Kalamazoo City unveils three-year communications plan, emphasizes video and outreach to explain homelessness work

Communications manager Mike Smith presented a three-year communications plan to the Kalamazoo City Commission Committee of the Whole on Aug. 4, 2025, outlining goals for public engagement, brand consistency and emergency communications.

The plan, which Smith said runs through 2028, aims to ‘‘be open, responsive, accessible, proactive’’ and to expand the city’s use of videos and social media to reach residents, internal staff and regional partners. Smith highlighted the CityView newsletter’s national award and shared social-media metrics for Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Smith said the communications team will prioritize telling the city’s story through a mix of press releases, video features, community newsletters, direct mail for infrastructure projects and a community contacts database. ‘‘We want to make that information easy to find and available to all audiences,’’ Smith said. He described planned tactics including speeches, talking points, FAQs, the ‘‘Kalamazoo and You’’ video series and performance metrics to track reach and engagement.

The presentation named staff members on the communications team: Zach Hamilton as public safety public-information officer, Neil Conway as communications coordinator and Amanda Cockcroft as marketing and communications specialist. Smith described monthly cross-department meetings and internal staff emails as part of employee engagement efforts.

On homelessness, Smith said staff had discussed creating a dedicated webpage and other outreach to better explain the city’s work and spending on unhoused services. ‘‘We were talking about how we could possibly find a way to tell the story in terms of what we're doing in terms of the unhoused,’’ Smith said. He cited roughly ‘‘over $30,000,000 in the last few years’’ directed toward the issue and said a landing page could help residents understand programs and gaps.

Commissioners asked detailed questions. Vice Mayor Hess asked about using outside influencers and cited Discover Kalamazoo as an example; Smith said the city could explore partnering more closely with the organization. Commissioner Decker pressed for higher survey participation and suggested leveraging community organizations to boost response rates; Smith proposed working with partners and the city’s contact database to increase outreach. Commissioner Cooney proposed regular public forums or focused reports so residents could see what the city and partner nonprofits are doing on issues such as homelessness; Smith said staff and deputy city leadership were already discussing possible web and video updates.

Accessibility and emergency communications were also discussed. Commissioners urged that communications meet accessibility standards and that emergency messaging be broadened beyond weather to cover other resident concerns. Smith said emergency communication plans would be aligned with the city’s emergency-preparedness coordinators and public-safety partners.

Smith presented social-media metrics showing roughly 32,000 Facebook followers with millions of views across platforms and said the city’s share of voice in the region was growing. He closed by accepting additional ideas from commissioners and offering his contact information for follow-up.

The Committee did not take formal action on the communications plan during the work session; the presentation concluded with a question-and-answer period and discussion of implementation steps.