Communication for participation
Investigate which questions and concerns play around your participation process and decide where extra explanation is needed. Follow online conversations with Coosto, plan your communication and organise the follow-up of questions. That way you keep residents, students or other stakeholders better informed about what is happening, where they can take part and what happens with their input.
- Recognise where explanation is needed
- Keep communication aligned
- Ensure clear follow-up
See where stakeholders need extra explanation
With a redevelopment, for example, residents may have questions about the schedule, the impact on their street or the room to contribute ideas. Search Coosto by topic and location, even when your organisation's name isn't mentioned. Look at the context behind posts and decide which questions you can answer and where content alignment is needed first. That way you focus your communication on topics where unclear points or a need for explanation actually become visible.
Make clear what people can have a say in
Explain what stakeholders can think along about, what is already decided and where and until when they can contribute. Align the content with the colleagues involved and schedule social media posts in the content calendar of Coosto Publish. Have posts reviewed before publication and include feedback on the input and next steps in your planning. This creates a clearer line of communication from invitation to feedback.
Prevent questions from getting stuck between colleagues
Questions about a participation process can arrive through different channels. Handle messages from supported channels in the central inbox of Coosto Engage and assign conversations to a colleague. Add internal notes when further content alignment is needed and use the conversation history at handover. That keeps visible who picks up a question, what information has already been shared and what still needs to be looked into.
Tips
Keep monitoring, communication and follow-up together
Use Listen to follow signals around the topic, Publish to plan explanations and communication moments and Engage to distribute and follow up individual questions. That way you don't have to treat monitoring, publishing and replying as separate communication tasks, and context stays more easily available to colleagues working on the process.
Capabilities for participation communication
Search assistance
Follow posts about a topic or location and refine your search, so you see more relevant questions and signals.
Content calendar
Bring invitations, explanations and feedback together in one schedule, so your communication moments fit together better.
Post approval
Have posts reviewed before publication, so facts, agreements and explanations can be aligned first.
Internal notes
Add context to conversations, so colleagues know at handover what has been discussed and what still needs looking into.
From online question to clear follow-up
Bring your own participation topic to the demo. We show how you follow online questions around a topic, prepare communication and distribute incoming conversations. That way you see how Coosto helps align signals, explanation and follow-up throughout the process.
During a demo we show you:
- Build a search around a topic or location.
- View online questions and reactions with their context.
- Schedule social media posts and have them approved.
- Assign incoming conversations and hand them over with context.
Frequently asked questions about participation communication
Is Coosto a participation platform?
No. You use Coosto for monitoring, communication and handling questions around the process. For voting or formally submitting contributions, use a dedicated facility. Coosto therefore mainly supports the communication around participation, not the formal participation process itself.
Are online reactions representative of everyone involved?
No. Online reactions are not a representative cross-section of everyone involved; not everyone speaks up online. Use these signals as additional information alongside, for example, conversations, meetings or research. That way you avoid mistaking visible online reactions for the opinion of the whole group.
Which online sources can I follow?
With Coosto Listen you follow posts from, among others, social media, online news media, blogs, forums and reviews. Which information is available differs per source. Use the results as online signals and take that source scope into account when interpreting them.
Can I follow topics without my organisation's name?
Yes. Build a search around, for example, a project name, location or topic and refine it with combinations of search terms and exclusions. That way you can also find signals in which your organisation isn't explicitly mentioned.
Can I measure how many people actually take part?
Reach, clicks and reactions to communication do not in themselves show actual participation. Use data from, for example, the system in which contributions are submitted or other registration around the participation process. Social media data can provide additional context about the communication around the process.
