The Rotorua Lakes Council says spending almost $30,000 on social media is reaping its rewards after the council was revealed to be the third largest spending council in New Zealand in terms of social media funding.
Figures obtained by The Taxpayers' Union under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act earlier this week, revealed councils in New Zealand spent at least $446,000 advertising on the two major social media networks in the 12 months to June 30.
Rotorua's council spent a combined $28,855 - $20,845 on Facebook and $8,010 on LinkedIn.
Auckland's council was the biggest spender, spending $164,287 on Facebook and $23,583 on LinkedIn.
Second highest spender, Dunedin City Council, spent a combined $65,292 and in fourth was Christchurch City Council with a combined spend of $26,511.
The lowest social media spend was by the South Taranaki District Council with a total of $11.39 and the Palmerston North City Council - 10th lowest spending council - forked out $177.10.
Destination Rotorua consumer marketing manager Tom Worsp said the majority of the money was spent on the council's very popular RotoruaNZ Facebook page that has more than 171,000 "likes".
"Social media is a way of engaging with consumers in a place where they feel comfortable and because of this it is very much an organic form of marketing whereby people 'share', 'like' and comment on things they are interested in or want others to be interested in," Mr Worsp said.
"It has been proven to be a very engaging medium when it comes to marketing and very cost-effective at the same time."
The RotoruaNZ page was one of the most highly engaged regional tourism organisation pages in the country consistently in the top three and even topping Tourism NZ in some weeks, he said.
Recent successes on the RotoruaNZ Facebook page saw All Black Malekai Fekitoa and "How to Dad" presenter Jordan Watson visit Rotorua - viewed a combined 368,000 times.
He said the "How to Dad" video clip was watched more than 33 million times world-wide and was picked up by media around the world.
Rotorua Lakes Council chief executive Geoff Williams said they wanted to get a higher level of public engagement on council matters from a broader section of the community - so were looking at new ways to share information and engage with people.
He said digital channels such as social media were something the council would look to more to expand its reach.
Recent "RotoruaNZ" Facebook page successes
- September 14: Tulip Festival. 118,000 reach, 7500 'clicks' and 5000 comments or shares
- September 1: First day of Spring. 95,000 reach, 6000 'clicks', 3500 comments or shares
- May 23: "How to Dad" in Rotorua. 140,000 reach, 19,000 'clicks', 3000 comments and shares
- April 7: Malekai Fekitoa in Rotorua. 228,000 reach, 94,000 'clicks' and 3000 comments and shares