The government social media team giving statistics a sexy rebrand

What does the seasonal price of apples in Australia have to do with the latest album from pop star Charli XCX? Or what kind of career might Lindsay Lohan’s character in Mean Girls have had as one of our country’s 639 professional mathletes?

These seemingly random – albeit interesting – questions are being asked by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Recently, the government agency’s social media has garnered a devoted fan base for its ability to spin its typically “dry” fodder into bite-size content that rides the zeitgeist.

In April this year, their team played on this success by announcing they were releasing a line of merch, including a mug with the slogan “live graph love”. But as it turns out, the post was nothing more than an April Fool’s Joke.

Heather Landsdowne, 36, has worked for the ABS since 2016, heading up the social media team since 2018 and taking its digital presence in a new direction.

Then part of a team of two (the ABS’ social media team now has four full-time employees), Landsdowne says they saw an opportunity to hone in on simple, humorous and pop culture-adjacent content that would resonate with their audience.

Since then, she says they’ve seen a 27 per cent increase in impressions and a 142 per cent increase in engagement (likes, comments and shares) following the revamp. Last year, they hit 28 million post impressions (essentially one impression for every Australian) and are on track to hit 40 million this year. And since 2018, their follower count has more than doubled to a combined 400,000 across platforms.

Lauren Light and Heather Landsdowne are helping keep the work of the Australian Bureau of Statistics relevant for younger generations.

While Landsdowne says building the ABS’ social media presence has been a labour of love over almost a decade, key “we’ve made it” moments include a post on The Bachelor and another comparing the life expectancy of Game of Thrones characters to Australians.

Some might imagine that it was difficult to convince a boardroom of serious statisticians to put a cheekier spin on their work, but Landsdowne says the numbers have backed up their approach. And the feedback from field interviewers – ABS employees who have direct contact with everyday Australians – speaks to this success.

“We had one example where someone opened the door and said: ‘Oh, wow. You’re the ABS. I follow you on Facebook and I feel like I’m talking to a celebrity,’” says Landsdowne.

“So they really enjoyed taking part in the survey because of the content they’d seen on the channel.”

Indeed, this willingness to engage with the ABS – and provide quality data – is part of the reasoning behind the agency’s social media strategy. Improving data literacy is another key priority.

“We’re not trying to make it complicated and fancy like economic data,” says Landsdowne.

“We’re trying to say: ‘Hey, data is actually really relevant to you in your everyday life. You might be checking how the prices change in the supermarket or how the interest rate on your mortgage is going up.’”

Social media officer Lauren Light, 26, agrees that this approach has been key to their success.

“I think that they like seeing a government account that shares similar interests to them because that is quite rare to see. That’s why we try and ensure that the ABS has a personality and has interests. Our goal is to make all our content fun, digestible and accessible.”

Today, more brands are speaking to their audiences as peers. And like the ABS, a growing number of government agencies are catching on, from the CSIRO to the Queensland Department of Public Health.

Andrew Hughes, a marketing lecture at ANU, says the ABS’ high degree of credibility, alongside simple, visual posts, has contributed to its success.

But this credibility factor can also be a double-edged sword. As a government agency, they toe the line between serving stakeholders and creating potentially viral content, along with the fact that audiences are more discerning and cynical than ever.

“It’s fun to engage in the market, but at the same time, that’s not their job,” says Hughes. “They’re not influencers … they need to keep in mind that they’re the ABS and people respect them because of that.”

One only needs to look at recent attempts from politicians or public servants to jump on social media trends to see how the space can be a minefield.

Light says it’s all about authenticity. “We want to jump on these trends, but make sure it’s still authentic to who we are portraying and who the ABS is, and has that meaningful connection and value.”

Unfortunately, fans still holding out for some official ABS merch might have to wait a while.

“We appreciate that everyone really loved it ... but we don’t have any plans at this stage to release any,” says Landsdowne.

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