Adapting to Change in Your Community: FRS community engagement & communication choices

Different Strokes For Different Folks

There are so many media and channels you can use to get your vital messages across. Communicating and engaging effectively means picking the right ones for the people you need to reach.

Identifying different capabilities, characteristics and preferences among your residents is important, if you want to be sure you’re reaching people with information they need. Using data from a range of sources, you can produce reports that help you understand the needs of different households and segments in your community, so you can confidently choose the best communication and outreach methods.

Of course, you have to work to a budget to produce and deliver content. Going online can help cut costs compared to printing, postage or face to face events. Online content can be easier to update and adapt to meet changing needs. And under the current constraints of the pandemic, when face to face engagement is difficult, it’s tempting to go all-digital.

But as every FRS colleague knows, not every resident is digitally connected. Some of the most vulnerable people in your community will not have access to social media, the internet or email, or their digital capabilities may be limited without support.

Modern FRS organisation use a wide range of communications channels and media: each has strengths and weaknesses for different audience types and may work better for certain types of messaging, campaigns and content:

Digital Media

Direct contact channels: email, text messaging, chat facilities (website chat, direct messaging on social media)

Broadcast channels: social media posts (Facebook, twitter, Instagram), online community groups (Facebook), webinars and community conferences (YouTube, Zoom or other broadcast platforms)

Digital content: Infographics, data visualisations, video, podcasts, vlogs, blogs

Traditional Media

Public channels: local papers (articles, paid ads, interviews), local radio (ads, phone-ins, interviews), community exhibitions, empty shop window displays, posters, presentations (community events, schools, community organisations)

Direct delivery (mail or door drop): regular or one-off newsletters, personally addressed letters, generic leaflets, generic letters, flyers, postcards

Telephone: outbound phone campaigns, phone helplines

The immediacy, ease of use and interactive nature of digital communication is a good fit for many people in your community who are used to using mobile phones, tablets or computers for everyday transactions and communication. The challenge is to identify those people who are excluded from those channels and make sure that you direct traditional alternatives to their individual households.

Blended data insight can help you to do this [hyperlink to blog or paper]. Working with CACI’s local government and FRS data specialists, you can accurately identify households and groups that don’t have access to digital channels. You can profile residents to reveal who is likely to respond well to particular types of communication that match their habits and preferences.

By targeting the right media and activities to the right people, you can ensure that safety and protection messages get through where they’re most needed. You’ll get better value from communication budgets with campaigns targeted by segment rather than using door drops or mailings for blanket coverage.

There’s more information about communications methods and segmenting community audiences on the Local Government Association’s Comms Hub.

Get in touch with CACI’s FRS data specialists for help and advice on community segmentation and channel selection.