This column was originally published on Catie Miller’s blog at Public Social, I Love You and was republished here with permission from the author.
When I travel abroad I want the trip to go as smoothly as possible. Not only do I want my travel documents in order, I want up to date and accurate information about my trip. Some of this information needs to come from airlines and other travel companies, and some needs to come from the federal government. This is where @TravelGov from the U.S. Department of State comes in.
TravelGov is the handle for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the part of the State Department that’s responsible for passports, visas, and the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad. A big part of that mission: education.
This week I spoke with Steph Peterson and Julie Scott, both from State, who run the @Travelgov handle. Together they manage the social media channels on Instagram, X/Twitter, and Facebook.
As representatives of the State Department the duo is thoughtful about how they communicate on social media. They need to come across as an authority, yet approachable enough that people want to engage with what they post.
Steph Peterson and Julie Scott have found that balance. They are thoughtful about public trust, and sensitive to world events, embassy needs, and other variables that impact travel for U.S. Citizens. It’s tricky to mix serious information and posts with trends and other, more fun, content and yet they make it work. Read on to find out how.
Catie Miller: First, please tell me a bit about yourselves and how you each got into social.
Steph Peterson: I am a Foreign Service Officer. I have been with the department for 12 years and have done tours in Cotonou, Benin, Santiago, Chile, and the Director General’s Strategic Communication Unit. I am currently assigned to Travel.State.gov.
Julie Scott: I am in the civil service at State. I have been with the department for two and a half years. Previously I worked for the US Air Force for eleven years. I lived in Florida, Colorado and Italy during my time there. Prior to that I served with the Department of Veteran Affairs.
CM: What is your creative collaboration like? How has your approval process changed under your tenure?
It’s been just the two of us for about a year now, so we have a system down and operate pretty seamlessly. We have a shared document we collaborate on, where we propose topics and write content. We have learned to seek out clearances from subject matter experts on the policies and resources we’re sharing, but to trust our instincts and hold our ground on tone and how the content is being conveyed on each platform.
We used to go through a more extensive clearance process and content would be over edited and end up sounding more like talking points than a social media post. We’re grateful to have earned that trust so that the clearance process is more minimal now.
CM: Travelgov underwent a slight shift in tone at the beginning of 2024. What inspired the change?
Both: Several agencies can probably relate to the challenge of balancing serious content with fun, more engaging content. Some of our fellow agencies like TSA and the National Parks Service have really led the way in showing how it can be done.
Going into 2024 we decided to intentionally lean more into the fun side to try to build up our very nascent Instagram account following. We showed our leadership the success of those [other] accounts in order to be able to shift our tone and be more experimental.
Our efforts worked! Ultimately it means more people will see our content when we do have to post serious safety and security information, like travel alerts. Our Instagram account, while still very small compared to our X/Twitter and Facebook followings, is now our fastest growing account, with about a 19% growth in followers so far this calendar year.
CM: You mentioned the Travel Gov instagram was dormant when you both started, which is a challenging place to start. Now it’s growing very quickly. What are the types of posts that resonate?
What really works is fun facts and educational posts. A lot of our content are PSAs, but we now try to mix in puns and pop culture to share them when we can.
For example, on March 14 for Pi Day, we posted a photo of a passport stuck in a piece of pie with the caption, “While Pi may be infinite, your passport validity is not. Passports are valid 10 years for adults and 5 years for children under 16. Check your expiration date today! Visit travel.state.gov/passport”
CM: As your voice and tone has shifted, you noticed more followers and engagement. Any favorite campaigns or posts?
One example that sticks out was a post we did as part of our spring break campaign in which we asked our followers to share their biggest travel fails so that others could learn from their mistakes. We received over 300 (very funny!) comments on Facebook alone and our followers were commenting on each other’s posts and commiserating.
It felt like true engagement and allowed people to learn invaluable travel lessons without us having to be the ones nagging them. We then took some of our favorite travel fails and posted them on Instagram to direct our followers from Facebook and X/Twitter over there in hopes they would follow us on Instagram as well.
CM: As a social media professional, you want to ensure you participate in the trends that make sense for your audience and brand. What’s a trend or cultural moment that worked for you?
SP: I’m biased, but my favorite has been our two Taylor Swift posts. We knew tens of thousands of U.S. citizens were expected to travel overseas for the Eras Tour so to try to get our resources to them, we put together a lyric-filled post and created a graphic that was inspired by The Eras Tour poster.
The post quickly spread among fan groups, which allowed us to reach our exact target audience. That post ultimately received over 8,600 likes on Instagram, which was seven times our previously most-liked post and had a 19.5% engagement rate.
These posts were fun to write and have resulted in some of the most uplifting days and positive comments (and we all know that’s not always the case on social media!)
CM: Any advice for other government social media professionals?
JS: Really do research on your intended audience. By understanding their interests and online behaviors you can tailor your content to resonate with them. Every message does not need to appeal to all your followers. Try to create posts for a specific audience subset and don’t worry if every post doesn’t “go viral.” Building new followers who are not normally following a government page takes time.
SP: Social media posts (and trends!) are so fleeting that sometimes the best thing to do is to just throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks. For every post that performs well, we also have duds, but really don’t see a loss of followers from them, so it’s worth it to just keep experimenting and to take chances.
CM: What are you excited about right now? Or other final thoughts to share?
SP: I’m really excited to continue to grow our Instagram following. It’s only been nine months since we started to really focus more on Instagram and while we’ve made a lot of progress, the following is still only a small fraction of what we have on X/Twitter and Facebook. I’m excited to try to explore more collaborations and partnering with other agencies or travel influencers to get our content in front of more eyeballs.
JS: In today’s digital landscape, anonymous negativity can be found everywhere and sometimes working in government, I think we sometimes receive more than other communicators. As we’ve moved to a new tone our followers have filled our feed and inbox with such kind comments. Seeing a comment saying “The posts are great” restores my faith in online communities and lifts the mood.
Many thanks to Steph and Julie for sharing about their ongoing Instagram growth for @TravelGov.
With many Americans, particularly younger Americans, getting their news and information from social media, it is more important than ever to have a presence online. Yet tone is important for every government communicator. Interested in learning more about how to find your own social media voice? Check out resources here, here, and here.
Finally, hello to the new subscribers from the digital.gov communicator and social media list servs. It’s great to have you here! If you like what you read, please share this newsletter with a colleague.
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