How Better Systems Transformed Health New Zealand’s Social Media Operations
60+
social media accounts managed
84%
reduction in community management response times
Health New Zealand had the platform. What they were missing was someone to make it work for them.
When Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora was established in July 2022, it inherited a fragmented digital landscape: over 60 social media accounts, legacy workflows from other Health organisations who had since left, and a social media management platform that was technically in place but practically underused. The result was a team whose tools weren’t working as hard as they were.
In late 2025, they brought in KINSHIP Digital to help solve this.
The problem: complexity at scale
Health New Zealand manages publishing, reporting, and community management across more than 60 social media accounts spanning regions and districts. On paper, a centralised platform was already in place. In practice, it was a different story.
Years of accumulated tags from teams that no longer existed. Spam flooding community management queues. Reporting dashboards that left teams with data but not direction. And no easy way to see performance across accounts without manually pulling it together.
The key pain points:
A cluttered platform environment that was difficult to navigate
High manual effort in community management, with no filtering for spam or irrelevant messages
Limited automation for tagging, categorisation, and routing
Reporting that didn’t reflect business priorities or give clear visibility across regions
Slow access to performance data, making timely decisions difficult
Diagnosis first, then action
KINSHIP started by getting under the hood. Before recommending anything, we audited the platform end-to-end: what was there, what was working, and what was creating drag. Health NZ’s team played a critical role - particularly in validating which legacy assets were worth keeping and which could be retired.
From that audit, several clear priorities emerged.
What we did
1. Cut the friction from content creation
The publishing workflow had accumulated years of outdated tags from teams and regions that no longer existed. Every time someone went to create a post, they were navigating a list that no longer reflected how the organisation actually worked.
KINSHIP audited and removed the legacy tags, restructured the taxonomy to align with current teams and regions, and configured automated tagging, so content was categorised correctly without manual input. The result: less confusion, less double-handling, and faster publishing.
2. Reduced the manual effort of community management
With 60+ accounts generating constant inbound messages, the volume of manual work in community management was unsustainable. Teams were spending significant time just sorting through noise.
We introduced automation across the key pressure points: spam filtering based on keywords and profanity, automated tagging of inbound messages by topic and source content, and routing rules that sent messages to the right team without manual intervention. Macros were also enhanced so common actions could be completed in a single step rather than several.
“We have really benefited from the reduction in effort through Sidra’s [KINSHIP Digital Professional Services Consultant] improvements to our set up – we’re getting through cases so much quicker and able to get back to our core work.”
3. Build reporting that people actually use
The previous reporting setup was difficult to navigate and wasn’t built around how Health NZ teams actually needed to use data. Leadership needed a national view. Regional teams needed account-level performance. Neither was easy to access.
KINSHIP worked with Health NZ to define a consistent set of KPIs, then built dashboards tailored to each use case: campaign performance, channel performance, and inbound engagement. AI-driven insights were enabled to surface trends automatically, reducing the need for manual analysis.
4. Give leadership a clear national view
At the scale Health NZ operates, visibility is everything. Teams across regions need to understand what’s happening in their sector. Central leadership needs to see the national picture. Previously, neither was straightforward.
KINSHIP implemented a structured reporting framework with national, regional, and account-level views, each tailored to the relevant user group. Access controls were refined so teams saw what was relevant to them; nothing more, nothing less.
5. Set teams up to succeed independently
A new setup is only valuable if people use it confidently. KINSHIP delivered tailored training for different user groups, covering day-to-day publishing, community management workflows, and reporting. Ongoing guidance was provided as teams adapted to the new processes.
The results
84%
faster community management response
60+
accounts under one framework
The transformation delivered measurable improvements across both efficiency and usability:
Faster community management response times, with average handling time reduced by 84%.
A more intuitive platform experience, reflected in higher adoption with a +13% increase in users logging in regularly and a +35% increase in platform publishing adoption.
Significant reduction in manual effort through automation, freeing teams to focus on higher-value work.
Clear, consistent visibility across all 60+ accounts and regions for the first time.
“Sidra has completely transformed our workflow, reporting, and channel oversight. We’re very lucky to have her supporting our team in New Zealand. ”
Why it matters
Social media is one of the most visible channels Health New Zealand uses to engage with the public — across everything from hospital updates to community health campaigns. When that channel is fragmented and difficult to manage, teams slow down and communication with communities becomes less effective.
KINSHIP Digital cleared the operational drag and built a setup that actually reflected how Health NZ works today, giving the team what they needed to communicate more consistently, respond more effectively, and make decisions grounded in real data — in service of better public health outcomes across Aotearoa.