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 participants over time indicates the effectiveness of these tools in creating community conversations and inspiring community participation.
2020 Performance: 80,709 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.
Total Digital Community Participants by Year, 2016–2020
2016:
30,426
| 2017:
40,169 | 2018:
46,992 | 2019:
57,086 | 2020:
80,709 |
 |
| Source: Marketing & Communications department. Only those channels managed by Marketing & Communications are included. |
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.
- 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 HR Recruitment staff).
- Implementation of livestreamed Council and Committee meetings on the
City's YouTube channel, and increase video production due to virtual events.
- Increased support for e-communications practices (distributions, list building/management activities) for
corporate e-news.
- More dedicated content oversight on barrie.ca, which helps increase proactive digital communications and supports staff in responding to inbound inquiries received via various channels.
- Increased collaboration between digital communications and Service Barrie staff, which helps ensure that outbound proactive and timely digital communications aligns wtih inbound inquiries.
The following 2020 projects involved online community participation through
BuildingBarrie.ca engagement tools (surveys, online mapping, Q&A with staff and forum discussions).
Previous Years' Activities
| 2019 | |
2019 PerformanceTotal Digital Community Participants by Year, 2015–20192019 ActivitiesThroughout 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). |