SITUATION
A step towards better engagement
Perhaps best known as the setting for the movie “Wayne’s World,” and the iconic Saturday Night Live sketches with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, Aurora is much more than a piece of movie trivia.
Situated just 40 miles west of Chicago, Aurora is the second most-populated city in Illinois. But like many mid-sized municipalities, it faced difficulties in understanding public sentiment. This was not from a lack of effort but the reliance on outdated tools or products created for a different purpose.
“We would go on social media with information and some people would comment or attend public meetings where input was solicited,” said Jon Zaghloul, Aurora’s communications manager.
“We would get feedback, but it took time and was just a small picture of what people really wanted.”
SOLUTION
EngagementHQ turns on the lights
Aurora adopted EngagementHQ, a cornerstone of Granicus’ Engagement Cloud, in April. The city launched at least eight projects immediately, addressing topics like public infrastructure, strategic planning, major community events, and renovating the municipal golf course.
One of the most impactful projects was a survey of the city’s downtown. The city built a map to show unoccupied business locations and asked citizens what they wanted in those spaces. Not only did residents get what they wanted, but businesses could move in knowing there was public demand for their services.
The city also got significant feedback on a new strategic plan project. More than 800 residents filled out an online survey about the proposed initiative. In the past, the city might get 100 residents offering feedback from social media, in-person meetings, and paper surveys, among other outreach methods.
“We probably would have gotten 100 people over the course of three or four public meetings, but I don’t think we would have gotten 800 responses and then people actually filling out everything” like they do on the engagement site, Zaghloul said. “From a data collection standpoint, EngagementHQ has been super helpful. From an accuracy perspective for data capture, it’s unparalleled compared to what we had before.”
EngagementHQ allowed the city to incorporate more avenues for public feedback into its online offerings. Along with surveys, the city created project-specific forums and event feedback options. Now, instead of just reaching a static web page, users have additional ways to interact with city officials.
This has been a boon for the city’s 12 aldermen, who each have a Your Voice page they can regularly update with community news and provide their constituents a direct line to reach them. One alderman got 1,300 views on their page in one month alone.
Aurora also collaborated with the Granicus Experience Group (GXG) to understand further possibilities. GXG conducted a comprehensive review of the city’s website and social media platforms, providing a key findings report that highlighted outdated functionalities and areas for improvement. One major insight was the need to shift toward a balanced approach where 50% of users access information through the website and the other 50% via social media. The report also emphasized the importance of understanding who is engaging with city communications and optimizing how information is delivered.
“GXG really helped us out in terms of who’s getting our information, how it is being delivered to people, and then how we can improve upon delivering information,” Zaghloul said.
Transforming email communication
Building on GXG’s recommendations, Aurora revamped its email communication strategy, replacing Constant Contact with Granicus’ govDelivery. The switch enabled Aurora to launch a new unified weekly newsletter and manage a much larger subscriber database.
Zaghloul’s boss, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Tony Martinez, was even able to coordinate with other city department heads to build the newsletter’s subscriber base using existing opt-in lists.
“We were actually able to get over 40,000 email addresses that we put into govDelivery,” he said.
The new system now holds more than 70,000 verified email addresses, a significant increase from the previous 16,000. And the city’s strategic communications approach has maintained open rates well above 40%.
“And that’s simply because we have a new system that has the capability to hold that much and to work at a higher capacity,” Zaghloul said. “And that’s because govDelivery is designed to do that for governments.”
RESULTS
Early success spawns future projects
Aurora is setting ambitious goals for the first quarter of next year as it continues to enhance its services and community engagement using Granicus products.
The cornerstone is a new city website and 311 customer service system. Currently reliant on paper records and disconnected call-taking operations, the new system will allow residents to have detailed profiles and provide transparency into service requests.
By integrating these tools, residents can expect faster responses, better communication, and a more user-friendly experience, ensuring no one is left in the dark about the status of their inquiries.
“Everybody inside City Hall is really excited,” Zaghloul said. “And I think as we get to roll this stuff out, residents are going to be really excited and welcoming to this change, too.”
A shining example: The success of LUMENAURA
The city also wants to integrate EngagementHQ efforts into more programs like it did with its first annual LUMENAURA Light Festival. Using Granicus, the city created a web page about the event that provided information while soliciting volunteers. It also answered questions, helping encourage residents from neighboring areas to attend, garnering 30,000 views and significantly boosting public participation.
The festival was a huge success, and Zaghloul credits the city’s use of Engagement Cloud in getting the word out and ensuring strong attendance throughout the celebration.
“I don’t know how many people would have come down to Aurora to experience it, without the tools provided by EngagementHQ,” he said.
“Our current website would not have had the functionality to showcase all of that on one page, make it mobile friendly, easy to read, and then have a spot for Q&A to ask questions. Our current website doesn’t have that, frankly, and I think through the use of EHQ, through all of its different widgets, all of its different functions that are phenomenal, … I would argue that that’s why we had the uptick of people coming downtown for this festival: Because there was a good EHQ page available.”
