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Eaton County communications office says newsletter, social media drove outreach on separate tax limitation and events
Summary
At the Dec. 4 Eaton County IT Committee meeting, communications staff reported shifting the county newsletter timing, described social media engagement tied to a separate tax limitation campaign and recapped recent outreach events and media coverage.
At the Eaton County IT Committee meeting on Dec. 4, communications staff member Logan summarized recent outreach efforts, saying the county shifted its newsletter timing and devoted substantial communications resources to a separate tax limitation proposal that dominated media attention in October and November.
Logan said the county moved the newsletter release to follow major board meetings so it would be more “board-centric.” He told commissioners there was no active paid digital advertising in October and November and that much of the county’s organic content during that period focused on the separate tax limitation, Resource Recovery and Parks and Recreation promotions.
The communications report listed recent events and promotions, including a Stringlight Collection (running Dec. 1–end of January), a ribbon cutting in the village of Vermontville for a park project partly funded by a community grant, a youth facility expansion event in October and a Nov. 14 sheriff’s press conference about changes in the sheriff’s office. Logan said a promotional interview with Fox 47 was planned to boost the Stringlight Collection coverage and that an art installation at the youth facility will be celebrated primarily through online promotion with LEAP.
On social media metrics, Logan said the county gained 59 new followers over the last two months and that content reach generally ranged from about 5,000 to 7,000 per month. He cautioned that Meta (Facebook/Instagram) changed how it reports metrics, consolidating prior breakdowns of reach, views and interactions into a single distribution metric; Logan said that change skews month-to-month comparisons.
Logan reported the county website recorded roughly 61,000 users across October and November, with an average time on page of about 2 minutes, 58 seconds. He said the communications office will work with Technology Services to benchmark key pages (for example, public case search, elections and online services) to set target engagement times and improve navigation.
On media coverage, Logan said the separate tax limitation and the sheriff’s office dominated the county’s public relations space in recent weeks. He said the communications office aimed for one to two pieces of media coverage per week about the proposal and that not all coverage was positive or on-record. Logan warned commissioners a reporter was expected at a special ways-and-means meeting the next day and advised them to be prepared for outreach.
Votes at a glance: The committee approved the meeting agenda and the minutes from the Oct. 2, 2024 meeting by voice vote during the Dec. 4 session; the transcript records the motions and voice approvals but does not provide roll-call tallies.
The IT Committee adjourned until January 2025.
