One city.

Two similar brands with different audiences.

One social brand to support them both.

Island Communications is a small company based in Bluffton, South Carolina, that publishes print and digital travel resources for tourism hotspots in the Lowcountry. When I initially joined their team as a social media manager in 2017, their social presence was disjointed, lacked consistent branding, and had been managed without a clear strategy for several years.

Despite sharing much of their content, HiltonHead.com and HiltonHeadIsland.com are directed at different audiences. HiltonHead.com caters more to the travel and information needs of those already living in the Lowcountry area while HiltonHeadIsland.com is meant for those who have a lot further to travel. Both brands shared the same Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Following the launch of the new Island Communication site design on Savannah.com in May 2019, the Hilton Head websites were the next to get an upgrade. Like I did with Savannah, I brought the new site branding into the social media sphere for Hilton Head. Upon my departure from the company later in 2019, I synthesized two and a half years of proven success into a content strategy guide for Island Communications.

Client

Island Communications

Brand

HiltonHead.com & HiltonHeadIsland.com

Timeline

May 2017 - Oct. 2019

Challenge

One brand voice for Hilton Head needed to be created to appeal to the local audience of HiltonHead.com as well as the far abroad audience of HiltonHeadIsland.com. The digital content strategy needed to drive traffic to both sites without causing confusion and without being redundant when article content was shared between the two.

Additionally, they needed to clean up and condense their social media presence to the platforms that would drive meaningful amounts of traffic to their websites.

Result

After reducing Island Communications’ Hilton Head social accounts to only what they needed, I developed a content strategy for success based on performance analytics.

I condensed the strategy into an all-in-one guide that covered how to maintain consistent branding, as well as instructions on how to replicate the results I achieved while leaving room for growth as those needs change.

Process

1. Editorial Calendar to Stagger Shared Web Content

Besides their social media pages, both Hilton Head websites have something else in common: Island Events, Island Communications’ monthly magazine about travel and tourism on Hilton Head Island. New articles appearing in the magazine also appear on the websites. To keep both sites up to date while avoiding the appearance of accidental duplicates, I began a staggered publishing schedule. New articles would go live on the sites within the first two weeks of the new magazine issue, but at alternating times. HiltonHead.com would publish articles A and B the first week, and articles C and D the second week while HiltonHeadIsland.com published articles C and D the first week, and A and B on the second week. This simple system accomplished multiple tasks:

  • All new print content was available online in the first week of each month

  • Fresh content cycled to the front of both sites

  • Each site maintained an individual identity by not being a mirror copy of the other

2. Social Media Audit to Focus on What Matters Most

Once the web content calendar was taken care of, I moved on to determining which social media platforms would be the most effective places to share Hilton Head brand messaging. I completed this process for all of Island Communications’ brands simultaneously since account details weren’t stored in a single location. I created a master spreadsheet with all account login credentials.

Hilton Head had 7 social media accounts, including two different YouTube accounts. I sorted them into three categories: necessary, beneficial, and irrelevant. I presented an outline of the pros and cons of each platform to the company owner, detailing the amount of time and effort each one required, as well as what demographics were active on each. As the company owner only intended to have a social media team of one person, I presented a recommended list of accounts to keep that could reasonably be managed by one person.

As a result of my audit, we eliminated the following accounts:

  • Google+ had been fading in popularity long before it was officially declared dead six months after deleting the Hilton Head account.

  • Pinterest reached a very narrow demographic of users and seldom resulted in clicks to the website. Fewer of those conversions resulted in clicking on or booking with an advertiser.

  • YouTube had a definite purpose for the company; however, there were two Hilton Head account on YouTube. One of these accounts had no video uploads and appeared to have been created by a past intern by mistake.

3. Finding Focus for Brand Identity

For Hilton Head’s social media accounts, HiltonHead.com was the preferred website to include in bio descriptions.

Commissioning New Visual Assets

Following the positive reception of the video I had directed for the Savannah brand, Island Communications approved the creation of another original video from the same videographer. This video served as an advertisement for both Hilton Head brands, as well as the header video for Hilton Head’s Facebook page. Once again, I served as a producer and director for the project. I accompanied the videographer to all filming locations, made arrangements with local businesses to be featured, and provided input on music and editing decisions before putting the final product in front of company staff.

4. Which Site on Which Platform?

Crafting a social media strategy to drive traffic to two sites from the same platform with the same content—and without giving priority to either—was a unique challenge. The solution was a monthly content calendar that had each platform alternate which sites it directed traffic to for the newest articles. This calendar also ensured a “buffer” of various content (other articles, photos, and shared posts curated from local businesses and advertisers) between when an article was shared the first time from one site and then shared again from the other.

Week 1

  • Facebook: HiltonHead.com articles A and B

  • Twitter: HiltonHeadIsland.com articles E and F

Week 2

  • Facebook: HiltonHead.com articles C and D

  • Twitter: HiltonHeadIsland.com articles G and H

Week 3

  • Facebook: HiltonHeadIsland.com articles A and B

  • Twitter: HiltonHead.com articles E and F

Week 4

  • Facebook: HiltonHeadIsland.com articles C and D

  • Twitter: HiltonHead.com articles E and F

On the “second” posting of each article, a different featured image and caption were used to avoid creating a sense of déjà vu. This also offered an opportunity to appeal to audience members who either didn’t see or didn’t click on the article the first time it appeared. At no point did we receive any comments about any link appearing too many times in our feed.

5. Social Media Strategy Guide

Once a pattern emerged from the analytics reports, it had to be synthesized into an easy-to-understand guide. I created a master guide for all five of Island Communications’ Lowcountry brands: Savannah, Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, Beaufort, and St. Simons Island. While there is plenty of overlap in the audiences for all five, they nevertheless required different strategies.

The guide also served to outline the duties and responsibilities of future social media managers employed by Island Communications. Not only would it provide guidance to a new hire, but it would also assist in the hiring process by clarifying the necessary skills and experience required to fill the role.

A Strategy with Room to Grow

Due to the constantly evolving nature of social media, no strategy can be set in stone. I laid the framework for a strategy that could be adapted as platforms and needs change. With input from the company owner, I outlined common goals across all of Island Communications’ social media accounts: to share high-quality, on-brand content that promotes each brand as a reliable resource for travel and tourism information; and to drive online traffic to each brand’s corresponding websites.

Despite the complex research and analysis that went into creating the strategy guide, the most effective strategy was fairly simple. The guide I created outlined the minimum amount of content to post per week to cycle in new, branded content while allowing flexibility around curated content.

Sections of the strategy guide included:

  • Overview of best practices

  • Explanations and examples of appropriate curated content from third parties

  • Platform-specific caption guidelines for photos and videos

  • Community engagement guide for responding to messages, comments, and tags, including frequently asked questions

  • Recommendations on accounts and/or strategy elements that need routine reevaluation

  • Outline for consistent analytics reporting and evaluation