By Colin Killian, Public Communications Manager
When blogging became all the rage several years ago, it was common to see corporations and even state and federal government agencies jumping aboard.
But you didn’t see many local governments taking part – and you still don’t.
The reason the City of College Station decided to start blogging in 2010 was simple. It was an effective way to better tell our story. More than five years later, the city blog continues to be a powerful cornerstone of our public outreach strategy.
In our first six months of blogging, we averaged just over 800 views per month. In 2015, we averaged almost 6,000 views per month, more than a sevenfold increase. Since we began blogging in August 2010, we’ve posted 620 blogs, resulting in about 230,000 views and tens of thousands of shares through social media.
Our 125 new blog posts this year attracted more than 70,000 views — easily our best year to date. Our most-read post of the year was a carryover blog from 2013 about how to report power outages. The most popular new post was about the city’s single-stream recycling program (above right), which has attracted nearly 3,400 views.
While blogging is rare for municipalities, you see even fewer cities delivering regular podcasts featuring local government leaders. Public Communications expanded its efforts in 2015 with 22 podcasts, including 15 with City Manager Kelly Templin. Our podcasts were played almost 3,600 times in 2015.
The most popular podcast of 2015 featured Templin and was about the planned project for the intersection of George Bush Drive and Wellborn Road (right). It’s been played 473 times.
No. 2 on the list is actually our very first podcast from 2013, a song about Bryan-College Station that was recorded in the early 1960s. It had 347 plays in 2015 and remains our all-time leader with 1,189 plays (and 45 downloads) since it debuted.
Here are our most popular blogs and podcasts of the year:
Top Blogs of 2015
| ● 3,508 views | Your account number is key when reporting an outage |
| ● 3,354 views | New single-stream recycling program starts in January |
| ● 2,576 views | Free trick-or-treating fun for the whole family |
| ● 1,235 views | Games of Texas offers opportunities to compete, volunteer |
| ● 992 views | Surviving the hard freeze: You can do this. |
Top Podcasts of 2015
| ● 473 plays | The Next CS Big Dig – George Bush Drive at Wellborn Road |
| ● 347 plays | Bryan College Station: That’s my Hometown |
| ● 332 plays | Jennifer Prochazka: College Station’s Comprehensive Planner |
| ● 263 plays | Vacant properties, Pappadeaux and Chimney Hill |
| ● 169 plays | Redeveloping old properties |
On Thursday, we’ll take a look at our best city photos of 2015.
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