The right question is the key to drawing your community into your policy discussions and increasing your online engagement. Time and time again, community engagement people worry that the tools or tactics they use to engage their stakeholders in conversation aren’t good enough. Well sometimes it’s just the way you ask a question that makes […]
5 years ago
Learn the method of how to grow online community through regular engagement by engaging often & eclectically on the widest possible range of subjects.
5 years ago
Accessible online community engagement doesn’t need to be difficult, but it is essential. Compliance with global standards for website accessibility is law in many jurisdictions. Ok, so it’s pretty unlikely you are going to end up in court for failing to meet accessibility guidelines (though it does happen) but there are plenty of reasons for […]
5 years ago
We understand the allure of a closed online community panel to local authorities (a panel where only invited pre-registered community members get to comment on an issue). They are very administratively convenient and unlikely to spring any surprises on you. Despite this, we believe that there are better ways to engage your community. Here are […]
5 years ago
Setting targets and measuring online citizen engagement are arguably the most important aspects of any engagement process. If we are unable to properly understand the results, then have we really respected the community’s time and effort contributing to our project? In building the latest version of the EngagementHQ software we not only thought about new […]
5 years ago
Managing down risks in online community engagement is as simple as choosing the right tool for the job and the right tool for the consulting organisation’s risk profile. I’ve been promoting the use of online tools to enhance citizen engagement for nearly 7 years now. When we started, fear was the major obstacle to progress. […]
5 years ago
The Australian Government’s consultation about the need for a national disability insurance scheme provided the perfect context to demonstrate how gathering rich personal stories online can drive profound public policy change. In 2013 the Australian government introduced legislation to create a national disability scheme. The new system was the single biggest change in Australia’s disability […]
5 years ago
When it comes to online community engagement, there are many things to think about. Here are my top 5 nuggets of wisdom that I hope you’ll serve up with a side of fries and a large Coke! 1. Heat Seeking Missile like Focus Think about what action you want people to take on your page […]
6 years ago
Facebook is not designed for government community engagement, it is designed to make its owners lots and lots of money. It pays to remember this. As the publicly listed monolith that is Facebook evolves, it seems to move further and further away from providing a platform for useful community engagement. Here’s why: 1. It’s not […]
6 years ago
Building the business case for online citizen engagement is the first critical step in getting your organisation into the online space. The specific nature of the arguments you pursue will depend on the nature of your boss and your organisation. Deciding whether to frame the value proposition in terms of value add or protection from […]
6 years ago
Successful public engagement planning doesn’t happen by accident. It requires good quality strategic thinking, internal collaboration, time and resources. If the last year proved nothing else it was that a year can pass in a blink of an eye. Good planning (and good public engagement) takes time. January is a great time to take a […]
6 years ago
Last year I put up a post at around this time titled, Here’s why you don’t consult over Christmas. Guess what? In twelve months, nothing’s changed. Here’s a graphic showing cumulative traffic to all of the sites we manage over the past three years. The starting point on the left hand side is July 1st, […]
6 years ago
[Updated June 19, 2015] I put out a call to the Twitterverse for Twitter hashtags relating to community engagement practice. For anyone who doesn’t know, hashtags on Twitter form aggregations of tweets on a particular subject. You can follow a hashtag and follow tweets relating to the subject. It’s a great way to filter that […]
6 years ago
Video has the potential to dramatically increase participant engagement and drive up online participation rates of your community. Investing in video means two things for certain. 1. Time. 2. Money. Deciding whether or not to invest in video for your online community engagement project then becomes about priorities, ROI and probably moving out of your […]
6 years ago
This was originally posted by the author on Medium here. The value of beautiful writing in engaging the community. A while back I posted on the role that love can play in engaging community around public policy. I concluded with a John Lennon quote… There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we […]
6 years ago
All too often, the easiest way to get people to engage about public policy is to threaten to take something away from them. This post is about taking the opposite approach in order to achieve positive public engagement. A while back I was half of a panel, alongside Tom Uglow from Google Creative Labs’ Sydney […]
6 years ago
Closing the loop on online community engagement projects is often ignored as teams move on to the next exciting or urgent project. Worse still, projects are sometimes “disappeared”. The lack of a closed feedback loop to the community has a major impact on community-to-government relations, trust in the process, and trust in the future processes. […]
6 years ago
Yesterday I presented at the Connected Government Conference in Canberra on the broad topic of local government….
6 years ago
While compiling last week’s blog ’20 Tips for using Twitter as Part of your Community Engagement Process‘ I came across lots and lots of lists of Twitter tips. In fact barely a day goes by without me seeing a new one sail past me on my Twitter stream. Usually these contain consistently good advice, though […]
6 years ago
I realised the other day that we have never published a list of tips for using Twitter as a community engagement tool. To help put this right I called on some of the foremost minds of online community engagement, using Twitter of course. The list below comprises their ideas and recommendations, with a couple of […]
6 years ago
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