A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Tools for Community Engagement

You’ve just wrapped up another community meeting. As usual, some familiar voices took the spotlight. While appreciating their input, you can’t help but wonder—what about the quieter voices in the room? Or those who didn’t attend at all?

Now, you’re left with a colorful collection of sticky notes, each packed with ideas—some clear, some… a little less so. Excited to finally have the community feedback in your hands? Yes! A little overwhelmed by the thought of turning them into something actionable? Also yes.

Sound familiar?

While traditional public meetings help inform the public, gather meaningful insights, and build a relationship with the community, they often fall short of capturing broad, truly actionable feedback. That’s where digital community engagement tools step in. They help you to:

• Streamline the engagement process to ensure efficiency and inclusivity.
  
• Reach and interact with a wider audience beyond the usual participants.
  
• Collect structured community insights for better decision-making.
  
• Identify trends and patterns that reflect true community needs.
  
• Report transparently to stakeholders and the public.

To support community engagement in planning projects, we’ve created this comprehensive guide to essential digital tools that complement and enrich in-person engagement. From communication and engagement to data collection, visualization, and reporting, we’ll walk you through the key tools that make public participation more effective. Let’s dive in!

Survey Tools for Collecting Community Insights

The goal of community engagement isn’t just to inform people about upcoming changes but also to listen to their feedback. Gathering meaningful insights helps shape a final plan that truly reflects community needs.

Meaningful input should include both qualitative data (e.g. concerns, priorities), and quantitative data (e.g. demographics, locations). Together, these data can uncover, for example, how needs vary across different groups in your community. Collecting spatial data also helps you precisely identify people's favorite places, daily routes, and areas of concern.

‍

‍

A seamless and intuitive survey tool takes the hassle out of survey-building, letting you focus on the marrow—these "what", "why", and "where" questions.

Here’s what to consider when selecting a survey tool for gathering community insights.

An Easy-to-Use Survey Builder

An intuitive survey-building interface saves time, allowing you to focus on survey content, structure, and outcome, rather than technical setup. Look for efficient survey-building features, such as:

• Drag-and-drop editor to quickly design surveys with an easy-to-use interface.
• Ready-made templates & sample questions that get you started quickly with proven formats.
• Repurposing questions and survey pages to use 
• AI-support for survey creation, like smart suggestions to improve survey quality.

With these advanced features at hand, you'll have a polished survey ready to launch in no time.

Support for Different Question Types

A user-friendly survey tool is essential, but it also needs to provide useful answers to your questions. This is a great moment to ask yourself: What information do I actually need? And in what format? Any survey tool will offer a range of question types, but not always the right question types for your planning project.

To help you navigate through the vast variety of options, here are some of the most effective question types for community engagement:

• Multiple choice questions and checkboxes  are ideal for quick, quantifiable data collection. They’re easy to answer and analyze, and help quickly identify community preferences.

• Likert scales and sliders are great for measuring attitudes and opinions, allowing respondents to rate their level of agreement.
• Ranked choice questions help gauge community priorities by letting respondents rank items based on preference or importance.
• Matrix questions group related questions in a grid, using the same answer choices for each. This makes it easy to compare responses at a glance.
• Map-based questions Allow respondents to mark important locations on a map, providing valuable geographic insights.
• Open-ended questions add context to quantitative data, helping you understand the "why" behind responses.

For a more comprehensive take on different question types and how to utilize them, have a look at our comprehensive guide on designing community survey questions.

Survey Customization and Personalization

To boost engagement and sense of trust, customize surveys with branding and personalization features. This way your surveys feel more familiar, inviting, and effortless.

Using consistent visual and verbal elements throughout the survey make it recognizable, aligned, and appealing. Here are a few functionalities that will make a huge difference:

• Adding a logo, colors, and background images that match the brand of your organization, client, or project.
• Using text, images, GIFs, and videos to make content more dynamic, appealing, and informative.

Personalization makes a survey feel more relevant to the respondent. Here are some functionalities that will achieve this:

• Conditional questions and skip logic guide respondents to only the relevant topics and questions.
• Easy-to-use AI or manual translation tools to ensure inclusive surveys for multi-lingual communities.

A customized, user-friendly survey makes respondents feel valued, leading to increased response rates and better-quality data.

Shareability for Broad Reach

Great survey tools don’t only collect responses, they help you engage respondents and reach wider audiences. Here are the core functionalities to look for, when aiming for highly shearable surveys:

• A mobile-first respondent interface so respondents can participate anywhere, anytime, on their most used device.
• Unique QR codes for easy access through printable materials and other media. These can be shown in high-traffic public spaces, such as project sites, transit centers, or community centers.
• Custom short links to make the survey link more memorable. People on the move can easily come back to the survey later.
• Social sharing cards that grab attention on platforms like Facebook and discussion forums.
• Embeddable surveys, so all the project info and activities are found on one project page.

