Public Engagement During Social Distancing
Public engagement has been evolving rapidly to keep up with our growing reliance on technology. Already city governments and advocacy groups use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to keep their constituents informed. The benefits of digital engagement include removing time constraints, providing a new and interactive way to engage, and bringing new voices to the table. These tools are usually employed with traditional methods of engagement like public meetings and open houses. However, with our current environment reliant on social distancing we must look at ways to continue reaching a broad audience while staying safe. Many communities are canceling public meetings or postponing them for several more months. Some activities will be fine despite the delay, others however will suffer greatly by losing momentum or adding costs. Social distancing does not mean the end of democracy. It just means we must be more innovative in how we engage our audience. There are many ways to keep moving forward in a time when we cannot meet in person thanks to the growth and development of interactive online tools.
Digital Engagement Types
Digital engagement can be categorized into three types--sharing, collecting, and exchanging information. Nearly all organizations are sharing information online through established websites and social media platforms and have been providing daily updates on the status of their operations. Bigger communities live stream their public meetings for residents to watch on local stations, posting the recorded version to a YouTube channel several days following the meeting.
Many communities will have the second type of engagement, collecting, also underway. They provide contact information, both phone and email, for residents to provide feedback or ask questions. For individual projects, online surveys and polls are used to collect feedback on specific topics. The use of interactive maps and discussion forums are another technique employed for long range plans.
But the last category, exchanging information, is often lacking in most communities. This is the most important form of digital engagement to strengthen when in-person engagement is no longer an option. Some communities, like Lakewood, Colorado, invested in their online engagement experience several years ago. Their web based platform allows residents to participate two weeks ahead of a planning commission or city council meeting by posting presentations and documents with staff and applicant contact information. Residents can review the material and pose questions directly to staff or the applicant and leave comments. They can even sign up to receive application updates. Their site assures that participating in this way has the same effect as attending in-person.
Lakewood, Colorado’s online engagement platform www.lakewoodspeaks.org
Digital Engagement Tools
Four broad categories summarize most online engagement tools-video conferencing, social media, polling, and surveys. Video conferencing has shot up drastically since social distancing began. Many companies are already using software like Zoom and Skype while others are learning quickly. This software work great for professionals to conduct meetings, but can be a barrier to the average resident who is unfamiliar with the tool or has to download software, regardless of whether its free, to participate. This is where social media can bridge the gap. The use of Facebook Live is easy and requires no extra steps for anyone already on the platform. It also allows comments throughout the presentation and a recording for anyone unable to watch live to view later. The Arts Council of Indianapolis and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful recently turned a planned community workshop into a Facebook Live event. They followed up the Facebook Live presentation with "watch parties" that allowed viewers to ask questions of the project team during the viewing. The city of Salt Lake has been using Facebook Live even before social distancing to host Q&A's with their residents. Another real time engagement idea is a Twitter Town Hall where a discussion is held on a topic with others on the platform in real time. Other platforms or tools to use include:
Online surveys
Live polling
YouTube presentations
Reddit
Instagram
Next Door for notifications
I was unable to find any examples of this in a public meeting like city council or planning commission, but it would be really interesting if a city followed Twitter and Facebook during the open comment period to receive live comments and questions from residents unable to attend in person that would be read aloud, allowing them to participate during the actual meeting. It is always more impactful when comments are voiced in person, rather than placed in the back of a staff report. We have seen this done at conferences and political debates where questions come in via social media and are asked to candidates or speakers during the event. Why couldn't this happen at a local government meeting?
Non-Digital Socially Distanced Engagement
We cannot rely solely on internet based strategies for public engagement even in times of social distancing. There are other ways than gathering large groups to engage the 10% of the population who does not use the internet. One way to share information is to set up posters in shop windows and provide contact information and links to online resources. This could also be done in local parks (spaced appropriately) for residents to read while getting out for a walk. Checking with a local radio station to do an interview and inviting people to call in with their questions or comments would be another non-digital engagement strategy. Below is a larger list of non-digital methods for sharing information:
Radio
Podcast
Direct mailers, flyers
Utility bills
Newsletters
Window displays
Local news interview
Story in local newspapers
Conference call
Text messages
Door hangers
Considerations for Engagement Method Selection
When considering engagement methods, regardless of whether its online or in-person, you should always consider your audience. The type of engagement tool needs to reflect the people you are trying to reach. For example, Facebook is one of the most widely used social media platforms across all age groups, however if you are targeting a younger population you should focus your efforts on Instagram or Twitter which is used more by individuals under the age of 30. You should also follow up with your audience on the same platform you used to engage them. Do not rely on a press release if you gathered input and feedback through Facebook. Last, make sure to promote the digital event well in advance through a variety of channels. You should not rely only on online notification, but consider sending postcards or other mailings, radio or TV advertisements, or a flyer in a utility bill to make sure everyone is aware of the opportunity to engage online.
A major consideration for online engagement is equity, diversity, and inclusion. It's important to make sure the online media is accessible to a broad audience. Pages should be designed to comply with website accessibility standards which will help people with slower web connections, old browser versions, and those with disabilities. Considerations to make content accessible to the largest audience include captioned videos, audio files for written documents, translation services, and clear images with alt text tags. It is important to make sure content is easy to view on a smart phone or tablet will help reach residents without access to a computer.
Moving Forward
It will be especially interesting to see the impact COVID-19 has on our future engagement efforts when we are out of danger and can gather in large groups again. No doubt public meetings and open houses will resume, but will we keep the interactive, digital engagement methods in place for residents still unable to show up to a meeting at 6 pm on a Tuesday? We should make every effort possible to strengthen the variety of tools we use, which this experience is forcing us to test and adapt.
