Analysing content performance data to reshape how the EU reaches citizens.
The European Commission's Social Media and Visual Communication Unit manages all Commission social media channels and their visual integrity. They wanted to understand how to better reach and engage audiences less familiar with EU topics, and needed an external evaluation to get there.
The brief was specific: analyse all content published across four platforms throughout 2020 and produce recommendations for reaching new audiences. The Commission provided access to a full data export, internal strategy documents, performance monitoring tools, and the social media team for interviews.
Three deliverables were required:
- Analysis of what content formats work best on each channel
- Documentation of the "as-is" content and engagement strategy per platform
- Recommendations for a desired future strategy tailored to each network
The bridging gap: How do you turn a year of social media performance data into actionable strategy that helps an institution connect with citizens who aren't already paying attention?
My role: From raw data to strategic recommendations
I was commissioned to conduct an external qualitative evaluation; bringing an outside perspective to content the team was too close to assess objectively.
Phase 1: Data analysis and content audit
I worked with a comprehensive data export covering all content published in 2020: publication dates, platforms, content types, media formats, post copy, sentiment scores from automated detection, engagement metrics (interactions, impressions, likes, comments, shares, video views), and sponsorship data. I analysed performance patterns by topic, format, and platform to identify what was actually resonating with audiences.
Phase 2: Documenting current practice
I created comprehensive "as-is" strategy documents for each platform, capturing current tone and voice, audience profiles, content themes, posting cadences, community management approaches, and workflow processes. This gave the team a documented baseline.
Phase 3: Strategic recommendations
Building on the data analysis, I developed "to-be" strategy documents with platform-specific recommendations, audience personas, content principles, and operational improvements. The strategy emphasised a shift from broadcast-style communication to genuine engagement, from "soapbox to dinner party."
What I delivered
Content performance analysis: Identified what formats, topics, and approaches drove engagement on each platform, with specific findings like video outperforming other formats on most platforms.
Platform-by-platform strategy documentation: Comprehensive strategy sheets covering goals, audience profiles, content that resonates, posting guidelines, community management approaches, and format recommendations for each of the four platforms.
Audience personas: Developed detailed personas capturing different audience segments' goals, frustrations, behaviours, and content preferences.
Strategic framework: Introduced concepts like the Content Scorecard (criteria for evaluating whether content should be published), citizen-first content principles, and a governance structure for content creation and approval.
Operational recommendations: Workflow improvements, scenario planning for crisis communications, community management processes, and team structure suggestions.
The approach
- Data immersion: Analysing the full 2020 content data to identify performance patterns across platforms.
- Stakeholder interviews: Speaking with social media team members to understand current workflows, challenges, and institutional constraints that the data alone wouldn't reveal.
- Platform-specific analysis: Recognising that each platform has different audiences and behaviours, requiring tailored strategies rather than cross-posting the same content everywhere.
- Citizen-first framing: Reorienting strategy around audience needs and pain points rather than institutional messaging priorities, connecting EU policy to daily life concerns.
Key insight
Government institutions often approach social media as another broadcast channel, pushing messages out rather than engaging in conversation. But the data showed that content connecting EU policy to citizens' daily concerns consistently outperformed institutional announcements. The path to reaching less-engaged audiences was creating more relevant, human communication that acknowledged what citizens actually cared about.
