As a member of Generation Z, I was one of millions of kids in my generation born into the age of social media. I had an iPhone in hand at 10 years old and a social network spanning multiple apps before I stepped foot inside a high school – as did nearly all of my friends and classmates.
With social media acting as a constant, I got a firsthand perspective of the ways social media can be beneficial or detrimental, and I watched the patterns and habits that my peers grew into as social media platforms expanded in their capabilities. (The way younger Gen-Z and Generation Alpha are seeing this now with large language models/AI)
Social media has, to put it simply, become most people’s first instinct for anything and everything — news, entertainment, engagement, interaction with friends, and even shopping. In some ways, it has replaced the functions of Google in my generation. Even now, at JGPR, when I hear reports of a public safety incident, or want to know if my town has a parking ban in place, my instinct is to check social media.
Our clients – police, fire, government, public works, schools etc. – need a proper strategy to feed social media and its natural audience. And in 2026, that strategy needs to change, because our clients are not just speaking to older adults (Boomers/Gen-X/Millennials) who began using social media as teenagers or adults; they are speaking to new generations that never knew life without it.
Those in the public sector who oppose wider, more strategic social media use by their agencies cite fake news, misinformation, and lack of accountability from users as reasons to deny a platform’s value as a source of information. While these things do occur in abundance, to me, this just creates a responsibility within government agencies to prohibit it as best they can by establishing a clearly visible presence on social media that directs their audience to them.
Otherwise, people will only see the trolls.
Part of the reason we don’t believe in saying “no comment” to reporters is because we know the patterns people operate on when it comes to information. When the initial source doesn’t have any information to share, people begin the goose chase for information, which is often where the rumor mill and misinformation thrive. In a journalistic sense, that means tracking down any possible witnesses, who may or may not have the factual story. On social media, we see it manifest in Facebook groups and comment sections, where people just speculate with each other. It’s a giant game of “telephone.”
The only way to make sure your community has the complete, factual information is to be the ones saying it to them, and in today’s digital age, the best way to establish yourself as their primary source is to get on social media.
Once you’ve done that, you have created a space for your community to hear from you, which opens the door for you to tell your story, and most importantly, your good news, on your terms.
At JGPR, we are firm believers in FEMA’s 95/5 rule, that 95% of the news you share should be good news or everyday news, and the remaining 5% is for crisis communications, news messaging, etc. This does not mean you should “bury” your bad news – quite the opposite. It means you should be communicating regularly with your community so that when breaking news hits, you’re well-prepared to deliver the message, and your community already expects to hear from you.
We are also firm believers that not everything demands an old fashioned press/news release, especially when it comes to reaching your community directly.
Since we introduced social media reels as a product to existing clients at no additional cost in August 2025, we have produced reels for clients highlighting news, planned events, people at work in action, work in the community and so much more.
The result has consistently been a significant increase in engagement that builds stronger community relationships.
In our work with the Lexington Minute Men, we often cover their events and create a number of social posts for them, mainly 30-second, minimally-produced videos. The reels we have created for them receive hundreds and thousands of views. A 10-second video of some of the Company’s fife and drum players playing their instruments received 40.8k views, 1,847 likes, and 30 comments between Facebook and Instagram.
In a year’s worth of social media-focused work for Georgetown Public Schools, including building an Instagram profile from scratch, the profile gained nearly 800 followers in its first months. The District has 1,260 students across all schools. In a 90-day period from March to June of 2026, the profile has 306,404 views reaching 19,015 accounts, and 7,703 interactions with the account, including 4,158 likes across all posts and 327 shares. This, in a town that no longer has a weekly or daily newspaper, since the Georgetown Record ceased production in 2019. That former “Wicked Local” publication now only exists … on Facebook!
Our strategy? Creating noise with a purpose. The Georgetown Public School Instagram has at least one post go out each day, whether it be a reel, a graphic, or just a few photos. Georgetown Public Schools families go on social media and learn about at least one positive thing that happened in the District, every day.
On a lesser scale, we have created a series of reels highlighting Marblehead Police Department’s brand-new Citizen’s Police Academy 2.0, an “Adopt Don’t Shop” campaign for Winthrop Police Department highlighting officers and their adopted pets, a reel for North Reading Fire Department spotlighting their effort to provide senior citizens with fire safety education, a launch of a brand new playground in the City of Lowell, and so much more.
In leaning into social media and reels, the bottom line has become abundantly clear: your community wants to hear from you. Your goal for maintaining a social media presence should be to post so frequently and make so much noise that people don’t have to hear about you from someone else.
As long as you continue to give them transparent, honest information, they will build a natural trust in you that allows everything that isn’t news, the 95%, to fall on more receptive ears.
Our goal for all of our clients is to help them tell their story, and social media is becoming an important pathway for stories to be told. Let us help you own your narrative.
Don’t know where to start? We are here to help. As I always say, give us everything you want to share and let us help you strategize how to share it.
Whether you’re an existing client or just learning about us, contact us today to learn how JGPR can help you with your social media strategy.
