Follow the City of Kalispell

The City of Kalispell has joined the photo-focused social network Instagram, adding to the ways city officials can reach out to constituents to let them know about public meetings, enlist their help in finding people with arrest warrants and even solicit feedback on public works projects.

It is the latest in an ongoing campaign by city officials to extend their reach to young people and those who aren’t exposed to the normal newsletters and public meetings the city holds to let the people know what’s going on.

The city joined Facebook and Twitter back in 2015. Instagram is owned by Facebook, Inc., but is a much different platform. Rather than text, users scroll through a timeline that is full of photos and accompanying captions.

City Clerk Aimee Brunckhorst manages the city’s new Instagram account, along with the Facebook and Twitter accounts and about $500 of public money dedicated to promoting posts on the different platforms each year and archiving old pages for future reference.

“We understand that if we want people to take the time to meaningfully engage with the city we need to reach people where they are already spending time,” Brunckhorst said. “Instagram is a great tool because statistically we think we can reach a younger audience.”

Brunckhorst said that last year they had directed about $700 of funding toward managing the social media accounts, but she only used about $400 of that money so this year the amount was decreased to $500 and will be spread amongst the three platforms Brunckhorst manages.

The money goes toward promoting posts that are of particular importance so they reach a wider number of people and also toward a subscription for the use of an online archiving tool. Brunckhorst said state law required them to keep records of all their posts and people’s response, in case legal inquiries in the future required them to procure the old records. She said that hadn’t happened yet, but they were prepared in the case that it did.

She said the biggest value of being on the social media sites was that it gave the city another platform to notify people of public forums and encourage them to come engage with city representatives in person.

For example, the recent Kalispell Trail and Complete Street Project deep dive week was plugged heavily on the city’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Hundreds of people showed up to events throughout the week to learn about the project and give their opinion to city officials, and Brunckhorst credits a significant portion of those attendants to their online promotion efforts.

“Thousands of views and active engagement on social media helped us reach those numbers,” Brunckhorst said. “There are so many cool projects going on and we want them to turn out the way people want them to.”

Social media will continue to play a significant role in the project, Brunckhorst said. Any additional public hearings would be plugged, but the public will also be notified when construction begins and told what kinds of complications the work could add to their daily commutes.

Brunckhorst said it was often difficult to convey the complexities of a project in a social media post, so rather than actively attempting to solicit feedback through online comments and social media engagement she focused on using the platform as a way to advertise for events where people could learn about a project and make their opinion known in person.

Still, she said that when she received substantive feedback from comments or messages on social media, she did share it with the relevant department in city hall and it was recorded as public comment.

The city also uses the accounts to post warrants most weeks, and Brunckhorst said information they had gathered from the public from those social media posts had led to arrests in some instances in the past.

The Kalispell Department of Parks and Recreation operate their own independent Facebook page that lets area residents know what is going on in their realm, and that is not included in Brunckhorst’s budget or list of duties.

The city’s new Instagram handle is @cityofkalispell. It can also be found at this web address: https://www.instagram.com/cityofkalispell.