Data report · July 2026 · Public Square Analytics

What an Engaging Month of Municipal Social Media Actually Looks Like

One viral post is luck. A whole month that consistently lands is a system. So we reconstructed 23,167 municipality-months — every city and county in our dataset, month by month — to answer the four questions behind a content calendar: what to post, how much, how to space it, and when. We start with the one planners care about most — which topics actually engage residents — and because “good” looks completely different for a town of 3,000 than a city of 300,000, we report real numbers inside three population bands. Find your band, and read down your column.

First, find your band

Every table below is reported three ways. Here’s the lay of the land — and already the first lesson: bigger governments post more and earn more per post, so never benchmark yourself against a big-city account.

“Typical volume” is the median municipality-month; “median engagement per post” is the median across all posts in the band. n = 23,167 municipality-months.

1. Topic areas: what to post about

The first question any content calendar has to answer is what to post — so we start there. Below is the median engagement of all 13 content topics, in each band, next to how much of the average calendar each one occupies. Two things jump out: the ranking barely changes with size — the winners are the same whether you serve 3,000 residents or 300,000 — and governments systematically post the most of what engages the least.

Median engagement per post by topic, within each band. Red share figures mark high-performing topics that are under-posted; the shaded rows mark low-performing topics that are over-posted.

The engagement leaders — give these your best slots

Infrastructure & Planning is the standout in every band (median 7 / 9 / 11) and the most-forwarded topic of all. Road and water projects, closures, paving and construction schedules, development and rezoning decisions — concrete things that hit a resident’s street and week, and useful enough that people forward them to warn a neighbor. Yet it’s just 8% of posts: the single biggest under-supplied opportunity in the data. What works: specific, local, actionable — “Phase 2 paving starts Monday, here’s the detour,” a rezoning decision with real stakes, “what the new budget means for your street.”

Public Safety & Police (6 / 7 / 11) and Events & Community Activities (5 / 7 / 11) are the two workhorses that already carry most calendars — 17% and 16% of posts, and strong in every band. Keep them front and center. What works: timely storm / road / weather alerts and human recognition (a retirement, a life saved) for safety; people-filled photos and a clear reason to show up for events.

The under-used opportunities — post more than you do

These beat their weight but barely appear on calendars. Business & Economic Development (4 / 7 / 10; 57% forwarded) is just 4% of posts — ribbon-cuttings, new local businesses, hiring and grants residents root for. Community Engagement & Volunteer (5 / 6 / 9) is 6% — volunteer calls and board vacancies reframed as “help shape ___,” which invite people to act. And Animal Services (3 / 5 / 9) is under 2% of posts, but adoptable-pet posts are share magnets — a low-cost weekend delight.

The over-supplied drags — trim or reframe

Government Information & Boards — agendas, minutes, procedural notices — is about 15% of posts in every band, yet sits near the bottom (3 / 4 / 6) and is the least-forwarded topic. It matters for transparency, but it’s reference content, not feed content: keep a single, human-framed version (“the short version of Tuesday’s council decisions — what changes for you”) and route the rest to where people look for it. Other / Miscellaneous (16% of posts; 3 / 5 / 6) is the junk drawer — and this is where size bites hardest: it’s a remarkable 24% of everything small towns post, versus 12% for large cities. Health & Wellness (1 / 2 / 4) lands lowest of all — generic PSAs travel poorly, so make them local and specific or fold them into events and safety. Library, Recreation, and Technology posts are fine in support roles rather than as headliners (though a parks or trail post makes a strong weekend anchor).

The mismatch, in one line: about a third of the average calendar — Government Information plus Other/Miscellaneous — goes to the weakest topics, while the strongest (Infrastructure, Business, Community Engagement) are the most under-supplied. Rebalancing that is the single biggest lever in this report, and it’s largest for small towns.

2. Volume: how much to post

Start with the simplest question — how many posts. The typical government posts about four times a week, but that rises steeply with size: a small town posts around 13 times a month, a mid-size city about 20, and a large city or county roughly 29. So the honest answer to “how often should we post?” is: it depends on your size — match the norm for your band, don’t chase a big city’s feed.

