Creating a regional social presence

For South West Mutual
2019-2022
South West Mutual mission image
South West Mutual coast path image
The project

Designed and led a company workshop to co-design a strategy with the leadership team.

Iterated plans to deliver end-to-end social media activity for nearly three years.

Reached tens of thousands of people per month, elevating the organisation's national and regional social presence, and helping to connect with funders and partners.

"Rebecca has a can-do attitude – we discovered this early on"
The client

South West Mutual (SWM) is the co-operative society setting up an ethical bank for the South West of England – Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset. Their aim is to support the region's transition to a socially just and ecologically sustainable economy.

(Kernowek: Dastiskudha gonis gwir arghantti rag pubonan.)

Operations have been recently scaled back due to current challenges in the regulatory and funding environments. SWM continues to exist as a lean, volunteer-led organisation campaigning for the necessary evolution of government policy.

South West Mutual fishing image
The brief

South West Mutual was a fast-moving enterprise in need of a presence.

"As a start-up business we didn't have the time or skills within the team to give social media the required focus," said Adrian Ball, Head of Membership and Engagement at the time.

Social media activity had to:

  • remain sensitive to the company's legal standing
  • meet overall aim of getting more people seeing SWM's updates
  • be delivered in a tight budget, with allocated time spend of 2-3 hours a week
The approach

A strategy workshop formed the basis of SWM's organic social approach. The resultant channels plan I enjoyed iterating and delivering upon for nearly three years. Specific tactics included:

  • Filming interviews with industry leaders from across the UK, with snippet content becoming SWM's most popular social media content
  • Live-tweeting events at which the Chief Executive spoke – expanding on points, adding resources, and connecting attendees
  • Elevating funding partners' content, helping to strengthen those relationships
South West Mutual Twitter page
The results
  • Translated branding into an attractive social media presence
  • Spent 2-3 hours a week on end-to-end reactive and proactive social media activity (strategising, ideating, planning, writing, scheduling, engaging, measuring, reporting) allowing SWM team to focus on their mission
  • Content seen around half a million times per year (496k impressions)
  • Analysed results alongside organisation missions in time for board meetings
South West Mutual cafe image
"Rebecca understood quickly what we stand for, how we communicate, and the story we want to tell"
More about the client

South West Mutual

Banking start-up
Plymouth
Feeling inspired?

Get in touch to find out how we could work together

More like this

Dive into another case study from Rebecca Broad Communications

Ideaflip blog screenshot
A project for Ideaflip
Storytelling blog content for a software company
Sticker in a window
A project for Safer Exeter
Turning Government funding into valuable public communication