You spend hours communicating with the citizens of your community through outlets such as community events, social media, and presentations, to name a few. But are you doing it effectively enough that people are engaging with you?

Being able to communicate and engage effectively is one of the most important professional skills – especially in a leadership role. Considering how much you communicate with others on a daily basis, having the right tools in place will certainly increase the number of engagements from your citizens, as well as help you achieve success and organizational excellence.

To help build your communication and engagement toolbox, we’re highlighting three different tools for you to consider using. While there are many more, these are particularly relevant for the local government professional.

1. Build emotional engagement with your community through love noteS

Greg Stopka, Central Regional Director for the Alliance of Innovation, notes in his recent article, Dating Your Citizens: A Playbook for Building Emotional Engagement, that in order to build emotional engagement with your community, one should consider love notes, a concept from Peter Kageyama’s book, Love Where You Live. He further explains that Kageyama describes love notes as small projects, actions and interventions that impact on how people feel about their community.  Some examples of love notes can be events, monuments, or other “neighborhood quirks.” Here are four great examples of 'love notes' from other communities that Kageyama has recognized on his Twitter page. 

Love Lettering Project sees people writing love letters to Toronto and leaving them throughout the city 

Good Things Come in Parklet Packages for Kenmore

Presenting Oakhurst Porchfest: Decatur’s First Crowdsourced Festival

2. Leverage Your Social Media Platforms

According to the Social Media & Local Government Playbook, social networks have become an important communications and information gathering method for everyday citizens, particularly with the proliferation of smartphones. From students to parents to professionals to elected officials, people from every walk of life are posting their statuses, checking their newsfeeds, or sharing news to their social networks via social media. City and county governments can benefit by engaging their constituents and disseminating important information through social media channels.

Here are several keys to successful implementation and use of social media from the Playbook:

• Determine goals, purposes, and desired outcomes of social media use
• Identify an individual or group to develop and oversee social media policy
• Identify and appropriately leverage social media channels
• Develop guidelines for proper use by citizens as well as internal stakeholders
• Understand that negative comments will occur, and develop appropriate responses
• Measure social media exposure and engagement, and use findings to refine content
• Develop appropriate department-level means of social media use
• Incorporate use of social media as part of a multi-channel communication strategy

In addition to the Playbook, take a look at some of the most successful local government professionals using social media today from Social Champs of ICMA.

3. Talk like TED.

 Courtesy of dullhunk via Flickr.

Not familiar? TED Talks are videos from various industry thought leaders that present a great idea in 18 minutes or less. As you work throughout your local government career, you will be required to make public presentations – some big, some small. Either way, effective presentation skills are crucial in getting your message across effectively, especially to get the feedback you are looking for. Here are seven tips for making presentations like a pro inspired by TED Talks and written by ICMA's senior advisor for next Generation Initiatives, Dr. Frank Benest. The article highlights delivery and post-delivery approaches, including: preparing the presentation, crafting the presentation, delivering the presentation, improving your skills over time, and more.

What HAS WORKED SUCCESSFULLY for you when communicating and engaging with your community? Share with us in the comments section below!