The Advantages of Online Community Engagement
Martech Outlook | Monday, January 03, 2022
To increase community participation, local governments are turning to the internet, posting planning documents online, allowing citizens to complete questionnaires online, and attempting to engage citizens via social media.
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FREMONT, CA: The purpose of community engagement is to educate, consult, or work with stakeholders who have an interest in, influence over, or impact on a proposal, project, or policy.
Historically, community participation took place in an offline environment where people met in person, called, or mailed letters and surveys. This is since the stakeholder base is relatively small. With everyone increasingly embracing online community participation, more people have the opportunity to participate in decision-making and have their say at their leisure.
Organizations that follow best practices leverage online community engagement tools to guarantee that every stakeholder has a voice in a controlled and accessible setting.
The advantages of online community engagement include the following:
Expanding your audience: Typically, at a public meeting, just a few people speak, the 'professional citizens' or public interest groups, which do not always represent the majority. For individuals who lack the time, live close to meeting locations, or lack the desire to participate in face-to-face engagement, online engagement provides an alternate way of involvement, addressing the increasing communication styles of citizens who are more reliant on internet resources.
Increased accessibility to information: Historically, online public involvement has been accomplished by publishing a PDF to a website and inviting participation via an online questionnaire. For residents who lack the time necessary to participate in a public consultation, the prospect of digesting a planning document appears daunting. On the other hand, online platforms provide a means of presenting planning data in a more consumable style, allowing citizens to consume critical background information and then delve into varying degrees of depth according to their interests.
Inviting a broader range of viewpoints: Online participation is a welcome possibility for community members who are scared of traditional public meeting forms, as it allows for the expression of broader, more moderate viewpoints than those expressed at formal planning meetings, which impassioned activists predominantly attend. Rather than attending town hall meetings and commenting, citizens can participate in a more engaging process online by placing a pin on a map, uploading a photo, posting a comment, and inviting others to collaborate.
Compilation of complex data: Online engagement platforms make public participation visible and clear to all, enticing thousands of people to participate. Capturing and analyzing data via the traditional public involvement process can be a logistical challenge. Local governments must manually collect data, make sense of thousands of comments, and interpret their findings. Online technologies collect data during the process and make it instantly available for examination, transforming intangible issues into measurable statistics.
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