Using an online survey tool like SurveyMonkey may seem like a no-brainer, but online survey tools like SurveyMonkey are not designed for public engagement – and can even undermine your success.
Start with your intention. When considering an engagement tool, it’s important to ask the following…
Community engagement software company PublicInput.com is introducing a high-fidelity translation service for local government agencies that instantly translates surveys and project websites, along with expert translator review.
While every community is different, local government agencies often run into the same initial hurdle: how to get the word out about an upcoming project. Keep reading to see best practices for initial outreach and how public engagement software helps government agencies reach underrepresented groups.
Typical approaches to community engagement are being augmented as government organizations adopt new technology. While community engagement efforts in the past mostly focused on manual processes and in-person communication, online town halls are increasing reach and equity in the community engagement process.
Cities of every size are subject to traffic and parking issues. Every town has roads, commuters, pedestrians, bikers – not to mention limits created by zoning, space, or capacity for infrastructure.
Exeter, New Hampshire is a town of 15,000 residents. Over the past year parking and traffic have been garnering more attention from the public, the Select Board, and regional press.
Held in Milwaukee this September, the 3CMA Annual Conference gathered hundreds of government communicators eager to learn from one another about how to accomplish better community engagement. There was plenty to be inspired by, as speakers presented on their efforts both offline and online.
We heard about how Kansas City, Missouri was reaching a new audience by holding public meetings at breweries and how Sandy, Utah was making more informed policy decisions through data collection and visual reporting…
When working with our partner agencies, we often help them iterate their engagement processes from where they’re at to help them develop flexible public involvement strategies that can work for all situations and require minimal training or adjustment of existing processes.
The City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department is undergoing a dog park study to determine the public’s interest in dog facilities in the park system. As part of that process they have created a set of questions for the community and created an engagement portal on PublicInput.com.
Sometimes government agencies want “the next big thing” to solve their public involvement challenges. It’s understandable: leadership pushes hard to engage the public, and historically efforts have been disappointing. This may lead us into thinking that we need a shiny new piece of technology, an off-the-shelf solution that acts as a community engagement magic wand. However, this is a bit backwards…
Many times, early in project planning, teams find themselves wanting to expand public involvement in projects. The promise of social media looms large in increasing participation which leads many teams to ask: should this project have a Facebook page? The answer…
Last week we had the privilege of presenting on our partnership with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) at the annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting in Washington, DC.
