by Steven Clift | Apr 02, 2010
| 0 Comments

I've been on the road ... so one lesson with digital engagement is that even if you can participate conveniently on your own time from anywhere, you still need the time to participate!

Here are some key lessons I've picked up over the years with digital engagement (in order of importance not order of completion):

1. Build your audience first

For most online engagements, particularly the time-limited kind, to work you need to build your audience before you open for exchange. The best way to do this is to invite people to join your opt-in one-way e-mail list (or increasingly your Twitter or Facebook Fan page "stream.") E-mail remains the most broadcast like and those who use social networking regularly actually check their e-mail more than others.

Inclusion matters. If you want your online engagement to attract more than the usual suspects, you need to focus real outreach on diverse communities. Signing people up on paper at the right public events should even be considered. E-Democracy.org is currently engaged in special outreach in the higher immigrant, lower income neighborhoods of Cedar Riverside in Minneapolis and Frogtown in St. Paul. We are learning as we are going: http://e-democracy.org/inclusion

2. Pick your theme

Your online engagement needs to be described in a way that is compelling to your target audience. The one or two sentences you use to describe the scope/purpose of the engagement and a few organizing questions will help set the tone.

3. Pick your tools

This is a tough. It seems like there is a new tool everyday. For simplicity, I recommend adapting blogging tools for a basic Q and A or "read this article" and comment. Wordpress is great and adaptable for blogging. For sustained online communities, you need a good e-mail publishing option unless the attraction is based on a strong self-interest like a passionate hobby or a common disease. Ning is a free ad-supported social networking tool you can use if you meet the strong attachment requirement. If you really want to build bonds between people use a simple tool like Google Groups which combine e-mail and the web. If you want to use Facebook, "Fan" pages work far better than feature devoid Facebook Groups.

My non-profit uses a less known open source tool called GroupServer for our Issues Forums because works for us. Our approach is to let people participate via their preferred technology - e-mail, e-mail digest with web, web-only, blog-style web feeds, Twitter (headlines only), Facebook Fan pages (read-only) and we are exploring developing an iPhone App. Our lesson - maximize the audience by not excluding people based on the technology they use.

4. Open with introductions

This does not always apply, but we have found great success with a friendly round of introductions. It helps humanize the online space. It reminds people that there are other people at the end of each computer (or mobile device for that matter) connecting to the discussion. Unless you have a compelling reason to use aliases or allow anonymous postings - use real names. Or your engagement may devolve into the horrible state of commenting tarnishing our local online newspaper websites. (Repeat - online news sites are not the model of online engagement I would suggest and they are ruining the party IMHO for the rest of us.) If the topic is sensitive or the engagement is designed for a private online group (let's just say along the theme of this contest you were working to connect teenagers dealing with their obesity), then drop my real names suggestion and go with pre-moderation and/or heavy facilitation.

5. Seed and feed

Just as you would organize an in-person conference with sessions, guide a focus group discussion, or host a radio program with guests, you need to plan out your engagement over time. Think short articles, videos, posting key questions, etc. In short term "asynchronous" online events (like those lasting a week to a month), the facilitation is normally quite intense. I recently "coached" an event on gambling in New Hampshire for a university group working with a Governor's Commission - http://e-democracy.org/nh Because it leveraged in-person deliberations, the seeding was well established and most the "hosting" effort went into facilitation.

This is where the opt-in e-mail list comes in. If you choose a more web-centric option (where people must come to the website to read posts or add comments), then the only way you can bring people back is to highlight key moments, topics, quotations, etc. with a link directly to where people can add their comments.

6. Alternatively, go to the "digital parade"

One of the biggest challenges with online engagement is the increasingly difficulty with getting people to "join" anything new. By strategically using tools like Facebook Fan pages or even "#hashtag" based Twitter chats you can reach people where they are. The compromise is that you have to accept their policies (privacy, copyright, etc.), advertising, and technical limitations. On the other hand, you may reach more people and the built in "tell in a friend" aspect of Facebook and organic public group formation on Twitter really seems to spread the word via trusted relationships.

I am sure I am missing about 10 top tips, so please register or login and leave a comment with your tip. If you are not registered with this site, see the link on the top right to register.

Cheers,
Steven Clift

P.S. I wrote a longer article on this topic in the olden days. While the technology has changed and almost all the examples I cite are off-line, the tips are still useful: http://stevenclift.com/?p=89