But more is not free. Watch what happens to per-post engagement as an account crams in more posts — and notice the penalty is far harsher for small towns than for big cities:

Median engagement per post at each posting pace, within each band. Daily-plus posting is common: it’s 16% of small-town months, 32% of mid-size months, and 49% of large-government months.

For a small town, going daily is actively counterproductive — per-post engagement falls from about 5.5 to 3, nearly cut in half, because a small audience only has so much appetite. For a large city, the penalty is mild (11 down to 9): the reach and the depth of genuinely newsworthy material are there to sustain a daily feed. The rule that fits every band: post as often as you can while every post still earns its place — roughly 3×/week for a small town, 4–5× for a mid-size city, 5–7× for a large one — and stop manufacturing volume you have to pad with filler.

3. Cadence: find a rhythm and keep it

Volume is how many; cadence is how they’re spaced — and the two are not the same thing. Ten posts crammed into one week, then three weeks of silence, is the same volume as a steady two-a-week, but it trains your community to tune out. The engaged accounts keep a presence across the whole month, and consistency climbs with size: 71% of small-town months are active in four or more separate weeks, rising to 82% for mid-size and 87% for large governments. Smaller shops are the ones most likely to go dark for a stretch — which is exactly the habit that’s hardest to rebuild. Pick a weekly rhythm you can actually sustain and hold it; a predictable cadence beats an ambitious one you abandon by week three.

4. Timing: claim the weekend

Governments post almost everything Monday through Friday — Friday most of all — and then go quiet. But the weekend, which carries just 12.5% of all posts, is when engagement peaks in every band, and the lift grows with size:

Median engagement per post by day, within each band. For a large government, the median Sunday post (12) out-earns the median weekday post (~8) by half again.

This holds inside every content theme, too — a public-safety post, an events post, an infrastructure post all do measurably better on Saturday or Sunday than the same kind of post midweek — so it isn’t an artifact of what happens to get posted when. It’s the cheapest win in this whole report: move one high-value post into the weekend each week, when there’s far less competing in the feed and residents are scrolling on their own time.

Why this works: municipal social is a “forward,” not a “debate”

One pattern ties the whole strategy together and holds in every band: engagement is roughly 74% reactions, 16% shares, and 10% comments. Shares beat comments everywhere — and the bigger the government, the more its posts get forwarded (at least one share on 49% of small-town posts, 54% mid-size, 58% large). Residents distribute government information far more than they argue about it: they forward a road closure so a neighbor isn’t stuck in it, share an event so a friend comes along, pass on a safety alert. That’s exactly why the tangible, useful themes win. The sharpest test for anything on your calendar: would a resident forward this to someone they know? If not, it’s reference material — important, but not feed content.

The archetype: a month you can copy

Put it together and a template falls out. The shape is the same for everyone — tilt the mix toward infrastructure, public safety, and events; keep a steady weekly rhythm; anchor one high-value post on the weekend; trim the procedural filler. Only the volume scales to your band: run this four-week shape at about 3 posts/week if you’re a small town, 4–5 if mid-size, 6–7 if you’re large (add a second post on your busiest days). Here it is at the mid-size pace — roughly 16 posts across four weeks:

Mid-size pace shown (~16 posts / 4 per week). Active all four weeks · one weekend anchor each week · mix weighted to Infrastructure (~25%), Public Safety and Events (~19% each), with procedural “Government Information” cut to a single, human-framed post. Small town: run the same shape at ~3/week (drop one midweek post). Large: add a second post on your busiest days. Swap themes for whatever’s genuinely happening — the shape is the point.

How to use this

1. Rebalance toward the topics that travel. This is the biggest lever — and biggest for small towns. Trade procedural notices and “other” filler for infrastructure, public safety, events, local business, and volunteer/engagement content.
2. Benchmark to your band, not a big city. A small town’s strong month looks nothing like a metro’s. Read down your column, and compare yourself to peers your own size.
3. Match your band’s volume — then stop. ~3/week small, 4–5 mid, 6–7 large. Pushing past it thins out every post, and the smaller you are, the steeper the penalty.
4. Keep a rhythm. Show up every week; a predictable cadence you can sustain beats an ambitious one you drop.
5. Claim the weekend, and write for the forward. Put your most shareable post on Saturday or Sunday; if a resident wouldn’t send it to a neighbor, it’s reference, not feed.

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