In the City of Burien’s latest community survey – finalized and released last week – 71% of respondents indicated they get their local information from The B-Town Blog – a very impressive number. The survey was conducted between June 1 – 25, 2018, and had 1,317 respondents, and covered a broad range of topics. “This was one of the highest responses throughout the survey,” Koné Consulting said about the blog’s results.

When asked where they are currently getting information about Burien, the majority (71%) of respondents indicated they get information from the B-Town Blog. This was one of the highest responses throughout the survey. In addition, Burien Magazine and local social media groups are also common sources of information about Burien. “Which sources do you use to get information about Burien?”
  • B-Town Blog: 71%
  • Burien Magazine: 49%
  • Local social media (for example: Facebook groups, Nextdoor, etc.): 40%
  • Friends or colleagues: 32%
  • Local TV news: 28%
  • Direct mail from City: 27%
  • City website: 25%
Of course, no survey is perfectly accurate, but Koné Consulting claims that “this survey is statistically significant and resulted in more responses (1,317) than previous surveys.” Every two years since 2008, the city has conducted these types of surveys to assess residents’ perceptions about the general quality of life and their satisfaction with local government services. Of course, we’ve known (as well as our happy Advertisers) that our stats have been high (and still growing) – here’s what we’re averaging per month for the first six months of 2018 (via Google Analytics) – not bad for a city of ~51,000:
  • Sessions: 101,856/month
  • Pageviews: 406,454/month 
Here’s more from Koné’s survey doc:
Results were weighted and raked by gender and ethnicity to more accurately represent City population demographics. The overall margin of error was estimated using a Taylor series linearized method with weighted responses and ranged from +/- <1% to +/- 4%. The margin of error assumes that weighted estimates were unbiased, and this assumption is based on use of raking on demographic factors to correct differences between the sample and the city of Burien. This year, the City added a number of questions to reflect changing needs and demographics in our community. 40 percent of the questions were similar to previous surveys, allowing us to maintain a longitudinal view, while at the same time gather a rich amount of data about the current needs of our residents. We also included a few questions about evening activities and the City’s noise ordinance in order to help inform Council discussion of a possible revision of the noise ordinance. This online survey was conducted over one month, between June 4 and June 25. The survey was translated into Spanish and Vietnamese. The City conducted extensive outreach to invite participation in the survey. This included a media release, social media ad campaign, and working with the City’s Community Connectors to garner more diverse participation in the survey. City staff also worked with local nonprofit partners, Highline High School teachers, and tabled at community events and locations to get the word out. A postcard was mailed to all residents toward the end of the survey period to remind them to take the survey. This outreach resulted in more than 1,300 responses to the survey. The results were weighted to reflect the City population in terms of age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic area.
Also, Seattle Business Magazine recently published a story on us, and one clarification we’d like to add to it is that it takes a great team to do the consistent, professional hyperlocal journalism work we have done – and still do – on a daily basis for over 10 years. This includes hard-working, talented people like:
  • Theresa Schaefer
  • Jack Mayne
  • Michael Brunk
  • Mark Neuman
  • Luke Olson
  • and many others…
If you’re interested in Advertising – on The B-Town Blog or one of our other six local blogs – please email Theresa Schaefer at [email protected], or call our office at (206) 248-2565, and we’ll email you our Media Kit/Rate Card.
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Senior Reporter Jack Mayne passed away in December, 2021. In his honor we have created the Jack Mayne Journalism Scholarship.