The New Engagement Playbook

Adapt your Approach

Start with a new-world strategy that gets everyone to the virtual table. Because the more people involved, the better the outcome. 

Take a look at these adaptive solutions to three civic engagement challenges. Then choose a mix of curated tools from the Virtual Engagement Toolkit that meet your outreach objectives.

Inform

First things first. Help your audience understand the why—why the project matters to them—to build awareness and understanding with technical content delivered in plain language through a variety of formats that reach your audience where they are. 

  • Dedicated project website

  • Community survey

  • Social media outreach

  • E-letters

  • Podcasts

Involve

Build a following with high participation interactive tools that gets everyone’s ideas on the table. You’ll move your audience to a sense of ownership, pride and investment in the success of the project. 

  • Interactive community planning platforms

  • Crowdsourcing 

  • Collaborative mapping 

  • Blogs

  • Online forums

Engage

Put meaningful engagement at the top of the priority list—let your audience know how you will use their input and share back often. Collect their input on big ideas and defined topics, understand their priorities and concerns—find out what keeps them up at night.

  • Infographs and word clouds on survey findings

  • Focus group with shared comments

  • Topical working groups

  • Pop-up check-in polls

  • Virtual stakeholder meetings

Scenarios

▾ Inform: Make it easy to understand

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An electric charging station initiative launched with outreach to collect input from communities identified for installations. One video presentation was held, attended by a very small audience, which was invited to submit comments by email. Very few comments were received, and shortly after the presentation, the project team learned community concern about safety and potential traffic increases was growing, and a rumor was spreading that the project would be funded by local taxes. The project needs to change the conversation quickly.

The goals:

  • Deliver accurate, plain language information, economic benefits and data
  • Create real-time idea-sharing with the public
  • Enable residents under stay-at-home orders to “see” the proposed project

The solution:

  • Slack and Teams are used to connect project partners for planning, key messages and material reviews
  • Buffer is tapped to plan, schedule, distribute, measure and report social media conversations, and to distribute and collect a survey across social accounts
  • High school environmental science classes are engaged in a before/after air quality project.
  • A press release will be distributed to local media with a link to a community survey built on Google Surveys
  • The team identifies Facebook or promoting a Telephone Town Hall, an inclusive real-time tool
  • Poll Everywhere will turn community input into word cloud graphics the team will share on Facebook, Twitter and the uber-local NextDoor platforms

For a total solution for your next public engagement challenge, contact us at 914-821-5100

▾ Involve: Make it meaningful

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The Department of Community Services won a federal matching economic development grant to decrease the spread of COVID by equipping caregivers with electric vehicles. The civic initiative requires public engagement, and the announcement was met by community resistance on exclusive use of the fleet for caregivers, and caregivers are unhappy about a perceived lack of community support. Tensions are building. The outreach team wants to advance communication, but with in-person outreach off limits due to COVID, past approaches are no longer feasible. The team needs a plan.

The goals:

  • Deliver accurate, plain language outbound messaging
  • Create a feedback loop to receive, answer and share out comments
  • Identify and engage key influencers and decision makers

The solution:

  • Hubspot becomes the planning center for multi-platform communication planning, including e-letters, integrated video/audio messages and blogs to reach a diverse audience with varying access to technology
  • SurveyMonkey will be used on a dedicated webpage, in print at post offices, and via cell phone to gain input on critical issues and barriers to understanding
  • NextDoor is chosen as a social platform to reach into specific neighborhoods with posts that will generate real-time conversations
  • Canva will turn survey input into easy-to-understand infographs to use in social posts
  • Anchor will turn conversations with influencers into podcasts, including conversations with patients served, health workers, Community Board leaders and others
  • Hootsuite will be used to schedule, monitor and measure communication impact

For a total solution for your next public engagement challenge, contact us at 914-821-5100

▾ Engage: Make it easy to participate

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Relocations to suburban and rural areas during the pandemic are causing surges in traffic, increases in crashes and added risk in pedestrian/bicycle safety as commuters begin the return to the workplace. One county hopes to turn the problem into a green solution with a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to get residents out of their cars and into transit. Funding for the system requires extensive public engagement, but public meetings pose an unwanted health risk. And the planning team knows BRT isn’t commonly understood. They want to build awareness, encourage participation, and communicate the role of BRT in rebuilding the economic strength of the community.

The goals:

  • Turn a transportation challenge into a community success story
  • Identify and understand key audiences, influencers and decision makers
  • Engage underserved populations
  • Meet engagement requirements of funding sources
  • Advance the project on an expedited timeline

The solution:

  • Bang the Table is selected to create a dedicated project information and survey distribution center, meeting the need for a resource that enables people with disabilities, including sight and hearing impairment, to participate
  • FocusGroupIt is used to identify motivators and barriers around commuting, bicycle/pedestrian access and destination preferences
  • Drone footage with an Anchor voiceover builds understanding of route options
  • Survey results, feedback and engagement opportunities are shared on a dedicated Facebook page and Twitter account
  • Mapbox is used to facilitate participation in discussions on station stops
  • MailChimp distributes monthly e-letters on project progress
  • A Tele-Town Hall allows participation by cell phone, landline or internet, with pop-up surveys to increase participation via Poll Everywhere

For a total solution for your next public engagement challenge, contact us at 914-821-5100

Download your scenarios here.