Engaging Digital Audiences as a Government Agency
People are more disconnected from civic engagement than ever – how do government agencies keep folks engaged?
The Importance of Digital Comms
Now more than ever, there is a vested interest for governments to use digital tools, such as social media and email. As of 2024, nearly 73% of all Americans are on social media. And of course, we know the importance of email, with its integration into every part of our daily lives. With smaller budgets and teams, it can be tough for government communications to catch up with current practices.
These tools are fundamental to connecting people to resources, services, and tools governments offer at every level, whether it’s a local county agency serving 4,000 people or the EPA serving hundreds of millions.
Developing a digital communications strategy is more important now than ever.
More than that, digital tools are an integral part of inspiring people to action. According to a Pew Research study from 2012, there are some great indicators of social media’s power to get people involved:
38% of those who use social media engage with political content or commentary on social issues
35% of social media users encourage users to vote on social media
34% of all social media comment on political and social issues personally
Clearly, there is a trend of social media and its power to get people talking about civic and societal issues, which can be used to a government’s advantage.
Getting to Know Your Audience
If governments are going to keep engaging people digitally, understanding their audience is crucial. There are two ways to go about this.
First, get to know the audience already present online. Most governments nowadays use social media, and can craft surveys that can be sent out to audience members who follow them. This is going to be a bit trickier because of lower reach and engagement on organic social media, but even just a small amount of feedback from the audience can ensure a strong direction for reaching and engaging them on social media.
The other option is to figure out what new audiences can provide insights into how you can reach them. This is the more precise option, but it comes at a cost through surveys, focus groups, and other interviewing techniques to gather information. If a government has funds available to conduct this audience outreach, it is easy to tack onto existing community feedback surveys, which can be done at little to no extra cost.
Here are some interviewing options for gathering feedback, and their pros and cons:
Online surveys
Pros:
Easy to create
Simple to send out
Quick and easy for audiences to fill out
Quick data analysis
Cons:
Targeting and sending challenges
Challenge of finding participants
Cost of tools for data analysis
Mail-in surveys
Pros:
Direct to a location
People check mail often
More private than an online survey
Cons:
Challenging to return the surveys
Costly to mail and send out
Time consuming to analyze data
Focus groups
Pros:
Direct opinions from audience members
Ability to form a relationship with participants
Focused data
Cons:
Lack of large-scale data
Data points from few sources
Qualitative data only
Content That Compels
Once governments have the feedback from audience members and want to proceed with engaging them, the key is figuring out the content.
Creating interesting and engaging content is not a linear journey. It doesn’t take one step to find the right content that interests people. For some governments, they’ll step into the roll of the protector, guarding their communities from scams, harm, and crisis. Others may choose a connector role, finding out what resources and events are available and will find, host, and curate this content. There are many others as well, such as an uplifter, and more.
Finding the niche (or niches) to occupy is going to take trial and error. Content will need to be tested to see what performs best. Once that niche is occupied, it’s time to get proactive.
Content will only be the first step. From there, engaging the audience down a pipeline is going to be critical. Here’s an example pipeline for the role of a connector archetype:
Government creates events or resources based on community need
Begin sharing and distributing content across channels (website, email, partnerships, social media)
Audience members show interest through landing pages, sign up forms, or general interest indicators (Facebook Events, etc.)
Highly engaged audience members become connectors, sharing and tagging people in content that may become of use to them.
This approach was employed by Civic Link ourselves for one of our government partners, the Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office. Using this approach increased their shares on social media by 66% in just one month, totaling to 535 shares on organic content alone with 1,000 followers each on Facebook and Instagram. Event attendance rose by 5% that month as well.
Review, Review, Review
Once the pipeline is set up and audiences are engaged on digital tools, the final step is evaluating the current plan and adapting as necessary. This is no small feat, but it is critical to ensuring that governments are effectively engaging their audiences.
To review the data, the first step is finding the sources. This can be done through free tools, or paid ones, such as:
Pulling shares, likes, comments from a social media management tool
Sending follow-up surveys to event attendees, audience members, etc
Forming volunteer programs to gauge community feedback, such as ambassador programs
When data is available, frequently checking in on it and reporting it to supervisors, elected officials, and community leaders will advocate for the continued expansion of digital outreach methods and prove its success.
We can help spark communities to action for governments and their agencies. To schedule a free 30 minute consultation, click here.