Planning community engagement can be a critical part of your marketing strategy and a vital step toward nailing your business goals. When you aren’t sure how to go about community engagement projects, it can be helpful to bring in consultants, who work 50 to 80 hours per week, according to Runn. These professionals will have in-depth experience and expertise on these important topics. Let’s look at some of the techniques that are often used to plan and initiate a community engagement project.
Community Meetings
Community meetings can be a foundational way to start the engagement process. Public or town hall meetings have been used for decades to provide a way for organizations to provide valuable information to their demographic. The face-to-face quality of these meetings is great for nurturing customer loyalty and interaction. To create an optimal community meeting, you need to consider the stakeholders that will be involved, what’s important to them, the structure of the meetings, and ways to encourage attendance. This method is a strong option because it communicates transparency and involvement.
Focus Groups
Another option is focus groups. Focus groups have been one of the many tried and true community engagement techniques. This method works well because it makes it possible to reach out to smaller or larger stakeholder groups, including those who are marginalized. These meetings can encourage active dialogue between members by asking focused questions in a comfortable environment. The smaller group setting often encourages people to interact and speak up in ways they might not feel comfortable with in larger group settings.
A seasoned consultant would advise you, though, that there be an experienced facilitator present to ensure the meeting runs smoothly and that everyone is equally represented.
Surveys
Surveys can also be a helpful method of community engagement. When surveys are conducted in a thoughtful and reciprocal way, it can help your organization gather crucial information. To encourage participation in the survey, you should attempt to offer some type of benefit to the participant. Today, online participation in surveys is easier than ever. Using social media platforms you can reach a large number of stakeholders in a short amount of time.
These are just a few community engagement techniques to consider. If you’re looking for quality consulting services from seasoned experts, please contact Activate Detroit today.