But what used to be mainly a supportive activity, has now evolved into a strategic necessity, as organisations face increasing complexity, diversity, and criticism.
Communities have become more demanding and want to be involved, consulted, and heard. At the same time, they want to see only relevant messages, delivered in a format of their preference. Traditional communication alone cannot meet these changing demands anymore, but they can when combined with digital tools.
That is why digital tools and platforms like Publiq have become a logical next step in community engagement. They offer strategic, continuous, scalable, and measurable means of contacting and including residents, in a way they have come to expect.
In this article, we will explain why including digital tools to encourage community dialogue will become even more valuable to community liaisons in the future.
One of the reasons for encouraging and maintaining a dialogue with the community is strategic. It reduces risk, builds trust, and improves outcomes. At the same time, it supports smoother delivery and better decision-making, and it reduces resistance and reputational damage.
VolkerStevin has used Publiq as a strategic tool during their flood risk mitigation projects, for example. “Publiq has given us consistency,” Jim Loxam explains. “The same message reaches everyone at the same time. It avoids the ‘he said, she said’ scenarios that happen when you rely on on-site workers for updates.”
This makes community dialogue not only a ‘nice to have’, but a strategic ‘must have’ in order to run smoother projects. This is especially beneficial in situations where residents offer resistance, such as the above-mentioned flood mitigation works, or Ellen de Waard’s salt mining work. For community dialogue to become strategic, it also needs to be continuous.
Community dialogue cannot be successful if communications are not continuous or structured. Isolated meetings and occasional one-way messages do not encourage residents to get involved. They have come to expect continuity across phases and projects, and rightly so.
Digital platforms can provide this, through structure, consistency and organisational memory. They allow you to send relevant messages to target groups on a regular basis, and on many different subjects. Messages of road closures are alternated with feel-good news about milestones reached, or coffee mornings. They allow you to add images and videos, and they give the respondents a means to reply.
This way, community dialogue becomes ongoing and reciprocal, rather than episodic. This, in turn, builds trust and positivity towards what you are doing.
Another very powerful benefit of using digital tools is that community dialogue becomes measurable. You are able to prove that your efforts pay off, or that a certain tactic should be changed.
Measuring impact can be done through KPIs, which allows you to learn and act in time. The results can be presented in the boardroom or at tenders, to show not only what you do, but also what impact it had.
As soon as something becomes measured, you gain data and data proof value. They help you not only to streamline your input, but also to improve it, and to visualise your results.
We have said it many times: communities have become more diverse and are overstimulated with notifications, messages, and prompts. Residents are more difficult to include as they have different backgrounds, demands, and interests.
That is what makes language support and accessibility more relevant than ever. An app is easy to open and use. Through the settings, users can decide how they want to be contacted (Publiq recently launched email notifications). Users receive information in their own terms.
By making the digital messages relevant, disengagement and communication fatigue are less of a risk. Segment your audience in groups, by area or interest in your project, for example, and you ensure you only send relevant messages to those who receive them.
This type of selective and respectful communication also creates trust, as residents realise that reading your messages is always worthwhile.
It is easier to be consistent, responsive, and relevant through digital platforms. And by paying attention to those, you create trust. The fact that you can make your follow-up visible with digital tools, only enhances it. Because community dialogue is no dialogue if you do not follow up on the input from your residents.
With a digital platform, commitments and feedback are visible and traceable. When other users see that you take the time to read and respond to messages from others, they are also encouraged to contribute. Moreover, they can see that their opinion counts, as you treat it seriously.
Just because you ask for input, does not mean that you have to use it all. But as you create a dialogue, this will feel even more credible to the residents when they can see the outcomes.
Human contact will remain important, even in the future. Physical engagement can never be replaced by digital dialogue only. What it can do, is prepare it, extend it, and reinforce it. There is a time and a place for a digital announcement and a physical meeting with residents in the local town hall. That means judging the situation and deciding which type of communication is most relevant and likely to be successful.
Together, digital and physical engagement form a communication system which will offer you all you need to engage your communities correctly, respectfully, and successfully.
Using digital tools for community dialogue is a direct response to the growing complexity, expectations, and diversity of your target audience. With it, you profit from strategic value, measurable outcomes, and inclusion.
Moreover, organisations that use digital tools like Publiq, are better prepared for future challenges, tenders, and boardroom meetings. They can reach their audiences in a targeted and respectful way, which leaves room for response and follow-up.
Together with communication in person and a selection of traditional communications methods (digital tools can still not replace official door-to-door letters, for example), they provide you with a complete set of methods with which to build a successful community dialogue with the surrounding residents.