I served as the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ social media manager and public information officer for nearly three years. During my time at the state agency, I worked on a barrage of projects, such as light-hearted bird sanctuary messaging to COVID-19 crisis communication. My favorite days always included days I was out in the field with my camera, learning about our beautiful state from top experts in the department.
From an analytical side, I organically increased SCDNR’s social media presence to an average of 1 million views per month on Facebook alone, as well as grew the agency’s Instagram following by hundreds each month. Thankfully, this hard work did not go unnoticed, and I won three national awards; two for Top Social Media Presence, and one for Best Website Overall.
Photography
Social Media content
During my time at this state department, I worked with many different subject matter experts, such as climatologists (not the same as a meteorologist, interestingly enough), wildlife biologists, geologists, law enforcement, and other state and local agencies.
In order to have effective messaging, you have to identify who your target audience is and what content they would enjoy absorbing and engaging with. That is after all what social media is about–being social with your consumers.
