Inform and engage
Effective engagement relies on two principles
Inform
Proactive engagement
- Engaging campaigns about topics that are important to you
- Opportunities to be kept informed with direct mailing and newsletters you have signed up for
- An easy to use and accessible website
- Digestible content available on multi platforms and channels – not just digital
- Working with local media and community communication methods to get information to as many people as possible
- Utilise community notice boards, and support communities to have a single source of analog information in their community
Engage
- Specialist assistance and support
- Building relationships
- Place making support to encourage communities to plan for their future
- A gateway to our officers and Community Planning Partners to provide communities with information and assistance to co-produce community led plans
To inform we need to be active communicators.
Our Communication team lays the foundation for empowered citizens by helping to get information out to people and bridge the gap between us as an organisation and the people of the Borders. This applies to:
- Communities
- Customers
- Staff
- Partners
- Businesses
- Visitors
- Government and Government Agencies
Creating a communication platform that actively pushes information out ensures that we are covering the basics, like operational updates but also the good news stories and topical campaigns.
Communication and our ability to “inform” is a foundational part of the Corporate Social Responsibility of our organisation.
Delivering a service that benefits the entire society is not an endeavour of us alone, and we commit to work with other organisations to inform and connects people with information that enriches their lives and experience of the Borders.
Sharing information onwards through:
-
Connecting Communications
Signposting to information/ other agencies and resources
-
Collaborative Communications, to support communications of:
Staff, communities, partners, government agencies/ initiatives eg. copper switch off
Information is power, and by defining our communication approach as the counter balance to effective engagement we can make sure that our communities are well informed, and build trust in our organisation, and the transparency in how we operate.
And to engage we need to be active listeners.
We need to acknowledge the conversations about us and our service provision as it appears in the community and across traditional and social media, and understand how we can use the information in that narrative to respond effectively.
We also need to ask the right questions, hear what is being said by our communities, accept the answers, and consider how we can respond to that feedback.
Effectively managing that feedback loop is critically important for communities to truly see the benefit of engaging with us, and how that is translated into positive action and response.