Tools to Create Informed and Effective Engagement in the New Normal
by Tammy Jo A. Taft
In hindsight, it appeared the world was humming along as planned in January 2020. Life proceeded as technology appeared to connect people more every day. Seattle became the first place in the nation to allow voters to submit ballots via their smartphone. Forecasts released that month expected a $1.5 billion increase in smartphone sales in the United States, bringing the expected revenue in at a total of $79 billion.
Then, on Jan. 30, 2020, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued a press release with the headline, “CDC Confirms Person-to-Person Spread of New Coronavirus in the United States.” That press release in hindsight was the last exit sign before we all entered a new normal together. It seems like a lifetime ago, and yet, it continues to affect our current reality.
But the silver lining of this cloud is that it has shown us all how important being connected to community, fellow humans, and moving forward together is to survive. That renewed focus can help us all increase the level of understanding of our communities, and engagement as it relates to projects, priorities and plans.
During the past year, AE2S has been using many tools to help public entities continue to communicate with and engage stakeholders and audiences of all ages, abilities and connectivity levels. This is a quick overview of a few of those tools in the hope that maybe your team can utilize them to help gather ideas, inform and plan for the future together.
MAPPING THE FABRIC OF AN AUDIENCE – TAPESTRY
ESRI’s GIS is a well-known, powerful technology that many entities have incorporated into daily operations. One of the products that helps provide insight about communities is Tapestry Segmentation. Tapestry presents information about a community by pairing research and reports with geographic information. GIS can provide the length and width of a municipality. Tapestry weaves together the color, sights and sounds of community.
This can be enormously helpful when taking the first steps to better understand a group of people in hopes to connect, engage and work with them collaboratively. One of the specific things Tapestry brings to the table is a feature presenting personas.
“Personas help you understand a target audience more deeply and conceptualize what some of their drivers may be. The personas are data-driven and really help with communications and public engagement planning,” Digital Media Specialist with AE2S Taylor Corbett explained. “For example, a persona might help provide insight to people living in a specific portion of the city and how much they bike to work or purchase products online. Once you know more about what your community is interested in, you can more easily connect with them about other topics.”
Tapestry also has multiple powerful data display options and allows for reports to be generated in a static, or digital way.
THE DATA-DRIVEN VISUALIZER – MYSIDEWALK
There are many data tools on the market that can help provide necessary background when thinking about engaging stakeholders. One of those tools is MySidewalk.
“Our team used MySidewalk to better understand South St. Paul demographics so the city could better connect with their residents,” AE2S Communications Practice Leader Andrea Boe said. “This tool helps us to understand many things about communities including deeper demographics, interests or priorities that can emerge from a community or polygraph area that you draw.”
Data is important, but only if it can be utilized and understood. MySidewalk and other tools can help with that task by visualizing demographics in a digestible way.
“This tool is one of the most powerful things we have to make otherwise overwhelming amounts of data into usable, actionable information,” Boe said.
OPENING THE DOOR WITH A QUESTION – SURVEY TOOLS
Life with COVID restrictions squashed many in-person interaction opportunities for public and community entities. This presented obvious difficulty in gathering public comments and input on projects. Welcome to life using online survey tools.
“Platforms like Survey Monkey and Qualtrics have helped us to ask people questions about their thoughts and ideas when it comes to community initiatives,” AE2S Media Manager Heather Syverson said. “Surveys are an important way for people to submit their comments from any location or at any time. During the past year we saw this as such a critical tool when in-person gatherings were not an option.”
Survey tools on the market are numerous and it is important to find a tool that is usable by your organization. If you need one with free options and a simple platform, something like SurveyMonkey may fill the need. For those that want a full suite of interactive options and reporting tools, one of the most powerful options out there is Qualtrics. Either way, a well-written survey that gets to the heart of your question will have more usability regardless of platform, so spend the necessary time working through that part of the process. You won’t regret it.
BRINGING A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW – UAS TECHNOLOGY
Another tool that has really exploded on the scene is the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) or drones. With most people experiencing some form of confinement in the last 12 months, we saw communities utilizing drone technology to inform and engage their community in a whole new way. From interactive 3D maps, to visually appealing construction flyover videos that highlight progress with a new perspective, it was all enjoyable to watch.
Drone use is being adopted as a more regular way to bring stakeholders and audiences directly to the scene. Video is one of the most important communications tools in this new landscape and having a birds-eye perspective of something normally only seen from the ground makes it extra engaging.
Whether you empower one of your staff members to train and become a Remote Pilot in Command, or hire an external agency to assist you, it’s much easier to explain a complex flood protection project or large-scale water treatment plant if you have a video to add a thousand words to your description.
TRIED AND TRUE WITH NEW OPTIONS – MEETINGS
Finally, the pandemic doesn’t change the fact that some of the best communication simply happens face-to-face, one-on-one with good dialogue and conversation. After a year of restraint, a simple conversation with another human has new charm.
The pandemic changed our conversations, and how we have meetings about plans and projects. Last year was the advent of online meetings for many organizations that never considered prior to mask mandates and shutdowns. The value of these conversations remains, but the platforms available are more diverse than ever. From Zoom to Teams, Skype, WhatsApp and beyond, every group has a new way to connect.
The image of our times.
The use of these online platforms provides expanded insight for understanding public engagement. Meetings can be recorded and provided as a video to those who didn’t make it the first time around. Platforms gather data about how many people attended, participated or where they were located. The data from an online meeting can provide further insight to future ways to have conversations with stakeholders.
Online meeting platforms are continuing to improve and will be an important part of the planning process in the future. Platforms are expanding their offerings. Zoom is adding automatic closed captioning for free accounts and Microsoft Teams will now offer expanded polls to gather feedback from meeting attendees in real-time. There is no doubt these platforms will continue to be a part of the public engagement landscape.
THE WAY FORWARD, TOGETHER
As we move forward with this new normal, let’s remember the importance of things beyond technology. Technology and tools can help inform your engagement plan and be the platforms to engage stakeholders, but the real driver of public engagement is the energy, ideas and intuition of planners, public servants, citizens and everyone in between. The landscape of our lives has changed since January of 2020, but the stakes and stakeholders are still there, and they are still as important as ever.
About the Author
Tammy Jo Anderson Taft is a Communications Specialist with AE2S. She has more than 15 years of experience in communications including working as a newspaper reporter, Public Information Officer, environmental educator, UAS pilot and farm girl. She has a degree in Communication Arts from Wartburg College in Waverly, IA, and still lives on the family farm in North Dakota with a husband, two kids, two dogs and two cats.