Start With The Right Question
Last May I went to Vancouver to attend the 2014 BC Land Summit. I love going to Vancouver. It’s such an awesome city but that’s not the point of this blog post. I’ll write about Vancouver another time.
I got talking with an urban planner who works in a small community in northern British Columbia about planners in the tech world and the rise of online engagement. He told me that he had been thinking about leveraging online tools to engage citizens more extensively. Although he liked the idea of online engagement, he worried that it wouldn’t stick in his community and asked, “will people engage online?”
Canada is a highly wired society. According to a recent report by the research firm comScore Inc., Canadians spend more than 45 hours per month online, almost double the global average. 45 hours/month reading news, watching YouTube, updating your Facebook status, doing online banking, shopping and buying plane tickets and yet some people still wonder whether online engagement will work or not.
There is no doubt in my mind that various external circumstances and factors can influence the success of online engagement activities. That said, I also believe that we have opportunities to steer its direction if we’re smart about how we do it. So let’s stop watching or wondering and let’s make it happen.
So instead of asking “will people engage online?” let’s start by asking “do I want to engage with people online?” That’s the real question. Tommy Lasorda, a former Major League baseball player once said, “There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happens.”
Here are some tips to help you make the most of your online engagement process and gain a better understanding of the underlying factors behind a successful online engagement processes:
Listen
First off, successful engagement processes are achieved through effective interactions with your stakeholders. LISTENING is the key. You want hear the views of your community and use this feedback to assist in your decisions. Let people know that you are listening. This will validate what people are saying and boost active participation.
Identify benefits
Community input is important to you, right? Well, tell that to the people. Take the time to explain to your audience why their feedback is invaluable and how it will benefit them, and their neighbours, well into the future.
Reward often
If you want to encourage a certain behaviour, reward it. This basic psychological tactic has been used on us since we were little. If you want people to share, give them a gift or points for each friend they get to use your platform. Reward, reward, reward.
Make it effortless
Yes, it’s true that it’s relatively simple to get people interested in talking about a project that affects them personally, such as a new road past the front door or a change to zoning that may affect what they can do with their property. It is more difficult to get people participating and talking about issues that are if the conversation appears too remote for them to relate.
So, make it effortless by creating flow. Remove obstacles by allowing people to register to your online engagement platform via Facebook or Twitter rather than with a dedicated user name and password.
People like to engage with organizations the same way they engage with their friends. They like content that they can share, like, and tweet. So give them content that they can like and share easily.
Keep pulling people in
Think about people registering on your platform as a springboard to achieving more engagement, rather than as the finish line.
Send users useful notifications that motivate them to return. Don’t wait for them to start using your platform and to start engaging online. Keep sending them useful messages. Keep sending friendly reminders and rewards to participate, but be careful not to send out notifications that might be considered extra “noise” – keep it relevant. Give users control over what notifications they receive and how they receive them (emails, texts, social media platforms…).
Conclusion
Online engagement processes don’t work as an afterthought. Design with care and remember that there is no one-size-fits all strategy to online engagement. While it’s true that launching an engagement platform online is a step in the right direction, it’s not the end in itself. Keys to a successful online engagement process are listening, rewarding, making it effortless for the user, and continually pulling people in.
