Tips for Community Engagement
Community Engagement is an essential part of doing business today, particularly for Government bodies where increased transparency and involvement in decision making is expected.
If you’re undertaking community engagement, read our Ultimate Quick Guide to Community Engagement to learn about what it is, how and when to do it. This great guide tells you about what tools to use, any risks you need to be aware of and importantly how you can measure and report on your findings.
Here we let you in on 10 top tips for community engagement:
- Where possible first ‘consult’ on the process you will be undertaking.
- Really think about what are you consulting on and how will the feedback from your stakeholders be applied/considered – do they really have much of a say? What level of influence will the feedback have in the decision-making process – make this clear at the outset
- Throughout the lifecycle of your consultation be responsive and supportive. Acknowledge your participants. At milestones provide feedback.
- Providing engaging content – put the human in it!
- Early on, identify your internal and external advocates and influencers
- Be prepared for managing sensitive issues and disillusioned stakeholders. Always be authentic, transparent, honest, polite and warm.
- Take time to understand and empathize with your different stakeholder groups. If you can’t empathize then recognise.
- Make it easy for everyone to participate – use a variety of mediums and also go to where your stakeholders are: shopping centres, libraries, schools etc
- Build relationships with your stakeholders and create links between them
- Always provide a report on the consultation and how it has informed the outcomes
For more tips for community engagement, check out some of our other expert articles:
- 20 tools to add to your community engagement toolbox
- Quick guide to writing an effective community engagement strategy
- Challenges in Community Engagement
To find out how online engagement software like Engagement Hub can take the headache out of community engagement, visit our website, see the tools in action on our demo site or book a no-obligation virtual demonstration here.
