How Local Councils can engage their community

How Local Councils can engage their community online

Effective community engagement has always been crucial for Local Governments. But how do you keep up with community demands as the digital environment evolves? 

A digital strategy is a great place to start, especially one that prioritises accessibility and responsiveness. 

This approach has two main benefits:

• Members of your community feel more supported and empowered online
• Digital processes can significantly reduce your administrative burden

In this blog, we explore how you can create a more engaging digital presence for your Local Council. 

Build an accessible and user-friendly website

Your website is often the first point of contact for residents, so creating a site that addresses their needs is essential. User Research is a great way to do this. By consulting with members of your community and finding out what matters most to them, you can create a truly satisfying online experience. 

For example, the User Research we undertook during our website project with the City of Joondalup played a significant role in shaping the finished site. We began by conducting focus group sessions with City residents, where we learnt about their content and navigation preferences. We then hosted further consultation sessions throughout the project to gauge whether our ideas for the new site aligned with these preferences and made changes accordingly. 

This iterative approach ensured that the City’s new website delivers an exceptional online experience that has been well-received by residents.

At the same time, a positive experience for residents translates to less admin for staff. The focus group sessions informed the site’s information architecture (IA), which is how information is laid out across the site. Having an IA that makes sense to residents makes them much more likely to find the information they need when they visit the site, reducing the number of phone calls, emails and in-person inquiries that City staff need to respond to. This frees up staff to spend more time on projects that benefit the community. 

Create and share engaging content

Creating engaging content is rarely a one-size-fits-all process. You need to consider your community's different demographics, varying content needs, and the different channels they use. 

Developing user personas based on population data is a good way to structure this process. For example, you may identify the following core user groups:

• Families
• Seniors 
• Business owners 
• Council workers 

Once you know who your users are, you can start asking questions like:

• What are their pain points?
• How can we resolve these? 
• What’s the best way to reach them?
• What kind of content do they engage with? 

By going through this process, you might determine that families value content about community events and mainly find out about these events through Facebook and Instagram. In contrast, LinkedIn may be a better channel for providing strategic and professional updates to members of the local business community. From here, you have everything you need to plan and schedule quality content targeting specific user groups. 

Interested in creating more engaging content? On 31 July 2025, our Senior UX and Content Strategist, Rebel Boylan, will lead an interactive workshop for Local Government marketers on “Creating Content that Connects.” Book your seat today. 

Use social media strategically 

As a Local Council, you probably maintain multiple social media accounts (including library and recreational centre accounts) across different platforms, targeting different users. These accounts are a great communication tool, but running them can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially if they have different branding and you have to create all your content from scratch. 

Canva is a great way to solve this problem, but only if your account is set up well. Brand kits, templates and user permissions are great features created with the busy marketer in mind. They give marketing professionals the ability to create professional, on-brand graphics in a fraction of the time, ensuring consistency across all your designs and platforms. Our Canva Brand Toolkit offering starts with an audit of your existing Canva account, followed by a thorough onboarding to ensure you’re fully equipped to create branded collateral.

When the process of creating social assets becomes quick and simple, it gives you more time to focus on your content strategy. Rather than just posting on an ad-hoc basis, you can plan content around key events or updates to ensure you’re reaching the right audience at the right time. 

Giving users a satisfying digital experience 

Residents who are engaged in their community are more likely to:

• Foster a sense of pride and belonging in their neighbourhood
• Contribute ideas and feedback that shape better outcomes
• Volunteer for community projects and events
• Build stronger connections with neighbours and local groups
• Stay informed about local issues, developments, and policies

While these outcomes improve the lives of residents, they also make it easier for Local Councils to operate effectively with the support of their community. 

To do this, you need to have an effective and engaging digital strategy. 

At ALYKA, our team of experts can help you deliver online experiences that truly resonate with your community. Contact us today to talk about your next digital project.