‍

Interactive GIS Mapping tools

Interactive mapping tools are essential when community input has a spatial dimension. They come in handy, for example, when collecting community feedback on a comprehensive plan, studying multimodal transportation infrastructure, mapping culturally meaningful locations, or improving recreational areas. 

Great features to have on hand include:

• Marking places, routes, and areas as GIS-compatible vector data.
• Selectable predefined map features for structured responses.
• Geobudgeting, where respondents allocate resources onto a map.
• Response-activated map jumps for personalized participation experience.

To have a more comprehensive take on what map-based features are out there, how they work, and how they can be utilized, take a look at Maptionnaire demo surveys.

When looking for a mapping tool for community engagement, make sure it integrates smoothly with your other community engagement tools and activities. And don't forget about integration with your project page.

Pro Tip: Ensure GIS Software Compatibility

Ensure the mapping tool you choose provides results in GIS-supported file formats (e.g., shapefiles, GeoJSON) for a seamless transition between community engagement and planning activities.

‍

‍

Tools for Survey Results Analysis

Effective data analysis tools help identify trends, patterns, and correlations in community engagement input, giving you the information needed to align planning decisions with public needs. While all survey tools include some basic analysis features, more advanced analysis is often necessary.

If you want to see how online tools can support your analysis needs, check the list of useful functionalities below.

Feedback Management

A good survey analysis tool helps you categorize feedback. As you may know from community workshops, sometimes participants share great feedback that would actually be more useful in another project. And sometimes comments just aren’t useable at all.

With online tools, the response volume is significantly higher than in physical meetings. So look for these key functionalities that will help you navigate through a sea of responses:

• Tagging for quickly labeling responses to sort insights by topic or relevance.
• Commenting on feedback for adding internal notes to specific responses.

These functionalities, paired with filtering options, allow you to focus on the relevant feedback for your current project.

Pro Tip:
‍Spending some extra time designing well-structured surveys can save you a good chunk of time categorizing responses later, because you know your data needs in advance and can ask straightforward  questions.

Data Visualization Tools

Data visualization makes the patterns, trends, and relationships easier to digest and utilize in your planning work. Visuals are also essential communication tools for stakeholder and community outreach.

Quantitative Data Visualization

The numeric, measurable results can be visualized with several different chart types, like bar and pie charts. Most analysis tools will have these. What you should look for, though, is that an analysis tool provides auto-generated, customizable charts, color palettes, and saveable report views for time-saving, clear, and on-brand results.

Qualitative Data Visualization

Qualitative data is the hardest to analyze, especially in high volumes. To make sure your analysis tool provides visualization options for qualitative data, you can look for features such as:

• AI-powered sentiment analysis for categorizing responses as positive, neutral, or negative.
• Word clouds to highlight common themes in gathered feedback.

Spatial Data Visualization

When working with map-based responses, the most useful map-based visualizations include:

• Heat maps to highlight areas with concentrated responses.
• Choropleth maps to represent data intensity with color gradients.
• Clusters of marked places, routes, or areas, to showcase community responses as a whole.

Pro Tip:
‍Advanced analysis tools, like Maptionnaire's built-in analysis tool, also let you choose preferred basemaps, customize colors and map markings, and present multiple data subgroups at once.

‍

‍

Exportable Data and Reports

Flexible survey and analysis tools allow you to export various formats of data and visualizations for easy analysis and reporting. Whether you need to share insights with stakeholders, create branded presentations, or integrate data into other platforms, choosing a tool with robust export functionalities is essential.

Key features to look for:

• Multiple export formats for data (e.g., Excel, shapefiles, GeoSON) to allow more robust analysis using external tools like Excel or GIS software.
• Multiple export formats for images (e.g., JPG, PNG) to add visuals to branded presentations.
• Embeddable visuals to easily create online reports on your project pages.

‍

Communication and Engagement Tools for Public Outreach

You want bigger, broader, and more diverse community engagement. And of course, you want them to really understanding the project. That's a recipe for a great project, right there. But reaching, informing, and engaging a broad cross-section of a community requires the right tools.

In this digital era, a multi-channel approach—communicating through different digital media outlets, such as websites and social media—is essential to keep the community continuously informed and engaged. It also ensures that different demographics, including underrepresented groups, have better access to the same information and engagement. 

And what tools can help you to get the job done?

Website Builder for Project Communication

A dedicated project page serves as a central hub for project information, timelines, updates, and two-way interactions with the community.

