Digital Community Participation

Digital Community Participation is one of three key performance indicators relating to the Offering Innovative & Citizen-Driven Services priority, one of five priorities outlined in City Council's 2018–2022 Strategic Plan.

Why this Measure Matters

Public engagement tools such as social media and citizen engagement platforms can be used to capture community feedback and involve citizens in conversations about community events and operations. Tracking increases in engagement over time indicates the effectiveness of these tools in creating community conversations and inspiring community participation.

2019 Performance: 57,203 Participants

For the purpose of this measurement, “digital community” is defined as a central digital hub or method of engagement that allows its users to consistently interact in some way with the City.

		Building Barrie registrants	738	​
		Make a Suggestion forum users	5,171	​
		City of Barrie Facebook page fans	16,730	​
		City of Barrie Twitter followers	19,739	​
		City of Barrie Instagram followers	9,346	​
		Pingstreet users	4,285	​
		#PictureBarrie participants	112	​
		Corporate e-news subscribers	857	​
	​	​City of Barrie YouTube subscribers	​225	​
		TOTAL	57,203	​
Source: Marketing & Communications department. This measurement allows for some citizens to be counted twice if they’ve chosen to be a participant in more than one digital community (for example: a citizen may follow on Facebook and be registered on Building Barrie).				​

Total Digital Community Participants by Year, 2015–2019​

2019 Activities

Throughout 2019 the City continued to support digital community participation by sharing information and generating discussion via its social media channels and citizen engagement platform, Building Barrie. In 2019, Service Barrie staff became actively involved in providing and managing customer service on Twitter and Facebook, which allowed for increased customer satisfaction of social media users and increased resourcing for outbound communications.

The following projects involved online community participation through BuildingBarrie.ca engagement tools (surveys, online mapping, Q&A with staff and forum discussions).

• Official Plan Phase 1 and Phase 2
• Youth and The Official Plan
• Intensification: Get Involved
• Parking Strategy Update
• Community Safety and Well-Being Plan
• Vision Transit
• Essa & Bradford Corridor Study

2020 Activities

The corporation's restructuring in November 2019 allowed for the adoption of a more centralized approach to social media management in 2020. The management of Creative Barrie, Invest Barrie and City of Barrie channels moved to a dedicated social media specialist within the Marketing and Communications department, allowing for improved strategic direction and oversight on related external communications and engagement. With resources, systems and data all housed in one department, centralization helps ensure greater ownership and accountability, decreases or eliminates duplication of efforts, and supports increased understanding of digital participation.

The reorganization and increased Marketing and Communications resource contributed to the following activities in 2020, aimed at increasing communications reach and digital community participants:

• Launch of Pingstreet (mobile app) notification centre.
• Launch of Invest Barrie LinkedIn page.
• Increased content and associated monitoring on City of Barrie LinkedIn page by Marketing and Communications' Social Media Specialist (page was previously solely populated and monitored by Human Resources staff).
• Implementation of livestreaming Council and Committee meetings on the City's YouTube channel.

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