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Best Practices for Public Engagement

DARTs new approach to involving the public in and building local support for capital investment projects

APTA Rail ConferenceJune 25, 2019

Steve Salin, AICP

Vice President, Capital Planning

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

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• But We’ve Always Done it That Way!• Doing it Different• D2 Campaign• Cotton Belt Campaign• Social Media Monitoring• Summary

Outline

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Does This Look / Sound Familiar?

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Low Attendance Leads to Limited Conversation

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• DART is proactively reaching out in online and offline channels to engage stakeholders in the design process, educate affected communities, and arrive at a final solution that will work for everyone.– D2 Campaign Strategy– Facebook Live Event– Social Media Monitoring

Let’s Try Something Different

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Situation• A second rail

alignment in downtown Dallas (known simply as D2) is vital to DART’s ability to meet the capacity needs of North Texas’s growing region.

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D2 Campaign Strategy

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• Identify and address the concerns of key audience segments

• Educate the broader community about the importance of D2 and help them understand the design process

• Cultivate authentic dialogue with a wider array of stakeholders

• Respond to misconceptions surrounding the project• Help DART and stakeholders find the best possible

solution through effective collaboration

D2 Public Involvement Strategy

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D2 Public Involvement Strategy

Offline (traditional):• Public meetings• Awareness advertising in local publications • Stakeholder Working Group meetings • One-on-one outreach to affected stakeholders

Online (new):• DART Daily content (blog)• Social media• Earned media• Email

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Using Social Media to Engagethe Public in a Conversation

• Target content to diverse audience segments

• Helping the public to access more substantive information easily • Create a true multi-channel experience

across social media, blog, and website• Engage in real-time conversations to

shape public debate

• Educate stakeholders using “layered” information• Design process• Funding• Needs and concerns of all stakeholders

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Using Social Media to Engage the Public in Conversation

• Leverage a range of content to help audiences engage at their preferred level and in their preferred way• Words, images, and video• Share graphics and social posts,

blog, email, earned media, paid media

• Use stakeholder comments (formal and informal) to drive content strategy and ensure DART is addressing the most relevant areas of concern

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Outreach Collateral (Online)Screenshots of DART D2 Twitter and Facebook content

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Outreach Collateral (Online)Animated GIFs

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Outreach Collateral (Online)Screenshots of DART Daily Content

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Outreach Collateral (Offline)Infographic Leave-Behind

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Anatomy of a Subway Series

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Anatomy of a Subway Series - Construction

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Facebook Live Events

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Ongoing Status Updates

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Campaign Analytics 19

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Campaign Analytics

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Cotton Belt Online Engagement

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• Provide stakeholders and the public with the opportunity to engage in the public involvement process both in person and online

• Educate the North Texas community about where the project is in the development and pre-construction phase and how the research and preparation DART is doing is in the best interests of the public

• Offer clarity to clear up falsehoods or misconceptions about the project

Cotton Belt Online Engagement

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Cotton Belt Online Engagement Tactics

Education• DART Daily content (blog)• Videos

Engagement• Social media (Facebook Live)• Email

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Breaking down technical aspects of the development and construction of this 26-regional rail line.

Behind the Tracks

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Engaging stakeholders and the public with valuable information about the Cotton Belt project to encourage participation in the project and reinforce DART’s role as a community partner.

Video

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Cotton Belt Facebook Live

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Total Reach of Facebook Live: 19,326

Total views of Facebook Live: 13,602

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Targeting• Created targeted ad groups for

Facebook live and other events/news by matching online profiles to other public data sources to ensure the message was reaching those most impacted.

Distribution of Targeted Audience

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Impact of Paid Social Content

Paid promotion of the event began directly after event completion on 3/15 and ran through 3/18. The graph to the right depicts the video views split by organic and paid promotion. The total budget spent, in advance of the event and after the event was $3,000.

• Total Reach of Promoted Social Content: 54,096• Total In-Stream Video Ad Views: 19,680• Average Video Watch Time: 13 Minutes• Peak Paid Views on Saturday, March 17: 5,056

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• During the Live Event, the most viewers logged on at any one time was 50, although there was a total of 350+ who viewed throughout. Over the course of the paid promotion, the Facebook Live video received 13,602 views.

• After the completion of the live video, the capability allowed us to promote the event through the weekend, where we saw the greatest viewership on Saturday.

• The social promotion done in advance of the Facebook Live event generated over 143,000 impressions, giving the DART team access into not only a broader audience, but new audience. Through the social promotion campaign, DART gained an additional 351 page likes.

How Did This Event Compare?

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• Our first Facebook Live event—geared around The D2 Subway—generated at most 29 viewers at any time, while DART public meetings bring on average an attendance of 50-100 people. The D2 Subway Facebook Live Event generated 2,008 views without any paid promotion.

• After a typical DART public meeting, follow-up and post-event engagement is done primarily to those who attended or who know to seek the information out, capturing few new audience members.

• Targeting an audience along the Cotton Belt corridor with a possible reach of 120k, we exceeded the possible reach with the promotion campaign that advertised the event before and during the live event.

How Did This Event Compare?

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Ongoing Capital Project Social Media Monitoring

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Monitoring• Continuous, active monitoring of

conversations throughout the community to track what’s driving engagement to improve content, frequency, and message.

• Engagement with Capital Projects online spiked during times of targeted outreach and online events.

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Monitoring—Biweekly Reports• Much of the conversation surrounding DART

Capital Projects for this time period was the upcoming April 9th meeting. Many local publications and city councils publicized the event via both Facebook and Twitter

• On Facebook, the Cotton Belt Concerned Citizens Coalition had much to say regarding the usage of double tracks for the Cotton Belt; many had hoped it would be single tracked due to its proximity to residential areas

• Spikes later in this period were related to a single individual’s Facebook Posting that complained of how the project has caused increased traffic, a tax subsidy of $20/rider and unappealing sound barrier walls. She also included four new hashtags for us to follow.

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• Since the start of the D2 campaign there has been a steady increase in the reach and impression of the audience engaging with the communications.

• Opportunity to correct myths associated with Capital Projects.• By engaging audiences in these two-way communications initiatives, we are able to continue to

push these projects forward in a neutral-to-positive atmosphere

Summary

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Steve Salin, AICPVice President, Capital PlanningDallas Area Rapid Transit

ssalin@dart.org