Overview
As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States, PBS Digital Studios identified these goals for their content:
Create content that is responsive to their audience’s most pressing questions
Combat misinformation with research-backed content distributed across multiple platforms
Increase the public profile of hosts as trusted experts in the field of science
Strategy
As the head of audience development, I implemented a social strategy that was responsive, flexible, and organized.
Responsive
As schools started moving online in 2019, educators were searching for resources to outfit their virtual classrooms. In response to this need, I compiled PBS Digital Studios resources for teachers and highlighted them in a series of social posts for Instagram Stories and Twitter. This social series gained traction and was shared hundreds of times across social media.
Flexible
As more was understood about COVID-19, series across the network pivoted to keep audiences informed about current topics. As part of this effort, I created a special health-themed social series entitled “You Oughta Know”. I also introduced IGTV as a way to distribute short-form video content about COVID-19 and health-related topics.
Organized
PBS Digital Studios distributed 50 unique pieces of COVID-19 video content across multiple platforms including YouTube, Facebook, pbs.org, IGTV, and other video distribution outlets. In order to maximize the reach of this content, I developed workflows, toolkits, visual assets, and other guidelines that encouraged PBS-owned accounts, Member Stations, YouTube creators, and traditional media outlets to share this content with their audiences. As a result of these efforts we had multiple videos trend on YouTube, passed 1 million engagements on Facebook, and secured media placement for our hosts on major news outlets.
Check out all the GIFs I created for this campaign on GIPHY