Detroit’s social media pages are popping off.
A group of young Detroiters have the keys to nine online platforms that provide important information about city operations. Their strategy is to engage residents by any means necessary and meet people where they spend increasingly more time – on their phones.
The team posts regular updates on municipal meetings, guides on how to access services and responds to residents who report issues like missed trash pickups over direct messages. They’re also having fun showcasing the city’s pride and progress; recent posts explored the best slices of liquor store pizza, showed off Lions gameday outfits and even clapped back on the next president of the United States.
Jasmine Barnes took over as director of the Media Services Department earlier this year. She’s tried to meet the department’s responsibility to coordinate communication with residents while injecting some authentic Detroit personality. Barnes said the tone they’re cultivating is less faceless government entity and more like your ride-or-die childhood friend who’s not afraid to get loud.
“We really consolidated this proud, witty, edgy, gritty brand to our online presence, which represents the city of Detroit, right?” Barnes said. “We’re going to speak our mind, say how we feel and not let anybody play with us or run us over.”
Exhibit A: When New Orleans Saints wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown said nobody wants to live in Detroit, the team jumped on him like a hungry cornerback.
The @CityofDetroit X account noted that the U.S. Census Bureau showed Detroit added residents in 2023. They joked that St. Brown would be lucky to stay in the same city for more than a year – he’s with his second team in two seasons while his brother is a key piece of the Detroit Lions offense – and capped it off by dubbing him Equanimeous “St. Clown.”
Defending Detroit’s reputation is a badge of honor for the team.
“We want people to respect us on a national stage,” Barnes said. “This is an image we’ve been fighting for the last 10 years. We’ve worked very hard to get here so we are protective of that work.”
The team has also used #BeLikeDetroit to highlight new business openings and other signs of progress. It’s a response to President-elect Donald Trump denigrating the city during the 2024 campaign, saying the country would “be like Detroit” if he wasn’t re-elected.
Duggan took to social media to criticize Trump’s remarks, pointing to the city’s recent drop in crime and growing population.
“Lots of cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help,” Duggan said on X.
Gregory Buggs Jr., who runs the city’s X and YouTube pages, said the clap backs always serve a purpose. It’s not about fueling negativity; the goal is to make people understand that the Motor City is on the rise.
“It’s easy to defend the city when you were born and raised in the city,” Buggs said. “Feeling attacked isn’t anything that we are new to. We make jokes within the family, but somebody from outside the family can’t come in and make jokes about my brother and my sister.”
Alongside Buggs, social media manager Alex Ennis and rapid response coordinators Fatima Bangura and Alan Hunt are the faces behind accounts on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Nextdoor.
In an interview with BridgeDetroit, the team said there are few rules or forbidden topics holding them back. They’re all native Detroiters committed to creatively connecting with residents – or, as they put it, being “the Beyoncé of social media.”
“One of the beauties of coming to work each and every week is knowing that impact you might make (and) you might make someone laugh,” Ennis said. “Outside of work people are like, ‘don’t you work for the city?’”
More people are apparently taking notice. The city accounts have grown over the year. Instagram has the largest audience, recently hitting 165,000 followers, followed by Facebook (83,000), YouTube (47,000) X (43,800), Threads (27,000) and TikTok (1,027).
The attention isn’t always positive.
A dance video with Detroit police officers celebrating crime “dropping like it’s hot” caught heat from critics who thought it was in poor taste. Another post celebrating a decline in abandoned land by using a meme from “The Simpsons” was similarly mocked by some users.
“All engagement is good engagement,” Barnes said. “It didn’t hurt us, it just pushed us farther in the algorithm.”
Barnes said she’s behind the moniker Duggie Fresh for Mayor Mike Duggan, not to be confused with the iconic rapper Doug E. Fresh. Barnes said she came up the nickname years ago while working as a staff member for former Council President Brenda Jones.
“He always came with a fresh PowerPoint,” Barnes said. “I would always say ‘here comes Duggie Fresh with his PowerPoint.’ You’re going to see that brand develop. Duggie Fresh is who he is; he’s very down to earth and I don’t think people get to see the human side of Mike Duggan.”
Recent posts show Duggan helping a man whose car was ticketed for parking on his own property and pushing back on criticism from social media users who argue he hasn’t done enough as mayor.
Social media accounts have also boosted Duggan’s policy initiatives as they’re being considered by the City Council.
Posts promoted Duggan’s solar energy proposal and tax breaks for the District Detroit project using interviews with influential figures like Detroit NAACP President Rev. Wendell Anthony. The city’s pages also promoted Duggan’s land value tax proposal while bills were pending in the state Legislature.
Barnes said there’s nothing inappropriate about taxpayer-funded accounts sharing information about pending proposals. The social media team meets weekly with communications staff within city departments to coordinate topics for posts.
“The mayor has said it best – this is a democracy,” Barnes said. “We’re not hiding anything here. We want you to know what the policy is. We want you to exercise your democratic right to support it or object. It’s not trying to sway you any way or another.”
Editor’s note: Alan Hunt’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.