County public relations reports sharp rise in social media engagement after Rainbow Bridge post

Miss McKenzie, Valley County's public relations officer, told commissioners the county saw an unusually large increase in online traffic over the previous 30 days. "We saw 225,000 impressions this month," she said, referring to the number of times content from the county Facebook page was displayed. She said engagements'likes, comments and shares'totaled 19,147 and that the engagement rate rose to 8.5%.

The increase was driven largely by a single post about the Rainbow Bridge update, McKenzie said; that post was shared 173 times and directly contributed about 200 new Facebook followers. McKenzie said the county averages roughly 40 posts a month and that much of the content is informational or highlights services the public rarely hears about. "We're still seeing a pretty high ratio of new visitors to our site every month," she said, reporting about 30,000 page views and roughly 10,500 visitors in the last 30 days, 8,900 of whom were new.

McKenzie said the most-viewed pages included property-assessment information, the transfer site, and the sheriff's office pages. She noted geographic results sometimes reflect internet routing rather than actual visitors: for example, a high number of active users listed as Phoenix likely reflects IP routing rather than actual local interest. She also said the communications team is working with departments, the recreation advisory board and expects to produce marketing material related to a prospective county grants process. Commissioners asked McKenzie to circulate more detail about a grant-marketing plan and staff named Sherry as a point of follow-up on a grants-related request.

The county will continue the current social media cadence and staff said they will engage with commenters when a factual correction is required but otherwise allow public discussion to proceed organically.