Challenge

Minamiise officials understood the need to better engage online communities in an easy-to-understand way. The goal included connecting with area residents to communicate important town news and alerts as well as reaching the wider tourist public to share information about Minamiise’s attractions. Due to a shortage of available staff, the government struggled to make progress.

Solution

Because Instagram professional accounts can be managed by multiple admins, the Minamiise government decided to use the tool to promote the city and its offerings. Government employees — volunteers from a range of departments — started a cross-functional management system for public outreach. Among its aims, the group wanted to address common issues such as the length of time it took to get approval for posts. Members created a workflow for handling approvals, enabling a shift to more timely informational posts from Instagram. The team started using Edits to create Reels, streamlining the video creation and posting process for both organic posts and Reels ads. In addition, they began using Threads to actively post both Reels and text, making information easy to understand and widely available. The Reels regularly include Minamiise’s mascot, Taimi, the offspring of a sea bream father and tangerine mother, both key local products, to help communicate information in an engaging way. On Threads, Minamiise Town also uses the platform to explain background information that can’t be fully conveyed on Instagram alone.