Improving public trust and engagement doesn’t happen by chance. It requires a strategy, a clear metric for success — more than click and open rates — and data to benchmark against. And agencies should realize that their audiences are ever-changing, said Carolina Prieto, Solution Advisor for Digital Communications with Granicus, a company that provides digital experiences to help agencies better serve their constituents.
“When people say, ‘Oh, we just want to do better engagement and reach our audience,’ there is no fixed ‘audience,’” she explained. “It’s an influx of people going in and out.”
With a continuous flow of data, agencies can fine-tune outreach to their constituents and set realistic definitions of success, she said. If there are 200,000 people in your jurisdiction, should a 10% response rate be your goal? That means hearing from 20,000 people — but do you have resources for that?
Data Delivers
One way to collect data that leads to effective programming, Prieto said, is through always-on engagement, in which you ask someone a real-time question relevant to a stage in their online user journey. For example, asking a website visitor, “How often do you text different providers in your area?” can provide vital information about constituent texting frequency that the agency can use when creating bulletin campaigns.
A/B testing and similar mechanisms also are critical because they help agencies adjust their messaging, she said. “We don’t want to be guessing. We want to be collecting information and being super-strategic about what it means,” Prieto said. “If an audience member doesn’t feel like you are talking to them … they’re less likely to engage with you.”
Best Practices
Agencies can scale up slowly; baby steps are OK. “Give somebody a very specific project … for one or two months and have it be really tight,” she said. Be clear about your benchmarks — the metrics you’re focusing on — and your rationale for doing so. And use multiple channels to reach your audience, advised Prieto.
That includes newsletters, an accessible website, online and in-person events, and SMS/text messaging — “we know that 80% of folks are on their phones,” she noted. “We should be thinking about creative multimedia approaches,” Prieto said, “especially with complex information the government needs to send.”
An Engagement Cloud
State and local agencies often lack the tools to build and implement an effective communications strategy. But the Granicus engagement cloud, Prieto said, helps organizations understand their audience, create an outreach plan, and then activate those campaigns. Through automation, data insights, and dashboarding, “you can create an ecosystem of engagement in your agency [and] have it run in a way that continues to feed itself,” she said.
For example, the City of Bellevue, Washington, used Granicus digital solutions to connect with residents in new ways, including SMS messaging and an “Engaging Bellevue” website that encourages people to submit feedback on various local projects. The city now enjoys a 58% engagement rate.
This article appeared in our guide, “Building Trust With Tech In State and Local Government.” To see more about how agencies are using technology to build relationships with constituents, download it here:
