About the Australian War Memorial
Located in Campbell, Australia, the Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national shrine, museum, and archive dedicated to commemorating all Australians who have died in war or on operational service and those who have served in times of conflict.
The pandemic and a recent large-scale development project have pushed the AWM to rethink their social strategy and how they manage it.
Since December 2022, the Australian War Memorial has been using Brandwatch’s Social Media Management tool for optimizing their digital presence.
We talked to Alix Heraid, Digital Content Manager at the AWM, who shared insights on how they’ve optimized their social strategy and day-to-day operations with the help of Brandwatch’s solution.
The case study will cover how the Australian War Memorial improved:
- Social strategy and stakeholder management
- Governance and community dialog
- Campaign management and reporting
Addressing community engagement challenges
The AWM is a large organization, and they get high volumes of online messages on both old and new posts.
Before partnering with Brandwatch, Alix’s team used a tool for social media scheduling and analytics, but they struggled with tracking and keeping up with their highly engaged community.
The limitations of the previous tool made it difficult for the team to manage the influx of comments and messages, particularly those received on older posts. As a result, it became harder for the team to monitor and engage with ongoing discussions and comments over time, especially with posts from weeks, months, or even years prior.
Today, the AWM team use the Brandwatch Engage feature Labels to categorize all related conversations, thereby reducing the amount of manual work needed to revisit specific discussions and review how they've previously handled them.
Now, the AWM team can quickly surface all of the online communications related to any topic over a specific period.
“One of the things that's really great about Brandwatch’s Social Media Management is the labeling feature. This function has helped us to report more accurately and find themes of content that are performing well, but also to gauge how much content was allocated to commemoration vs the collection or research.”
The Brandwatch solution also helped Alix’s team streamline their community management efforts.
"Now, we manage social media more effectively. Every morning, we begin the workday by spending 30 minutes to an hour reviewing all the comments and messages. The Engage section has provided some reassurance to know that we have monitored with accuracy"
Better social strategy and stakeholder management
As a multi-faceted organization, the AWM has an extensive social strategy with various internal stakeholders and departments eager to showcase their work to the AWM audience online.
Before Brandwatch, it was really hard for the Digital Experience team to manage the posting frequency and social media initiatives for each department.
With Brandwatch, they were able to implement a more organized approach to content posting, which has proven invaluable for Alix’s team. Now, they can assign social media posting slots more effectively internally, making sure everyone gets a chance to post.
"We're really lucky to have a huge amount of information and stories that we can share with our audience. And Brandwatch’s Social Media Management tool helps a lot with our internal stakeholder management."
Governance and improving community dialog
As part of managing their online community, the AWM Digital Experience team uses Brandwatch to identify and address questions in online discussions. For example, the team may spot messages about tickets or opening hours, which they can then respond to promptly.
A common misconception is that admission to the AWM museum requires purchasing tickets. In fact, this has been implemented as part of the museum’s safety requirements while the AWM undergoes an expansion project for managing foot traffic.
Through monitoring the ticketing conversations with Brandwatch Listen, Alix’s team discovered that many museum visitors still associate the ticketing system with the pandemic.
Knowing this, Alix’s team can now address these concerns promptly to mitigate any potential negative impact. This makes the team’s job easier and gives them greater control over the AWM’s online presence.
“Brandwatch has significantly enhanced our governance and community engagement functionality.”
Sometimes, comments need to be brought to the attention of senior management. While the decision-making about social strategy falls under Alix’s team, Brandwatch’s tool has been especially valuable for obtaining approval from senior management to post new content when needed.
“Brandwatch has been particularly useful for assigning post approval to senior management when required. This not only provides assurance for our junior staff, but also establishes an audit trail for decisions.”
Better campaign management and reporting
With Brandwatch, the Australian War Memorial team has significantly improved their understanding of analytics and campaign performance. The tool’s labeling feature allows the team to isolate and track campaign-related metrics.
“By leveraging Brandwatch, we anticipate gaining comprehensive insights into visitor engagement, interaction patterns, and messaging dynamics. These metrics will not only inform our decision-making process but also facilitate the refinement of our outreach strategies in alignment with evolving visitor preferences and behaviors.”