Increase engagement and save time and money with higher returns Public engagement budgets seem to be shrinking while expectations are heading in the other direction. Now that some of the online engagement tools have reached maturity, they can be the most cost-effective way to meet your community engagement targets. It’s no secret that traditional public meetings can be labor intensive and costly. A single public meeting can...
Read More
The next generation of community engagement: blending high-tech and high-touch public involvement We need to rethink our entire approach to public engagement. The 1st generation of public engagement, version 1.0, was dominated by traditional public meetings. Rent the hall, buy the muffins and see who shows up. The issue with these is that you just end up getting the same ten people showing up to your events....
Read More
The five benefits of engaging a larger, broader audience Online public engagement tools are giving project leaders even more ways to reach out and gather public input. With so much change happening it’s useful to take stock and ask ourselves why we do this. What’s the payoff of better community engagement? What does ‘better’ engagement even mean? Let’s start there. When we say it we mean getting...
Read More
How Online Outreach to Seniors Has Changed The online landscape has changed so significantly in the last 5 years that we have had to drastically readjust how we engage seniors through the internet. Historically this 65+ demographic has been the hardest to engage, but recently they are becoming one of the most accessible groups online. Where were seniors engaging before the internet? Traditionally, a high percentage of workshop...
Read More
Engaging people online can be one of the fastest, easiest and most cost-efficient methods for collecting community input. Unfortunately a few missteps in the process can negate any benefit. Knowing “best practice” for engaging online is only half the battle. You also need to watch out for some common misconceptions that can steer you wrong. So without further ado, here are our top 10. 1. Only...
Read More