There is often a lot of information for community members to absorb, especially those who are unfamiliar with the initiative. It’s important to present in an easily digestible and navigable format. At the same time, the project page should be easy to build and update, so you can focus on making engaging content.

To ensure you have an effective webpage tool for your projects, make sure it supports these core functions:

• Easy drag-and-drop interface: Save your (and your IT team’s) time by quickly building and updating pages with a tool that doesn’t require any coding skills.

• Custom branding: Ensure visually appealing and consistent project pages for that polished first impression. You’ll get well started with customizable logo, colors, and images.
• Intuitive navigation: While page navigation is always a feature, it’s good to pay attention to how the pages will look and feel for the end-user.
• Multimedia support: Add images and videos to present information in a clear and engaging format, catering to different types of learners.
• Embeddable elements: Integrate map-based surveys, reports, and other media directly into your page for a seamless and transparent participation experience.
• Multi-language support: Reach a more diverse audience by also providing content in minority languages.
• Mobile-friendly visitor interface: Opt for a design that is convenient for community members.
• Accessibility: Make sure your project page is compatible with screen readers and can show content in a high resolution that's accessible to people with sight impairment.
• Customizable short links: Create search-engine optimized (SEO) and memorable survey links to help people come back to the topic when they're ready.
• A social card: Draw more attention to your engagement activities with an automatic social media preview.

Pro Tip:
‍By incorporating map-friendly tools in your project communication, you can make complex information more digestible and integrate multiple data layers in one place. Using maps and showing map-based results adds transparency, enhances engagement, and helps tell the project's story in a way that resonates with the community.

‍

‍

Social Media Platforms for Broad Reach

Can you nowadays even mention communications without mentioning social media? Social media platforms are key to digital outreach, connecting projects with broad, diverse audiences. To maximize effectiveness, consider using multiple platforms:

• Facebook: Effective for older demographics, especially baby boomers. Many gen Xers and millennials have accounts too. Ideal for long-form content, sharing links, and event promotion. It’s good to keep in mind that younger generations might not come across them.
• Instagram: This is the platform that homes many Xers’, millennials’, and zoomers’ (gen Z) daily lives. An occasional baby boomer or gen Alpha might be met. Ideal for visual storytelling in image and video formats, but link- and event-sharing are paid features.
• TikTok: This is the go-to platform for zoomer’s and gen Alfa. This platform is purely for short-form videos.
• YouTube: YouTube has become a universal platform for in-depth, “how-to”, and entertaining videos for all age groups. Having a YouTube channel for sharing project updates can be a good idea when trying to reach diverse audiences.
• LinkedIn: This is the platform to use for professionals and businesses. Ideal for long-form content, project links, and promote events.

‍

Pro Tip:
‍At the moment, short video is the most globally consumed media format on all social media platforms. Try adding an informative and engaging video clip into your outreach activities with a clear "call to action" and a link to your project page to reach more people.

Engaging Public Offline

Even though we’re discussing digital tools, inclusive engagement must go beyond active online users. Consider utilizing these channels alongside your digital approach:

• Different local news outlets, such as TV, newspapers, (and website) 
• Printouts on public notice boards that display QR codes and shortlinks to project pages or surveys. Try posting in transit stations, libraries, or malls.
• Pop-up booths in key locations to discuss project details and engage people to take a survey.
• Community meetings to share information and provide internet access for those living in areas with limited or no connectivity.

‍

A Community Engagement Platform That Has It All

When selecting or updating digital tools for your community engagement projects, make sure they fit your workflow—whether that's digital-first or focused on in-person engagement.

Instead of managing multiple disjointed tools, opt for a comprehensive community engagement platform like Maptionnaire that integrates all the necessary tools in one place. No redundant systems, complicated API integrations, or back-and-forth importing and exporting.

A well-integrated platform will not only streamline your survey data collection and interactive mapping but also provide time-saving tools for data analysis, reporting, and public communication.

Summary

In planning and design projects, reaching the right people isn’t always easy. What input was missed from those who couldn’t attend or chose to stay silent? Digital engagement tools help capture that missing input, ensuring more inclusive feedback and better, community-driven outcomes. The most important digital tools for community engagement are:

1. An easy-to-use survey tool to help you gather local insights and community feedback in an engaging, easy-to-analyze format.
2. Interactive mapping for collecting community feedback with spatial attributes, creating a GIS data layer for urban planning.
3. A data analysis tool for identifying data trends and patterns to help make informed decisions.
4. Communication and engagement tools, such as a simple website builder, social media platforms, and other communication tools that ensure you can engage with the public, share information, and maintain two-way communication.

‍