community engagement and reinforced the perception of policing in Scotland.

Faced with a deluge of incoming messages and calls across a number of channels, many community-facing teams can feel swept up in the chaos of replying to each one with due care and attention. In the wake of dwindling resources and budget, this issue is becoming even more acute. Public sector organisations are therefore adopting social media tools in order to better manage this workload.

Following a cyber incident, Bromford Housing decided to implement Orlo’s Live Chat and Chatbot solutions. Rapid deployment of the Chatbot resolved over a quarter of customer enquiries without any human intervention, which saved the organisation over £330,000 annually. To break down the numbers further, for every £1 spent on the Chatbot, Bromford saved £36.50 – a substantial return on investment and a super effective use of taxpayers’ money.

Derbyshire Constabulary improved their community experience by migrating their entire digital contact management system to Orlo. The new live chat is faster, more user-friendly, and allows for easy chat handovers. This shift resulted in a reduced burden on their costly 101 telephone service, and a 61% increase in monthly live chat conversations.

As with anything else, context is everything. AI-powered chatbots aren’t the solution to every engagement challenge. Each public sector organisation must consider their own strategic needs, and determine which tools are best for each situation and for each community. However, it’s clear that there are significant budget savings to be made for teams that embrace digital tools for communicating with the public.

While a presence on social media is essential for public sector organisations looking to engage people and build trust, there’s no denying that it requires considerable time, effort, and resources. Comms teams must collaborate to produce content adapted to each channel, regularly post or schedule content on multiple accounts, engage with communities on each platform, and measure results to prove the value of their work. And in small teams, this is usually on top of the other comms work they’re doing.

Social media management tools make this entire process easier by streamlining content creation, posting and scheduling across multiple channels, engagement and reporting. Tools such as Orlo facilitate reusing existing content, engaging with communities, working with colleagues, and measuring results to easily see what’s working well. By reducing the time it takes to carry out these routine and repetitive tasks, comms teams can free up hours each day for more valuable strategic work.

Having a failsafe system in place also protects your organisation from easy mistakes that could cause reputational (and potentially financial) damage. Read: posting from the wrong account or, even worse, posting a personal update from a professional account. Save your team’s time, therefore money, by avoiding these potential pitfalls before they happen. Orlo’s platform minimises this risk.

All in all, despite the changing nature of social media, it remains a great way to get your messaging out for less money. Through clever, well-thought-out content that can target specific audiences and engage your communities, social media can transform your comms and marketing efforts, giving you much more bang for your buck.

However, streamlined processes and successful campaigns don’t appear by magic. Effective social media management takes a level of upfront commitment and investment, but the long-term benefits are clear. If you haven’t fully considered the role that social media can play for your organisation, now’s the time.