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How to embed engagement in your organization – just like Salt Lake City

Learn the four core lessons from our roundtable on internal organization and platform adoption. And see how Salt Lake City used them to make participation stick.

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Features of Go Vocal community engagement platform government

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Here's why engagement initiatives hit a ceiling

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Widely varying processes and little coordination across teams, leading to overlapping project timelines. This negatively impacts participation rates.

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Inconsistent quality because not every team has a participation specialist to guide project design or engagement methodology.

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A patchwork of tools across departments, creating different resident experiences and resulting in lower trust and participation.

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Difficult-to-measure outcomes, making it hard to demonstrate the ROI of engagement or show leadership what is improving.

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Engagement is dependent on a few internal champions, instead of a process that any team can confidently follow.

600+ implementations taught us: Many municipalities face these same challenges.

Salt Lake City was one of them.

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Citywide, we lacked structure and guidance on engagement best practices. We were siloed and had no overarching vision to guide and unite us across departments. We were duplicating efforts, sending mixed messages, and disproportionately engaging residents. Frustration among constituents led to internal frustration.

Rachel Paulsen
Communications Specialist, Salt Lake City

To fix this, they followed this 4-step framework.

Here's what you want to do: optimize your internal organization and prep for maximal platform adoption.

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Win leadership buy-in
(and keep it)

Strong adoption starts at the top.

Leadership stays engaged when they have visibility into what's working, what isn't, and why

Click to see how

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1. Run an internal audit to map strengths, gaps, and frustrations across teams.

2. Form a cross-department working group to align on needs and priorities.

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Invest in digital infrastructure that removes friction

To scale engagement, you need tools that grease the wheels, not gum them up.

Click to see how

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1. Standardize workflows, from intake to project design and reporting.

2. Look for a collaboration-first workspace with built-in internal commenting and routing, and a shared project planner.

3. Use AI to speed up analysis and blend input from online and offline channels.

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Centralize knowledge
in one hub

Teams deliver better, faster work when guidance and examples exist in one place.

Click to see how

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Make the following available to everyone:

1. An inspiration gallery with real examples.

2. A toolbox with training resources and best practices.

3. Project templates and intake forms.

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Measure what matters —
and close the loop

Measurement isn’t just about proving impact externally. Internally, it’s what reinforces new behaviors and makes the platform “stick”.

Click to see how

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1. Define shared success metrics (e.g., representativeness, sentiment).

2. Use simple feedback KPIs: acknowledge input → show influence → close the loop by communicating back.

3. Share clear reports that show how engagement made a difference.

Fix the process first, then add the platform

Go Vocal's engagement methods

Salt Lake City didn’t jump straight into a new platform. They started by mapping existing tools, uncovering inefficiencies, and securing leadership buy-in.

Only then did they bring in Go Vocal’s engagement platform, to digitize and reinforce the structure they defined.

Today, the platform helps them:

  • work in one place
  • maintain consistent quality
  • scale engagement more efficiently across departments
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Gaining Go Vocal as engagement software has not only given us a new platform, but has been a perfect excuse to standardize and centralize our best practices and processes to ensure Salt Lake City is united in our engagement efforts while still supporting the respective efforts of every team.

Rachel Paulsen
Communications Specialist, Salt Lake City

Yes, we make platform adoption easy (even for busy teams)

Go Vocal can’t reorganize your structure for you. Nor can we replace internal and foundational human interaction.

But we can guide you with:

  • Worksheets for internal audits and building your engagement team
  • Guidance on best practices and connecting you to peers
  • Advice on which changes should happen first

Rolling out a new platform shouldn’t mean figuring it out on your own.

That’s why you get our support not just during adoption, but well before it.

Go Vocal's Survey method

And: our platform has all the features for you to embed engagement following the best practices discussed during the webinar

Here’s how our platform supports your internal foundations. With concrete tools that make each principle more straightforward to implement.

Report Builder and Community Monitor

Keep leadership buy-in by proving engagement works

  • Report Builder: Share clear visual updates instantly to maintain leadership confidence.
  • Community Monitor: Track satisfaction and sentiment with automatic quarterly reports, ensuring you always have the data to justify investment.

Templates, approval flows, and built-in tools

Make your workflows smoother and more effective

  • Standardized templates: Empower any team member – even beginners – to launch high-quality projects quickly, cutting training time and coordination effort.
  • Approval flows: Maintain consistency and control across departments by reviewing and refining project pages before they go live.
  • All-in-one workspace: Eliminate tool fatigue with built-in email, reporting, and AI analysis, keeping your data and workflow in a single, error-free hub.

Knowledge hub

Learn from others (and get expert backup when you need it)

  • Inspiration Hub: Access proven strategies from other cities and connect directly with peers actively managing their own engagement projects.
  • Exclusive learning: Join client-only webinars to master new platform features and explore expert-led engagement tactics.
  • Dedicated expert: Count on ongoing strategic guidance from your personal Government Success Manager – a true participation specialist.

Dashboards and communication tools

Measure what matters — and close the loop

  • Real-time dashboards: Track essential metrics like visitor traffic, participation rates, and idea generation to constantly improve your reach.
  • Built-in communications: Close the feedback loop effortlessly with our integrated Email and Official Update tools.
  • Report Builder: Keep internal and external stakeholders aligned by generating clear, data-driven reports instantly.

Go Vocal has been integral to our planning and implementing. We have received constant support and collaboration from their team, which was a big priority for us when finding a tool. We truly feel like we found the right match for us.

Case studies

500+ local governments and organizations trust Go Vocal's community engagement software for their projects. Explore our case studies to discover tips and best practices from successful initiatives leveraging our digital community engagement platform.

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