Always Ready, Always Online
Building a winning social media presence
for the US Coast Guard
Challenge
The United States Coast Guard is used to taking on complex missions, but recently a challenge emerged unlike any the venerable service branch had faced before. By communicating to prospective recruits on social media, the Coast Guard was discovering new and exciting ways to tell its story, educate audiences on what it means to be a member, and entice future “Coasties” by illustrating the benefits that accompany service. With this opportunity, however, came a new responsibility: because under-represented minorities and women are a major recruiting priority, it became incumbent on the Coast Guard’s social media team to reach these groups.
When you’re assigned a specific social media targeting objective for the first time, one that requires a new content approach and channel strategy, the task can be daunting. That’s where LMO comes in—like the Coast Guard members who are always ready to serve, we are always ready to help clients achieve mission success on social.
Solution
Across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, LMO creates content targeting a high-school- to college-aged demographic—with a proven strategy designed to reach minority and women audiences specifically. We utilize Talk Walker through Lexis Nexis to isolate social listening and examine analytics based on key metrics, allowing us to adapt our content for highest interaction.
We also create a content calendar integrating a six-day cadence which incorporates military holidays, equipment posts, mission spotlights, testimonials and questions designed to facilitate online discussion around a variety of topics. We report our analytics to officials at the Coast Guard on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis; adapting based on their mission parameters and goals as they may change.
Results
Our social media team began managing the Go Coast Guard Instagram account in October of 2015. At that time, the account had 44 followers. By the same time in 2020, the account had 91,800 followers. This means that during these five years, our process resulted in an audience growth of 208,536%. Additionally, LMO has been managing the Go Coast Guard Facebook account since 2013. As of March 2021, we’ve added 426,098 new followers (12,178% growth).
Thanks to brand new content, careful strategic planning and precise execution, the Coast Guard social media channels are now reaching their target audiences like never before, facilitating new relationships between prospective service members and recruiting offices around the country. Due to our success leading social media efforts on the national platforms, our expertise is now being integrated into local recruiting strategies as well; the LMO social team travels around the country to consult with Coast Guard officials on how to best utilize social media across smaller towns and cities in America.
