City staff presented an overview of Troutdale's digital outreach on Oct. 1, reporting metrics for Facebook, Instagram and the city website and describing how event seasons shape engagement.

The presentations, assembled by Kevin Mooney and Marley (city communications staff), showed Facebook as the city's largest platform with 8,996 followers and Instagram with about 2,200 followers. Dakota summarized the data: "So we have, current followers is 8,996 followers... Our Instagram has 2,200 followers." The committee heard that Facebook account activity and follower counts were affected by a January 2024 platform purge of bot accounts.

Why it matters: staff said summer events produce spikes in views and interactions (June–July), while weather events such as the January storms drove high short‑term engagement as the city posted frequent operational updates during outages and closures.

Staff provided additional analytics: typical weekly posting frequency is five to eight Facebook posts, two to four Instagram posts and two to four Nextdoor posts. Dakota noted traffic to the city website is driven largely by development‑related needs (permits) and that search is the largest source of website visits (about 66%). Dakota also highlighted high‑engagement posts during emergencies: road closures, power outages and public‑works updates drew substantial shares and comments.

Committee members asked about staffing and strategy. Kevin was identified as the primary person who manages social media and the website. Committee members suggested tactics to increase engagement — asking questions in posts, using hashtags, tagging nearby cities and experimenting with short tutorial videos about city meetings and public‑comment procedures.

Staff and committee members discussed internships as a way to expand capacity. Dakota said the city has considered internships but that funding, program requirements and seasonal workloads affect feasibility; county and university internship partnerships were suggested as possible avenues.

Ending: The committee asked staff to revisit these metrics after year‑end data are available and to explore internships or seasonal support to increase outreach capacity.