City manager outlines website redesign, accessibility push and social media gains

City Manager Jerry updated the Beloit City Council on how residents find and use municipal information and outlined a planned website redesign and accessibility work required by upcoming standards.

Jerry said year‑to‑date the city website has had about 69,000 visits, with most visitors viewing news pages; roughly 8% of visits were for online bill payment and about 5% went to the police department page. He presented social media metrics showing about 13,000 followers across platforms and cited a top post — "Betting on Beloit" — with 329,000 views, and other posts that drew tens of thousands of views.

The manager said the city will redesign its home page using a template that could take 13 to 16 weeks to code and will comply with "Web 2" accessibility standards required of cities. He added that the Beloit Report e‑newsletter has an open rate of about 46%, above typical benchmarks, and that staff adjusted its release day from Monday to Thursday to give residents more time to review council packets before meetings.

Jerry described rising use of video and short reels as key to gaining attention on social channels and noted the city now has about 13,000 social followers, with Facebook yielding the most engagement. He said the city is translating materials into Spanish more frequently and has a Spanish speaker in the city manager’s office to help reach Spanish‑speaking residents.

Councilors asked about outreach to Spanish speakers and were told translations and an internal Spanish speaker are already being used. Jerry also said Beloit Transit will present the transit development plan to the council on Aug. 18 during the general meeting.

The manager framed the communications updates as informational rather than seeking action during this session.