It’s no secret that we love Envisio, and their dashboards play a significant role in our appreciation.
Public dashboards help local governments craft compelling narratives about their fantastic work. They quickly and automatically transform raw data into engaging stories using visualisations, scorecards, and progress updates.
Envisio helps connect your community and key stakeholders with the work being done, and their beautifully created and well-maintained dashboards can help to build trust through transparency and manage expectations by communicating progress. They allow the community to see the progress that council are making on strategic objectives rather than the strategic plan gathering dust.
But once you’ve designed, created and implemented your dashboard, how do you tell it to the world and launch it?
Here’s 15 practical, proven tips and tricks to help you successfully launch, promote, and gain engagement for your dashboard.
Preparing for Launch
1. Define clear goals for your dashboard (and use analytics!)
Be specific about what you want to achieve with your dashboard and what you want to show. This will help you to measure success, celebrate accomplishments, and improve as you go.
2. Install Google Analytics
Data is like gold, and we recommend tracking your dashboard visitors and how they interact with your dashboard content. Google Analytics is a fantastic (and free) way to measure success, understand engagement, and get baseline metrics for improvement.
3. Identify key stakeholders and involve them from the beginning
Gaining buy-in from key stakeholders and making them feel part of the process is critical for a smooth launch. Ensure the people closest to the information being revealed on the dashboard have all the required information and talking points for the reveal.
4. Internally announce the launch date of your public dashboard and train staff
This is important! The key to ensuring your dashboard is more than just a transparency box-ticking exercise is to maintain and update it regularly.
Anyone updating your dashboards must be comfortable with when and how to do that. Inform staff about the submission deadlines for updates before public release. Ideally, you want to allow staff to have a couple of rounds of updates to refine their plans and performance measures based on feedback.
5. Soft launch the dashboard to your councillors
This is an excellent opportunity to ensure your councillors know how to navigate your dashboard, understand the value, and are enthusiastic about promoting it! It allows them to explore, ask questions, and give feedback.
6. Work with your Implementation Team
Team Redman is there to support you through it all, including as you prepare to launch. Once you’ve gone through implementation and understand how the dashboard works, it’s a good idea to share your plan with us so we can help. We can provide promotional templates, tips for writing press releases, free training sessions, and best practice feedback on your dashboard–well before you hit “publish”.
7. Consider scheduling a live, internal launch lunch
You did it, and everyone involved should be celebrated. Create some hype and show your appreciation with an internal celebration. It doesn’t need to be anything big - a simple office ‘Lunch and Launch’ or afternoon snacks will go a long way - plus, this is the perfect opportunity to get everyone on the same page while boosting staff morale.
8. Craft your press release statements and get them ready for review
Everyone loves a good news story! Be sure to leverage press releases and local news sources when preparing for your dashboard launch. You have a great story to tell, and it’s an excellent way to engage your community. Team Redman can help you draft a release and provide quotes and testimonials.
9. Craft initial social media posts
Get social and spread joy among your stakeholders and community. Work with your marketing teams to leverage your social media followers and provide visual examples of what you’ve achieved. Consider creating short videos to demonstrate how easy your dashboards are to interpret; it will go a long way.
10. Encourage council involvement: Draft sample social posts for elected officials.
The idea is to make it easy for everyone to help you during the promotion stages. Share a sample post with councillors to encourage their active involvement in your dashboard launch. Be sure to make the process easy and un-intimidating by providing them with ready-to-share content on their social channels, fostering a united promotional effort.
Build Engagement Through Promotion
Whether it’s the first reveal, regular updates, introducing something new, or seeking valuable feedback, promotion and marketing is your friend.
11. Use hashtags on social media
Remember, for social media, your hashtag game is crucial! We recommend leveraging two to three of the following tags when posting on platforms like LinkedIn: #YourDashboardName, #DataDriven #DataRevolution, #CommunityEngagement… Let’s make your dashboard’s presence felt!
12. Consider mailouts (with a QR Code)
These days, receiving letters in the post is rare, so why not leverage the uniqueness of this special occasion? Send a postcard or small letter with an eye-catching design and a prominent QR code to your residents.
13. Choose strong web placement
Elevate your dashboard’s visibility by placing it prominently above the scroll line on your website page. Craft an intuitive title and complement it with an eye-catching image to capture visitors’ attention immediately.
You also want to ensure that the website page that includes your dashboard is easily found in your website navigation. Try not to bury it five levels deep! Make sure it’s discoverable, just like Cloncurry Shire Council has:
14. Create an informative walk-through video
This is a great way to increase engagement and show how easy your dashboard is to navigate. Consider creating a screen recording walk-through of your public dashboard and share it on your website and social channels for an informative and engaging visual presentation.
15. Display, Display, Display
Don’t be shy - you’ve done all the hard work, so show it off in as many places as possible. Consider creating a carousel on your news webpage, utilising digital displays within your communities, and contacting local media outlets to help generate some buzz. Remember, if using hard copy marketing material, always include a QR Code so people can easily navigate to your online dashboard.
Looking for more? Take a look at our recent dashboard examples and be inspired!