SINGAPORE — Emplifi, the leading unified customer experience platform, has released its “Singapore Government Social Media – 2022 in Review” report. The report highlights how 27 statutory boards and 16 ministries are leveraging leading social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube) to communicate and engage with Singapore residents on a wide array of topics, including the environment, floods, public transportation, mental health, COVID-19 vaccinations, and others.
“Social media is a part of today’s life. The world is increasingly digital and social-first. And we’ve seen Singapore government organizations use social media to their advantage, from real-time updates, and answering questions to promoting a good cause. Ministers also recognize this key communication channel as a way to be more accessible and accountable to the general public,” said Varun Sharma, Senior Vice President, JAPAC & MEA, Emplifi. “Across both the public and private sector, social media is a vital part of an integrated marketing strategy and we don’t see this changing anytime soon.”
Emplifi’s report found social media users continue to be highly engaged with government agencies. Brand content comprised about half (58.64%) of all content on government profiles, with 6.15 million interactions (97.72%). User-generated content accounted for 41.36% of the content, but only 143,585 interactions (2.28%). In terms of format, cumulative across all main statutory boards and ministries social media profiles, replies took the lead at 42.2%, followed by shares (32.84%) and posts (24.96%).
Instagram: top platform for engagement
Across the four social media networks, the ranking of content published remained unchanged from 2021. About 50% of content was published on Twitter (27,033 tweets), however this drove little engagement (1.42% or 87,016 interactions). While on Facebook, there were 15,244 pieces (28.32%) of content published and higher engagement (49.48% or 3.04 million interactions) – the largest share of interactions across platforms. Despite the strong results, Facebook engagement has decreased significantly from 65.85% in 2021 or 5.37 million interactions.
Instagram continues to grow as a key channel to engage with netizens – it accounts for 3.61 million users or 66.3% of the country’s population[2] and is particularly popular among the younger demographic. The proportion of published content on the platform rose 4.81% to 9,138 posts from 2021 to 2022, and engagement increased by 17.25% to 2.91 million. Instagram also maintained its lead from 2021 as the most engaging platform with an engagement rate of 1.13% in 2022. YouTube claimed the second spot, followed by Facebook and Twitter.
Campaigns that drove the highest interactions on Instagram:
- The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF)’s NS55 with 90,209 interactions (54.37% of total interactions).
- The National Parks Board (NPB)’s #CityInNatureSG with 102,054 interactions (69.62% of total interactions).
- Land Transport Authority’s #ThereRailBeMore with 21,058 interactions (47.01% of total interactions).
Statutory boards versus ministries
Collectively, statutory boards published four times more content than ministries. While both statutory boards and ministries saw interactions decrease in comparison to the previous year, interactions for the latter dropped by 53.13% (4,288,149 interactions for 2021 versus 2,009,581 interactions for 2022).
MINDEF and the defense arms – Army, RSAF, and Navy, had the highest audience interactions. Of the four accounts, the Army comes in first with a total of 897,886 interactions across Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
As the world exits the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, its presence on social media has also decreased. The Ministry of Health of Singapore had the highest interactions in 2021 (2,228,812 interactions) but fell to fifth place in 2022 with 296,910 interactions.
Facebook and Instagram become ministers’ platforms of choice
Singapore’s ministers use social media to connect more personally with their audience. The Minister for National Development, Desmond Lee, published the most posts (1,024) across Instagram and Facebook. In second and third places were Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (PM Lee) and the Minister for Defence, Dr. Ng Eng Hen.
In terms of interactions, PM Lee had the highest number of interactions (3,833,595) across his social profiles. Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance, Lawrence Wong (DPM Wong) had 1,771,506 interactions across his social profiles. For both ministers, Instagram was the most engaging when interacting with the public.
Methodology
Emplifi analyzed social media performance across Singapore’s public sector, including 27 statutory boards and 16 ministries between January 01 to December 31, 2022. Publicly available data was collected and aggregated through the Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud. Over 200 social media profiles across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube were reviewed on content, engagement, and sentiment.
