Local governments have and will always need to communicate information to the public. Whether that’s changes to policies, updates on projects, new programs, or critical life-health-safety information. 

News outlets do a great job of helping localities with this sort of one-way communication but fall short when it comes to actually engaging with the public.  

Public engagement is critical to a healthy, functioning government, and local governments in particular. 

If you think about it, local governments may be the closest representation of democracy there is. Residents can (and should) have a large say in local government decisions. 

Residents have a considerable amount of power to influence the outcomes of local elections, as well as decisions local elected officials make. 

That’s why it’s incredibly important for local governments to engage with the public early and often to understand their wants and needs. 

Local governments have been engaging with the public since the beginning. But society is changing - especially how we communicate with the advances in new technology. 

Townhall meetings certainly have their time and place and can be effective in engaging certain community groups, but they’re not for everyone. Neither are community surveys or online public meetings. 

But each of these traditional engagement methods is effective for a reason!  It’s important to keep in mind that some neighborhoods cannot access the internet, so in-person engagement is critical to engaging with them. 

Equity should continue to be a part of every public engagement strategy because what works for one neighborhood may not work for another. 

But as more and more communities gain access to technology, and knowing many residents rely on the internet for updates and information, it makes sense for local governments to utilize effective digital engagement strategies. 

Lucky for ‘the man’, businesses know a thing or two about engaging with people. If you think about it, marketing is not too far off from engagement. You need to understand who you’re talking to, why they’re talking to you, and how you can solve their problems.

So here’s a 4 step process local governments can use to incorporate a well-known digital marketing strategy to boost their public engagement: 

1. Create a “resident avatar”

Local governments should develop a “resident avatar”, much like a client avatar businesses would create of their ideal client. 

The idea behind client avatars is to build out a fictitious representation of an ideal client to include everything from where they live, their income, what kind of car they drive, or their favorite pastime (to name only a few).  

This information can then be used by the business to inform future marketing campaigns that can be targeted to their ideal customer avatar. The more you know about your customer, the better you can serve them, right?

The same concept can be applied to local governments. Instead of creating the avatar from the perspective of purchasing a product or service, local governments can develop a resident avatar for specific neighborhoods or issue areas that require engagement. 

This fictitious resident is developed based on real data, conversations, and anecdotal evidence, and can help leaders make decisions about engagement (or other things like policies and programs).

Note that resident avatars may not work for every community or issue area. Nor can a resident avatar represent every resident, just like a client avatar can’t represent each and every customer.

A resident avatar is simply an additional tool that could assist local governments with their engagement strategy. Instead of gathering feedback from one or two sources (eg. neighborhood representatives or 311 data), resident avatars dig a little deeper and can provide a more holistic perspective. 

Here are a few sources local governments can tap into to develop a resident avatar:

• Current local government employees 

• Council members

• Resident interviews

• Community surveys

• Interest groups

• NextDoor or other online community platforms

• 311 data

• Census data

2. Conduct research

Once local governments better understand their residents, they can begin in-depth research on how best to reach and engage these residents. 

With their client avatar in mind, businesses determine what keywords their client uses in online searches. What kind of questions are they asking Google? What keywords or phrases are highly searched for by this demographic? 

Local governments should conduct similar research. What kind of questions are these residents asking of government? What issue areas are they searching for on Google? 

Getting into the minds of these residents to better understand their perspectives can be pivotal for localities. 

Can you imagine how seamless budget season would go if you already knew what these residents wanted? 

Once developed, resident avatars can be shared within the organization, so every department knows how to best engage with each neighborhood or resident on an issue area. 

3. Improve SEO

Businesses take all of this newfound information about their ideal client and use it to their advantage by incorporating those same keywords into their online content. 

Incorporating targeted keywords into content allows search engines to find and display their site in search results when potential customers search those keywords. This is referred to as search engine optimization or SEO. 

Local governments should optimize their websites and any online content for search engines too. 

By doing this, the public institution will come up in search results. This allows the locality to control the narrative and serve as the primary source of information for the public. 

This way, misinformation is less likely to spread. 

4. Create valuable content

Knowing what keywords and questions residents are searching for online, local governments can develop targeted content that’ll show up in search results.

Instead of simply updating the city website ever so often, local governments should create informative, valuable, and engaging content that keeps residents coming back for more. 

Localities can create content that introduces residents to star employees, announces new projects or programs, entertains with interesting city trivia, and displays any awards or recognitions the city has received. 

Maybe most importantly, an active platform can also set the record straight and challenge any misinformation that may be brewing.

Not only does this provide the public with valuable information, but it also increases transparency with the public. 

Here are just a few ways local governments can produce consistent content that improves public engagement:

• A blog 

• Newsletters

• A video blog or YouTube channel 

• A podcast 

• Quarterly reports 

Press releases definitely serve an important purpose, but they’re no longer the primary method of spreading information to the public. 

Local governments must innovate their communications strategies to fit the times and live up to public expectations of transparency and authenticity. 

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