{"id":7528,"date":"2020-06-24T11:14:56","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T11:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/au\/?post_type=blog&amp;p=7528"},"modified":"2020-06-24T11:14:56","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T11:14:56","slug":"sms-community-engagement","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/au\/blog\/sms-community-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Build better community engagement using SMS feedback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this webinar, we explored how SMS can be used to enhance community and stakeholder engagement. In late 2019, we partnered with the engagement specialists<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangthetable.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bang the Table<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to connect their engagement web platform with our bulk text messaging gateway service.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are so many great uses cases for SMS, but one that is yet to be truly explored is within the community engagement space. Bang the Table joined us in this webinar to offer their expertise and to help you understand how powerful SMS services can be in improving participation in community-based initiatives and projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Working collaboratively, they demonstrated exactly how SMS can be used at different stages of your community engagement process and strategies. As an interactive webinar, we\u2019d really suggest you watch it, or sign up for the next one to experience the customer experience live. If you prefer to read the takeaways, check them out below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"How SMS messaging is being used to enhance community and stakeholder engagement\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B1CRS7pe2rQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><b>7 takeaways from enhancing community and stakeholder engagement with SMS<\/b><\/h3>\n<h4><b>1. <\/b><b>Outbound engagement<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are two broad approaches or two broad channels when it comes to using bulk SMS messages as an engagement tool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first is all about outbound engagement where you\u2019ve already started to establish a relationship with the community through SMS. You\u2019ve collected their phone numbers, and they\u2019ve consented to a 2-way text conversation between your organisation and themselves.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example, in this webinar we collected attendee information prior to the recording, and then during the webinar we did a Quick Poll sent via SMS through Bang the Table\u2019s platform. Quick Polls are a lightweight way to get feedback for voting decisions. Alternatively, they can be used as temperature gauges for key decisions as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A great real-life example is the local council of Rockhampton in Queensland who were eager to increase public participation and get the community more involved in their projects. Working with Bang the Table, and using MessageMedia\u2019s text messaging solution, they started building out their reach out to the community by asking for mobile numbers. With this database of numbers, they can now, broadcast out and invite people into these engagements.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>2. Inbound engagement<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The second approach is through inbound SMS. In these cases, organisations have a specific mobile number in which communities can text their feedback. It\u2019s important however that organisations, however, begin to think about how they get that mobile number out to the community, and encourage their community to participate? For existing clients and organisations who want to move into the space, they will need to use a dedicated number to receive the inbound text messages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Using SMS messaging in this way, you can start reaching people who might not have had a relationship with your organisation before because they don\u2019t feel comfortable jumping on a website and prefer just using the phone. This can provide a more grounded opportunity for more members of the community to engage with you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The rural council of Yankalilla in South Australia were running a consultation around their annual budget and business plan by running public Zoom meetings in early May. Due to COVID and concerns on community safety, they couldn\u2019t be together in a physical environment.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During the session, they promoted out a dedicated mobile number to get SMS feedback into the platform. People were texting in asking questions easily, and the CEO was able to jump in and respond. Being able to provide that level of connectedness, and another feedback loop is a great way to improve engagement with your community.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>3. Health sector use case engagement<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bang the Table has worked with regional and rural consumer representatives within the health sector. One important use case that has risen that is the use of SMS for post appointments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Post appointments are when you send out an SMS after an appointment and have the data come back into an engagement platform. It\u2019s an interesting use case in terms of using narrowed, aggregated data from a patient experience or a local area instead of a broad stakeholder group.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>4. SMS is universal<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SMS engages and is ubiquitous for all, which is why it works. Recently, MessageMedia released a report on<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/ebooks\/getting-the-message-consumer-attitudes-to-business-sms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">consumer attitudes towards SMS<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The results showed that almost 73% of all demographics enjoy getting SMS. Although there is some resistance against its use by older demographics, millennials and those in their 40s prefer it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even better, SMS doesn\u2019t require a new phone or the latest update. SMS works as long as you have a mobile phone and it is able to receive messages and SMS is the same across all platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>5. Watch out for engagement fatigue<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It often occurs when an organisation requests input, but there\u2019s no sort of feedback or closing of the loop. That\u2019s where engagement fatigue starts to set in. Your community members stop participating and engagement rates drop really low. It\u2019s important that you do what you can to prevent this.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Bang the Table, engagement fatigue occurs when the community is very involved but there\u2019s no feedback as to the value of the contributions, how resulting decisions are made, and why projects took a certain direction without further consultation.\u00a0 At its heart, it has a lot to do with the ongoing behaviour of the organisation and their relationship with the community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is where SMS can come in to help keep people informed about when different connection and transition points are occurring in those projects. As we talked about earlier, SMS can be useful for specific project communication or outbound communications with community members especially if your methodology is evolving based on input at different states.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is something Bang the Table often helps solve. They work with organisations to instil best practices in order to limit or reduce potential engagement fatigue and to make sure community members are actively coming back.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>6. Get advice around compliance<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether you\u2019re following an inbound or outbound approach when using SMS for engagement, it\u2019s important that you\u2019re aware and understand any legal regulations or compliance laws for electronic communications and transactions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is always entirely a question of consent. However, we believe that it is always best to seek advice from the experts. At MessageMedia, we make it our business to know and understand compliance when it comes to SMS.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our SMS enablement specialists are really well versed in compliance requirements in multiple geographies and jurisdictions.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Feel free to contact us if you have any questions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>7. All community use cases<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Bang the Table does specialise in government and community use cases, engagement through SMS could easily expand out to a number of use cases for the utility sector (water, gas, energy) through to primary health networks, hospitals and so much more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There\u2019s no limitation to using SMS and blended digital engagement when you need to engage your community or stakeholders around being informed and involved in decision-making.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Final thoughts, further reading<\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Make sure to check out<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangthetable.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bang the Table\u2019s engagement platform<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or speak to one of our<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">advisors<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> if you are interested in utilising SMS as part of your engagement strategies. For further reading, make sure to check out:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/blog\/send-sms-online\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why you should start sending SMS online now<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Learn the <a href=\"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/blog\/what-is-an-sms-api-integration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">basics behind SMS integrations<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How local, state and federal governments can<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/blog\/how-government-can-use-sms-during-covid-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">use SMS to communicate with their communities<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/messagemedia.com\/au\/blog\/bang-the-table-partnership-sms-for-government\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MessageMedia\u2019s partnership with Bang the Table<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> unlocks stronger engagement for communities everywhere<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7530,"menu_order":155,"template":"page-blog-v2.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"popular":false,"coming_soon":false,"link":"","footnotes":""},"blog_category":[40],"class_list":["post-7528","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","blog_category-trends-innovations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Improve community engagement by using SMS | MessageMedia Australia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Improve community engagement by using SMS. 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