What does Kevin Fallon have in common with Taylor Swift, Michelle Obama and Rebel Wilson?
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His posts have been acknowledged at the International Shorty Awards for best overall Facebook presence.
The Shorty's are the most prestigious awards in the world recognising the best use of social media by influencers, creators, brands and organisations.
The only difference this year was Mr Fallon was unable to attend the awards like previous winners.
Instead of hosting an awards New York the presentation was done on social media because of COVID-19.
But that took nothing away from the significance of the win in a category that included finalists such as WWE, Disney and Al Jazeera.
The family owned and operated Symbio Wildlife Park was acknowledged because during 2020 videos posted on its Facebook page by Mr Fallon achieved more than 150 million views, 35 million engagements and 430 million impressions.
He said the achievement showed you don't need big budgets or large teams to gain social media success.
"All you need to do is find a true point of difference and convey it through meaningful and authentic storytelling.
Even to be named a finalist in one category of the the global awards that are considered the equivalent of the Oscars for social media was significant. But the Helensburgh zoo was a finalist in four categories.
Mr Fallon is Symbio's marketing and creative services manager and his content made the global short list for best overall Facebook presence, best use of Facebook, best use of video and best global campaign categories along with some of the biggest names on social media. He said many other finalists had huge advertising agencies or were companies with large budgets and marketing teams.
Some of the digital results achieved by Symbio during 2020 include an increase in video views and engagement levels by 800 per cent and 19 videos achieving more than a million views. During the year there were 153,000 page likes and 209,000 new followers.
Mr Fallon said the results were recognition of all the hard work the whole team put in. He said they were so good at their job it provided him plenty of great content.
"This validates that and shows we are well and truly punching above our weight. Our stats are some of the highest in the world. From my understanding only a couple of advertising agencies and celebrities have won categories or been given influencer awards before," he said.
Mr Fallon openly shares what works for Symbio with other wildlife parks and tourism businesses.
"I have just written a social strategy for a zoo at Port Macquarie," he said.
"It is good for local tourism. Animals are one of the biggest deciding factors in tourism. The main goal of many international tourists is to see a koala and a kangaroo."
Which means Symbio and the Illawarra are more likely to be top-of-mind when global borders reopen after COVID-19.
Mr Fallon said one of the most successful posts during the last year was a compilation video of a baby joey. It attracted more than 30 million views just on Symbio page.
"In 2020 we were effectively one of if not the most engaged tourism entity in the world," he said.
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Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
