MARCH 23 2026 COUNCIL PRESENTATION FINAL.PDF
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Communication Update March 23, 2026 Tempe City Council Work Study Session Since June 2024 retreat … New branding and communication priorities Website update with better functionality Creation of 2025-2027 Communication Plan Citywide Public Records Request system deployed New social media tools and expert management 2 Our two-year communication plan aligns with Council Priorities. It’s based on research, data, surveys and budgets. Performance Measure 2.21 Satisfaction of Information Availability Performance Measure 2.04 Usefulness of the City's Website We also play a role in many performance measures throughout the city. Working our plan 3 Top 10% in the nation! 4 Our award-winning team We won four Public Relations Society of America awards this year for social media, videos and overall communication campaigns 5 We are the information source of choice The top five results are produced by the City of Tempe Communication team 6 Reliable source of trusted information We provide the everyday information people need. Most of it isn’t glamorous – but it makes life easier for people. • Trash pickup days • Street closures and detours • Public meetings and surveys • Safety messages, sustainability tips, and important voting dates 7 Instantly and consistently there when people need us most 8 What we said we’d do … Better connect public safety and City of Tempe communication • Cross-departmental collaboration on news and events using all our tools • Award-winning @TempeFire Instagram! – gained 1,300 new followers in six months 9 What we said we’d do … Highlight infrastructure improvements and basic services Show value for tax dollars PQI progress, Mill Avenue refresh, new pedestrian crosswalks, streetscapes, park openings 10 What we said we’d do … Tell local business stories and bolster Econ Dev’s profile New Econ Dev website launching, lots of business profiles on social, in newsletter … 11 40 million impressions on social media – up from 22 million 5.4 million pageviews on our city website – up from 5 million 4 million emails sent with a 42% open rate – a 14% increase in emails sent and a 10% increase in the average open rate New number: 20,000 TV and radio news stories Some big numbers 12 In 2023, the sum of these numbers was 35 million. We’ve made an overall increase of about 30%. Social successes What top social media posts have in common: • Timely • Useful information • Entertaining • Shareable • Newsworthy 13 Improved communication with residents 14 Improvement comes from: • More attention to social media • Working together across all departments • Content meetings, sharing ‘best of’ across accounts • More video! We had a 400% increase in video views last year • Paying attention to analytics • Watching trends and making solid decisions about their use Get creative to get attention Getting out the vote: Vote on a Boat Fireworks messaging Taking transit to events These got thousands of views each. More traditional messages on the same topics don’t even get close to that. 15 What could be next? • Stay the course with our Communication Plan • Continue updating our website for AI and new federal standards • Increasing sign-ups to Tempe This Week • Increasing the amount of short-form video produced • TBD - the future is wide open and changes fast! Your ideas? 16 Thank you! Kris Baxter-Ging - Communication Director kris_baxter@tempe.gov