Virtual community engagement holds huge potential for decision-makers.

First there are the financial benefits from reduced travel, catering and venue costs.

Then we have the cultural benefits from improved staff wellbeing and increased participation regardless of geographical location.

And lastly there are the environmental benefits from reduced carbon footprints and meeting room requirements.

Thanks to the COVID lockdown, many people in our communities have now experienced the benefits of virtual collaboration and engagement.

But there’s a gap between possibility and reality

As we emerge out the other side of the lockdown, organisations are still at different stages of embracing virtual engagement and collaboration methods. There’s often a big gap between “what’s possible” and “what’s realistic right now”.

In this article, we try to simplify this by suggesting five different stages of maturity in organisations’ use of virtual engagement tools. 

As you read this article, ask yourself: What stage is our organisation at? Where would we like be? And what small steps might we take to move there?

Stage 1: You have a website

The first stage involves your organisation transferring existing communications onto your website. Most organisations have done this. If you don’t have a website, you pretty much don’t exist.

Many councils and government agencies have transferred their existing consultation processes onto their websites. At its most basic, this may look like: “You can now email us your submission for the Long Term Plan.” Or it might be: “Fill out this form to share your views with us”.

It’s a good first step - albeit a superficial level of online engagement. Throwing your existing consultations online will not alter the nature of your community’s participation; nor does it make the most of the opportunities for scale, reach and impact offered by technology. It’s a start.

Stage 2: You’re on social media

The next most common step is to start using social media, e-newsletters and surveys to communicate with the people you serve. 

This is often more of a communications exercise and less of an engagement exercise. You are using technology to reduce the costs of informing your residents about what’s going on in your region. But it can be challenging to create meaningful opportunities for two-way conversations or collaboration on social media.

Social media can also become hugely time-consuming - and sometimes with little clear return on investment. Your communications team probably feels like it is continually fighting fires. It’s reactive and issues-based.

However, you are starting to appreciate the benefits of reach and scale offered by technology. What’s next?

Stage 3: You’re investing in online engagement tools

Now your organisation is starting to get serious about online engagement. And that means you’re investing in technology to support your intention.

Online engagement platforms

Key to this is likely to be an investment in an online engagement platform like Bang The Table, The Hive or Social Pinpoint.

These aim to be a one-stop-shop for your online engagement. They include a range of tools you can pick and choose for each engagement project, including surveys, discussion forums, mapping tools, budgeting tools and more.

Videoconferencing tools

The second key piece of technology will be a video conferencing tool like Zoom. This allows you to replace in-person meetings with virtual alternatives.

The COVID lockdown has shown many people how effective these tools can be when used with care and consideration. If you have been part of an interactive Zoom meeting with breakout rooms, polls, chats, reactions, Q&A and annotations - then you know what is possible.

Just the tip of the iceberg

Online engagement platforms and videoconferencing technology are only two types of tools available for virtually engaging your community. We’ve compiled a broader list of categories in our Beginner’s Guide to Online Collaboration and Engagment Tools if you want to go a level deeper.

Despite the improved technology, your organisation may still feel underwhelmed by the potential of online engagement.

And that’s probably due to your staff’s capabilities in community engagement and the level of support they are provided to put the technology to good use. Good software can only do so much; far more important are the principles and processes that sit behind the technology.

Stage 4: Embedding online engagement

Many public organisations view online engagement as the poor cousin to in-person methods. We’ve grown up with in-person methods being the norm. We are comfortable with them.

But some of our clients are now embracing online engagement methods and giving them equal weight in their processes as in-person methods. This will only strengthen over the coming years thanks to the COVID lockdown.

When the COVID lockdown hit, we had five client projects on the go with four clients. Two of these were with teams in Auckland Council’s Community Empowerment Unit.

We worked with them to transition their in-person engagement events to virtual events. Even we were surprised by the effectiveness of the virtual alternative.

The lessons learned from these sorts of virtual engagement projects are now starting to be embedded in the Unit’s approach to community engagement. Virtual methods are no longer being seen as a poor-quality backup option, but as a strong option in its own right.

And we believe this will have some positive long-term impacts on council-community relationships because of two strengths of online tools.

First, online tools have far greater potential for scale.

One tendency we have noticed in New Zealand is for councils to focus their engagement attention on interest groups or the loud minority who are already speaking up. Online methods offer the potential to expand the pool of engaged residents to ordinary people who don’t have time to attend your drop-in session or to fill out a detailed consultation form.

Second, online tools have the potential to break down geographical barriers.

In one recent Zoom workshop we facilitated for a council strategy development process we asked attendees if they would have attended had the meeting been held at a local venue. 45% said they may not have attended. By hosting the workshop virtually, we had attendees from around the district - and even two from the other Island.

Is your organisation at this stage? Take a moment to congratulate yourself and your colleagues. You probably still feel there is lots of work to do, but your approach has already matured significantly beyond the bare basics.

Stage 5: Let’s look to the future

Microsoft Encarta was a big deal when I was growing up. It launched in 1993 as a CD-Rom encyclopedia. At its peak, it had over 62,000 professionally written articles, with funding from Microsoft’s deep pockets. 

Yet this well-funded professional product was overtaken by Wikipedia - an alternative that relies on volunteer contributions. You would have been mad to have bet on that outcome beforehand.

That story demonstrates where we may next be heading for online community engagement. 

We envisage a future where councils provide the online platform but residents make the rules. Where community members ‘police’ the platform and own the outcomes in partnership with public organisations. This is a future where the boundaries between institutions and community are blurred, where more people are working together for the good of the community.

On top of that, the era of spatial meetings is much closer than you might think. This engaging think-piece by Jonas Rajanto paints a vivid picture of what this might look like.

Think virtual reality, Oculus headsets, walking around a virtual room shaking the hands of your fellow attendees, finding a virtual seat you like the look of, getting up to go to your chosen virtual breakout room then mixing and mingling with after your meeting or event. Yes, that’s what’s coming and it’s already well into development. 

But what could that mean for public institutions? 

You will be able to design your virtual reality world and make it a place for everyone within your community. It will add to amenities such as libraries so residents don’t need to travel but can browse the ebooks and hang out all at the same time. Language barriers may gradually disappear too.

Sure there is some hardware and infrastructure required. That may well be provided by third parties to make upfront costs more realistic. The result would certainly be a far more dynamic and emotionally stimulating step up from the Zoom Room.

Leverage the power of virtual engagement now

So wherever your organisation is on your virtual community engagement journey, the COVID experience has already proven not just the economic benefits of virtual communication, but the social and environmental benefits as well.

And with organisations like AMP closing down its CBD headquarters in both Auckland and Wellington in favour of remote working and smaller suburban offices, our post COVID future is definitely going to be very different.

It is certainly a good time to investigate how your organisation can leverage the power of virtual engagement as a tool to strengthen your decision-making.

Take the next step and download our Beginner’s Guide to Collaboration and Engagement Tech Tools below.