Engaging the Silent Citizen

PlaceVision Inc
PlaceVision IncPlaceVision Inc
Engagement techniques
for the silent citizen
Peter Buchwald, AICP
Crystal Wilson
Jennifer Bartlett, AICP, LEED AP
Project Launch
The Charrette
Public Design Session
Public Design Session
Project Website
Public Workshop
Email Blast
Ads and Cards
We end up with this
And this
A pleasant turnout
Engaging the Silent Citizen
Is that our turnout?
Where are the people?
Here they are protesting
Against a prison
Against a toll road
Against the first toll road
Refreshments
Fancy Refreshments
Raffles
The turnout
The silent citizen
Wherever there is a crowd
Opportunity for outreach
Crowd online
We threw out the handbook
Don’t be uncool
Be Cool & Blend In
Pop Up
What’s your definition of a pop up?
How to be too eager
Avoid St. Patrick’s Day
Festivals
Don’t tag along to
other planning events
Farmer’s Market is a
better choice
This is Florida
Give away something people will enjoy such
as water or ice tea instead of food or
cookies
Farmer’s Market Tea Blitz
Farmer’s Market Tea Blitz
• 14 free ice teas
• Project Votes
Maybe make a fun booth
• 535 Mapped Comments +
60 General Comments
• Facebook & Community
Remarks
Make maps people can
understand & write on
Driving Traffic to
Nowhere
Use a QR Code
Use an iPad & iPhone
How to hustle
First Facebook Ad
• Feb 26 -March 3, Facebook
post boost linking to
Community Remarks
• $20 budget
• 144 Clicks to Community
Remarks, 8 Comments
• 24 likes of the ad
• 3 comments under the ad
• 2 shares
• Total reach: 3,700 people
• Over 50% were mobile
users
Engaging the Silent Citizen
Second Facebook Ad
• April 6 -27, Facebook ad
linking to Community
Remarks
• $105 budget
• 349 Clicks to Community
Remarks, 90 comments
• 63 likes of the ad
• 64 comments under the ad
• 30 shares
• Total reach: 13, 472 people
• Over 50% were mobile
users
Community Remarks
Phase 1 online outreach January 1 -
June 24:
•574 unique visitors to Community
Remarks
•258 location-specific comments
•31 General Comments
•26 replies to comments
•273 new Facebook fans
•Over 50% were mobile users
Phase 2: Overhaul
• Redesigned the look and
functionality to accommodate
project voting
• Enhanced the mobile version
Boost post for $20
131: Post Clicks
33: Post Likes
1: Post Comment
6: Post Shares
3: Page Likes
2,900 People Reached (Paid)
989 People Reached (Organic)
Total spent: $20
Ad ran for 6 days
Ad ran for 6 days
131: Post Clicks
33: Post Likes
1: Post Comment
6: Post Shares
3: Page Likes
2,900 People Reached (Paid)
989 People Reached (Organic)
Total spent: $20
Engaging the Silent Citizen
Tracking Results
11: Comments
49: Bicycle Project Votes
67: Sidewalk Project Votes
25: Roadway Projects Votes
4: Multi-Purpose Trail Votes
10: Transit Project Votes
6: Greenway Trails Votes
Total: 172 Votes
Total spent: $20
Website analytics
226: Unique visitors
141: Mobile users
48%: Bounce Rate
2 minutes: Average time on mobile
7 minutes: Average time on desktop
What have we learned?
Marketing
• Don’t set it and forget
about it, we have to be
proactive
• Good marketing and
instructions enable all age
groups to participate.
Instructional video can be
helpful
Facebook success
• Post where you are going to be and when
with a picture
• Tag cities (@CityName) in posts
• Boost posts with a $20 budget to residents
in the area and surrounding areas
• Repost comments from Community
Remarks, drive traffic directly to CR
Repost Comments
3 different ways to
promote on Facebook
• Polk TPO using a
combination of Facebook,
Community Remarks, and
Workshops
• No budget for boost or ads
• 193 Mapped Comments
• 10 General Comments
Polk TPO
Organic Promotion
Key Biscayne
• Key Biscayne using a
combination of Facebook,
Community Remarks,
Village’s website, and
instructional videos
• No budget for boost or ads
• 148 Mapped Comments
• 34 General Comments
Post about event
Community Remarks
• Build out to be innovative and capture
more feedback on projects
• Results from CR as part of public
engagement plan. Comments will be
matched to cost feasible plan
• No kiosk. Suggestion is let libraries run CR
on designated computer for citizens
Give something away
Email List
Email addresses collected from
online engagement should be
notified of new opportunities to
participate
Experiment & Share
1 of 67

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Engaging the Silent Citizen

Editor's Notes

  1. When we started the development of the TPO’s long range plan last year, we started with the questions of how would engage the public, how would we capture public input, what methods
  2. We thought about including the time-honored charrette
  3. Previous versions have included charrette-type meetings
  4. And workshops and while these photos look good like there is a tremendous participation The reality is
  5. Despite the dedicated websites
  6. Advertising the charrette or workshop
  7. The email blasts
  8. Despite the ads in annual reports and newspapers, on the bus and handing out business cards
  9. Where 10, 50, 100 people would be considered a success
  10. Oh I found them, they are here protesting a nuclear power plant
  11. Refreshments, that’s right donut holes, gold fish, pretzels, bottle water Wait a minute, I have an even better idea
  12. How about this spread, with wine, cheeses, fancy crackers, and stuffed pastry puffs
  13. And then there are raffles and gift cards
  14. So, we fill some seats, and we have 30, 50, even hundreds, participating But are these hundreds and there comments reflective of an area of almost 300,000 diverse individuals And there is something disingenuous with bribing someone to participate We had to do something different to engage the silent citizen
  15. We had to seek out the silent citizen They may be too busy with their hectic lives We had to ensure we have a broad representation They may not care
  16. So we thought wherever there is a crowd, there is an opportunity
  17. Tthere is an opportunity for outreach, for input
  18. And of course there is always a crowd online.
  19. So we decided to threw out the book on public engagement, and tested all opportunities for engagement of the silent citizen, and this is what we have learned so far
  20. Remember the person at the mall in the 80’s that would hang out by the door with a clip board who wanted you to take a survey? Remember how you avoided eye contact? Yeah, don’t be the clipboard person in your engagement strategy. It’s uncool.
  21. A pop up to us is going to an event where people will be gathered such as a festival or market
  22. Show up at the end with cookies not at the beginning while people make a b-line to sign in and speak their mind