Social Media
The SEND Local Offer team manage two social media accounts: a Facebook account and an Instagram account. Information about key developments and statistics for the two social media accounts for the period 1 January to 31 December 2024 can be found below. The number of folllowers on Facebook and Instagram keeps growing steadily, and we are reaching more families.
Ongoing work:
- monthly creation of content about news, engagement opportunities, resources, services and local activities and events relevant to families with children and young people with SEND
- posts are shared 3 to 5 days a week
- stories are shared daily
- use of the highlight feature on Instagram where we currently group: events, resources, news, services, engagement opportunities and local classes and groups, to enable followers to find information more easily
- achieving a more corporate look using the Local Offer's branding colours
- networking, cross-promoting, and engaging with local organisations
- content is shared on Southend-on-Sea City Council and Livewell social media platforms when requested
- news and updates are shared on various local Facebook groups
Audience:
Our social media audience is mainly based in Southend-on-Sea and are predominantly women aged between 35 and 44, following women aged between 45 and 54. The number of followers on Facebook and Instagram has increased steadily. At the end of December 2024, we had 1,213 followers on Facebook , an increase of 360 since the end of 2023. On Instagram, we reached 856 followers by the end of December, an increase of 101 since the end of 2023.
Reach:
Social media reach is a measure of the number of unique people who see content posted on social media. A high reach means you are posting relevant content at a time your audience is active. Having our content shared on stories, feeds and groups as well as posting regularly and engaging with other accounts helps us reach more people. Reach of our posts is substantially higher on Facebook than Instagram. This is due to the different groups we are part of on Facebook where we share our content, meaning there are more opportunities for more people to see our content. We also have people and organisations sharing our content on Facebook more than on Instagram.
Between1 January to 31 December 2024:
- total reach on Facebook - 73,443 (compared to 22,991 in 2023)
- total reach on Instagram - 9,691 (compared to 2,199 in 2023)
These are the posts with the highest reach for each month:
- January 2024, SEND friendly and accessible Planetarium shows: 4,795
- February 2024, Relational Practice, Supporting Southend Families Course: 4,869
- March 2024, Targeted Youth Services: 721
- April 2024, Relational Practice, Supporting Southend Families Course:2,501
- May 2024, My Care Bridge: 2,424
- June 2024, Lighthouse pre and post-diagnosis support sessions: 1,436
- July 2024, SEND Surgery: 1,608
- August 2024,Preparing for adulthood fair: 4,142
- September 2024, SEND roadmap sessions: 2,330
- October 2024, SEND Surgery: 6,265
- November 2024, SSIF Seminar ‘Early identification of SEND and the support available ’: 1,387
- December 2024, Home to School Transport consultation: 5,759