How we helped St Michael’s Hospice create greater impact on social media
The backstory
St Michael’s Hospice support and enables the community of Hastings and Rother to live well with dying, death and loss.
Being told that you have a life-limiting illness can bring great anxiety and a sense of loss of control. Through the provision of specialist palliative care services, they aim to offer tailored care and support to individuals and their families at a worrying time.
The comms team at St Michael’s Hospice needed an audit to understand the impact their social channels were delivering, followed by a social media strategy to support their mission going forward.
How it went down
Their goal was to create a comprehensive social media strategy that provided clarity and direction for their efforts, while ensuring measurable results were being achieved.
Although they had been active on social media for years, they lacked confidence in its overall effectiveness. They sought a detailed audit of their social media presence to evaluate the performance of each platform and identify areas for improvement.
We conducted a comprehensive audit that provided immediate, actionable insights, which the team implemented straight away, resulting in noticeable improvements. The audit revealed a strong, engaged Facebook audience and significant growth potential on Instagram and LinkedIn. It also identified areas to refine publishing strategies, improve accessibility, and enhance visual consistency across channels. Armed with these insights, we facilitated two strategy workshops with the team and developed a cohesive social media strategy.
The strategy clarified that the primary role of social media was to increase awareness of their services, emphasising their holistic approach to supporting people through dying, death, and loss. By showcasing the full scope of St Michael’s Hospice's work, the goal was to shift perceptions of the Hospice as more than just a place for end-of-life care. It aimed to highlight their readiness to support diverse groups, including in-patient unit (IPU) patients, community-based patients, their loved ones, bereaved individuals, and other local supporters.
To achieve this, we focused on broadening and diversifying audiences, empowering more people to feel informed and comfortable accessing their services. The strategy positioned the Hospice as a trusted, welcoming, and expert organisation in their field. It outlined clear target audiences, objectives, a tailored channel strategy, and content pillars designed to communicate their expertise and connect meaningfully with their community.