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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...

21 Tips for Project Leaders Agencies' expectations for broad and inclusive participation are on the rise and many are turning to online engagement tools as a key part of the solution. As a result, there are an increasing array to tools to choose from. Go to any planning conference and planners will be talking about their online engagement experiences and technology vendors will be demonstrating their...

Project leaders are faced with challenging decisions when designing community involvement approaches for planning projects. In some situations, online engagement can provide a cost-effective alternative or complement to traditional forms of engagement. Choosing the most appropriate online tool to meet the needs of the project can be difficult since many tools seem similar. MetroQuest and MindMixer are two of the most popular tools and many people...

The branding, the look and feel, and the flow – all critical design elements of your online tools. Why does this matter so much? Social networking, our biggest ally in online engagement, revolves around the “like”. It’s kind of a giant popularity contest that never ends. You know – like high school. People share what they like, in the hopes that people will “like” it...

At MetroQuest, we know how important it is to generate robust participation for your planning projects. We know you’d like to go beyond what we fondly refer to as those “same ten people” who show up for everything. You’d like a much larger and broader representation of the community’s views. So what works best? Over the past 16 years we’ve focused on engaging the public...