Dallas Animal Services grew its video views 343% in a year, and it did it with stories, not ad spend.
On October 23, shelter leadership briefed the City of Dallas Animal Advisory Commission on its September social media numbers, comparing them to September 2025. Most public meetings bury communications results in a single slide. This one was worth stopping on, because it shows what works when a city department treats social media as storytelling instead of announcements.
The numbers
Across Facebook and Instagram, September 2026 beat September 2025 on every engagement measure the shelter reported:
Video views: more than 100,000 in September, up 343%
Average engagement rate: 11.75%, up from 9.7%
Comments: up 26%
Reactions and likes: up 21%
Combined followers: more than 158,000, up 9%
Impressions: more than 2.4 million in September
The quarter tells the same story. Instagram generated 7.6 million views and about 582,000 interactions in the city's fiscal fourth quarter, and Facebook passed 10 million views and 340,000 interactions. That is a large audience for a city department, and it is engaged, not just scrolling past.
What drove it
The shelter's best posts had three things in common, and none of them required a big budget.
One animal, one story. Posts about individual animals, especially long-stay and senior dogs, drove the most engagement. People respond to a name and a face, not a capacity update.
A clear ask. Top posts told people exactly how to help: adopt, foster, volunteer, donate.
Behind the scenes. Field operations content showed the range of work the department does, which most residents never see.
Two partnerships raised the quality. The Adoption Portrait Project photographs long-stay dogs, and its photographers also taught the shelter's marketing staff to shoot better photos in the shelter. A partnership with SMU's Temerlin Advertising Institute is helping the team use its data to communicate more intentionally.
The last ingredient was staffing. Commissioners noted how much it mattered to have an actual marketing team instead of one person carrying the whole load.
Lessons any Texas city can use
You don't need a shelter full of adoptable dogs to apply this. Every city department has people and stories behind its work.
Lead with a person or a face. A crew member fixing a water main, a librarian, a park ranger. Specific beats general every time.
End every post with one clear ask. Sign up, show up, report it, share it. Make the next step obvious.
Show the work nobody sees. Behind-the-scenes video from field crews builds trust and explains what residents' tax dollars actually do.
Invest in the camera skills you already have. Better photos and short video from staff on site often outperform polished graphics.
Measure year over year and report it. Dallas made its case by comparing one September to the next. Bringing those numbers to council or a commission is how communications gets taken seriously, and funded.
Staff it like it matters. Results like these come from a team with time to do the work, not a side duty.
The takeaway
Dallas Animal Services did not post more. It posted better: real stories, clear asks, and the work behind the scenes. That is a playbook any city department can borrow this month.
At DSE Media, we help Texas cities and EDCs turn the work they already do into content residents actually watch. If you want to talk through what this could look like for your city, book a quick call.
Source: City of Dallas Animal Advisory Commission meeting, October 23, 2026, as presented by Dallas Animal Services staff. Each week we highlight one Texas city initiative worth learning from.
