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Purpose

The purpose of the social media audit is to analyze the effectiveness of Rockbridge Area

Conservation Council’s social media channels and make necessary recommendations. The audit

examined the metrics visible on the social media page and did not analyze any behind-the-scenes

insights.

Existing Social Media Platforms

Rockbridge Area Conservation Council (RACC) has three social media platforms –

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

• Facebook (@RACCfb)

o Most frequently used

o 413 likes and 452 people following

o Target audience: Middle-aged and older users who are interested in nature,

conservation, and environmental/climate justice

o Purpose: Share relevant articles, flyers, Facebook events

o Tone: Mix of formal and informal; friendly, enthusiastic, informative

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• Twitter (@RACCVA)

o 55 followers

o Inactive since 2012

o Target audience: College students and middle-aged users who are interested in

nature and conservation efforts

o Purpose: Provide a bulletin-style news and updates about upcoming events

o Tone: Formal, informative

• Instagram (@rockbridge_conservation)

o 113 followers

o Target audience: College students who are interested in the outdoors, nature,

and sustainability

o Purpose: To share and appreciate the beauty of nature

o Tone: Informal, friendly captions

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Consistency

The logo is consistent across the three platforms. However, the posts are not consistent

across the three platforms. The images posted on Instagram do not appear on Facebook nor on

Twitter, nor are the flyers and images posted on Facebook show up on Instagram or Twitter.

Mission Statement

The mission statement on Facebook is concise and clear, and the page often shares

relevant links and events that pertains to the mission statement. The Instagram page has a similar

mission statement as their bio. Because there are only four Instagram posts, it is hard to say

whether or not the mission statement resonates on their Instagram. Lastly, the Twitter account

does not have the mission statement posted anywhere. Instead, the Twitter bio is filled with

information that is redundant (e.g. listing the location in the bio even though it is already noted in

the location area).

Comparison to Similar Organization

Looking at similar organizations, such as Keep Virginia Beautiful, RACC has a

comparably weaker social media presence. Keep Virginia Beautiful has a Facebook

(@KeepVirginiaBeautiful), Twitter (@KeepVABeautiful), and Instagram

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(@keepvirginiabeautiful) with a consistent daily content schedule and each post being shared on

all three platforms. As a result, Keep Virginia Beautiful has higher engagements on all of their

posts compared to RACC’s social media posts (whether on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter).

Recommendations

To improve on RACC’s social media presence, RACC needs to create a content calendar

and aim to post consistently. At least one post a week would be ideal. It can be the same thing on

all three platform. To get the Twitter and Instagram accounts active again, start following

Washington and Lee students and Virginia Military Institute students and faculty members. This

will increase the social media presence as well as better establish RACC within the secondary

education community in Rockbridge County. As for each respective social media platform, the

Facebook page is overall done well, however, many of the posts are lacking a call-to-action or a

description that would make people engage with the post. Include a few sentences when sharing

a post or event (pictured below is a good example).

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For Twitter, in addition to writing more tweets, remember to use appropriate hashtags and

continue to retweet relevant articles and news about the environment. Additionally, change the

Twitter bio to what is currently written under the Instagram bio. For Instagram, along with

posting more photos, add more hashtags (e.g. add #nature, #landscape, #naturephotography,

#naturelover, etc.) and take advantage of using Instagram Stories and Reels to produce additional

content.