Town of Blacksburg Adopted Operating Budget FY 2027

COMMUNITY RELATIONS OFFICE

NARRATIVE The Community Relations Office (CRO) creates consistent and informative messaging that promotes town initiatives and accomplishments; encourages citizen engagement; and works collaboratively on communication strategy across town departments. Through numerous programs and partnerships, the CRO also works to champion Blacksburg’s reputation as a warm and inviting university town, rich in cultural amenities, and prime for business opportunities.

FY 2026 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

 Refined production of ‘Blacksburg in Focus’, a short-form video series that investigates town and community happenings; staff produced and published 18 videos between January 2025 and January 2026.  Continued to make improvements to the public hearings webpage content structure and streamline communications using a refined version of the development application.  Launched a successful social media campaign recognizing town departments for Public Service Recognition Week.  Helped promote awareness of the town’s lower speed limit initiative by working with town staff to create an educational campaign that included: an interactive “Let’s Talk” page, video, and infographics for social media.  Improved the town’s presence on YouTube by increasing viewership by 33%, watch time by 75%, and subscribers by 21%.

FY 2027 OBJECTIVES

 Begin website redesign project.  Begin branding project.  Continue to focus on work plan initiatives – specifically refining the development project map and the ‘Demystifying the Development Process’ project.  Continue to focus on the production of educational digital media content.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

FY 2024 Actual

FY 2025 Actual 12,000 10,500 43,037

FY 2026 Adopted

FY 2026 Projected

FY 2027 Adopted

Facebook Followers

11,406 10,800* 34,184

15,000 11,200* 40,000

12,500 10,550 55,000

13,000 10,650 53,000

Twitter Followers YouTube Views YouTube Subscribers

714

812

825

920

1,050

YouTube Content Uploads/Live Streams

22

52

60

78

50

Online Council Meeting Views

Not Available Not Available

6,739

Not Available

7,000

7,500

Online Planning Commission Mtg Views

351

Not Available

650

500

Channel 2 Annual Programming Hours Channel 2 Community Bulletin Brd Posts

1,512

1,335

1,550

1,350

1,400

454

343

400

400

400

Citizens Alert Subscribers Citizens Alerts Issued

4514

5,027

5,000

5,100

5,500

412 292

470 448

460 350

470 460

480 470

At Your Request – Requests Resolved Annual Website Page Views Let’s Talk Blacksburg Total Visits Let’s Talk Blacksburg Engaged Visitors Let’s Talk Blacksburg Informed Visitors

1,110,175

957,000 23,400

1,500,000

890,000 24,000

1,000,000

- - -

22,300

25,000

1,700 5,600

1,200 5,200

1,800 5,500

1,850

5,600 *Twitter numbers based on calendar year, not fiscal year. | Not Available = due to the Granicus reporting software not functioning.

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