Oksana Polishchuk, the “mother” of Vinnytsia’s Edik, a communicator at Vinnytsiaoblvodokanal, shared her experience.
At the invitation of the Department of Communications and Internal Policy of the Lviv Regional Administrative Body, Oksana Polishchuk, the communications officer of Vinnytsiaoblvodokanal, the mother of the tadpole Edik, who was talked about all over Ukraine, held a masterclass on creative communication in social media for the employees of the Regional Administrative Body and the RBA.
You can read Edik’s story here. By the way, during the training, Oksana told us that Edik will now become a merchandise. He will also help communicate with the Vinnytsiaoblvodokanal’s audience.
Forty-eight employees of the Lviv Regional Military Administration and district military administrations in Lviv Oblast joined the workshop via zoom. Among the participants were people who run social media for departments, offices, divisions of the CMA or RMA, as well as several unit managers.
What do people get out of it?
Writing like a school essay and writing journalistic articles are two extremes that Oksana Polishchuk recommends that those who manage social media should not go to.
“An article for the website is very good. The website is the official face of our structure. And social media is the place where people should see us and love us. Here, we need to show the work of our structure, but also ask ourselves in every post: “What’s in it for the reader?”” explains Oksana Polishchuk.
Take off three ties
“Take off three ties” is another point that the communicator emphasises. She says that sometimes officials are so serious and reserved that it looks like they wear not one, but three ties at once. Readers do not want to see a state structure, officials, or positions, but rather people and what these people do for other people.
“Like three football fields”
Oksana advises working with numbers through clear comparisons. For example, instead of writing that several hectares of forests will be planted, say that they will plant forests on an area as large as three football fields. Or another example: to perform its function, a water utility needs as much electricity per month as the largest city neighbourhood.
Start by explaining the basics
In sensitive issues, where there is a lot of criticism and misunderstanding, Oksana Polishchuk recommends starting with the basics, because it may turn out that people are criticising because they simply do not have complete information.
“We had a situation where there were frequent breakthroughs in one area. People were angry, saying that we were doing nothing, but the problem was that worn-out networks are very expensive to replace. But people didn’t believe me. So I asked my colleagues how much a pipe costs. It turned out that a metre of polyethylene pipe with a diameter of 1200 mm costs more than 45 thousand hryvnias. We need to replace 12 kilometres of such pipes. That is, more than UAH 543 million is needed for pipes alone. We made these figures public, and only then did people start reading our explanations,” Oksana shares.
Images matter
She also emphasised that the image that accompanies a post plays an important role. It can motivate people to read the post, or it can do the opposite. Less “office” photos, more “from the field”. If you write about a topic that cannot be conveyed through photos or videos, or if readers are already bored with such photos, you should try using memes.
“When the story of Edik broke, I exhaled and realised that the truth I had been promoting for the past ten years had been confirmed. Because I had the experience that in some of my previous jobs, I tried to explain the importance of accessible communication and, where appropriate, communication with humour, but my position was not always shared,” she added.
One of the most active participants was Marta Hybaliuk, Chief Specialist of the Digital Transformation and Infrastructure Department at the Lviv Regional State Administration.
“The training was really exciting! It gave a lot of useful tips on how to create interesting content for social media, especially in the context of a government agency. The story about Edik impressed me. It showed how you can be creative even with such a serious topic and how to turn it into an interesting communication tool. Thank you for your inspiration and useful advice!” said Marta after the masterclass.
And for Lilia Chorna, who has been working in the Information and Public Relations Department of the Stryi RVA for just two weeks, it was her first communication training.
“Since I am an economist by training, this area is completely new to me. Therefore, I am learning and trying to “grab” everything that will help me in my effective work. I am very grateful to the management of the Stryi RBA for their assistance. This was my first communication training. And it was mega interesting! I learnt a lot of new useful information that will help me in my work. In particular, I took a fresh look at the use of video and memes. The participants are cool and positive. It was so interesting that I did not notice how 2 hours had passed. This training showed me that I made the right choice, and now I need to learn and develop. I am sincerely grateful to Maria Kurylo and Oksana Polishchuk for this opportunity,” she said.
During the workshop, participants also shared their experiences, discussed how to find a way out of difficult communication situations and where humour is appropriate and where other tools should be used.
“I was pleasantly surprised that the Lviv UWA has such a powerful team of communicators charged with finding new modern formats of communication with people, and that it is concerned about this issue in general, and not just standing aside or doing it “because it is the right thing to do”. We are already suffering from information overload, so it is extremely important to find ways to facilitate communication between people and government agencies. It’s about openness, sincerity and transparency,” summarised Oksana Polishchuk.
According to Maria Kurylo, Deputy Head of the Information Policy Department of the Lviv Regional State Administration, such masterclasses by communication specialists have already become a good tradition in the Lviv Regional State Administration. The department plans to hold the next training in March.
“I wrote to Oksana at the height of Edik’s fame. I was very pleasantly surprised that she responded so quickly to our request and agreed to talk about interesting, important, funny and painful things in the profession on a free basis. Thank you for the specifics and substantive feedback that everyone who voiced their questions received. We were inspired. We continue to work to ensure that there is more quality communication in human language from the Lviv DEC and RBAs in our region,” said Maria Kurylo.
Earlier, the Lviv Regional Executive Committee held a course for officials who want to improve the quality of their media appearances. The speakers were experienced journalists and media experts. Read about it here. In addition, the Lviv Regional State Administration held an intensive course for SMM specialists – “Human Language 2.0”.