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Is ‘Community Engagement’ the new PR?

Participation is a familiar word in public relations practices. Another similar term that popular in the third sector is community engagement. However, is it true that community engagement exclusive for third sector only? If public relations core is building-relationship, does community engagement becomes a new PR? This article will explore community engagement as a concept including key aspects such as elements, methods, and related activities, also the implementation in case context. It is intended for students and academics, public relations professionals and other interested in this field.

Community Engagement

Theory of engagement is not new and has been adapted to business and organizational context, though the definition has double meanings as a process and an outcome (Kang, 2014) [1]. Basically, community engagement is an ethical practice that involved individuals and groups in the enlighten communication process (Johnston & Sheehan, 2014) [2]. This practice offers each individual an equal contribution in delivering and receiving the opinion, which applying the two-symmetrical communication system. With 21 century developments in technologies and new social media era, public demand transparency and expect to be involved in each process of organizations that related to their community. Community engagement then adopted in a broader field, from governance system, corporate social responsibility in the business field, to non-profit organizations that address public’s need (ELLIS-JONES, 2015) [3]. In PR, it is imperative to build a long-term relationship (Theaker et al., 2012) [4].

As a common practice that used regularly, knowing key aspects of community engagement are fundamental. First basic key in building community engagement is defining the community or the stakeholder who has issues and directly affected (Tiwari et al., 2014) [5]. This process appoints focus issues, its complexity, and context in communities. In general, the stakeholder is classified in six groups which are political relations, financial and investor relations, internal communications, business to business, community relations, and consumer public relations (Theaker et al., 2012) [4]. Each category might require a different approach in engagement whether consultation, communication, discussion, or education.

Based on Johnston, 2014, key points in community engagement divided into four elements: place, process, participation, and empowerment.

Beside stakeholders, opinion leader role or hosting leader is an important actor since community consists of unique members (Theaker et al., 2012) [4]. Hosting leaders should understand the complexity of community, while facilitate and invite participation from members. In PR context, public relations practitioner is expected to react as a creative leader that gather interdisciplinary leaders in communities to form a community engagement.

An active community is a benchmark for participation and can be seen in capacity building and/or community action groups. Capacity building is a practice where members of the community recognize their identity, have access to involve and to create improvement in their environment and had restored their self-determination (Tiwari et al., 2014) [5]. The impact of their effort will be seen on innovative solution or contribution on decision-making.

Community action groups (CAGs) persists initiative groups that arrange by people with a mutual cause and shared same goals (Johnston & Sheehan, 2014) [2]. This groups frequently are seen as a rebel because they have different agenda from their organization or environment. Therefore, a clear perspective that drives communities’ position is needed to promote their cause effectively and probably gains the attention of important parties to their problems.

In spite of key elements that have been discussed, another aspect in building community engagement is trust. Trust is crucial in community engagement since it will determine social behavior change in the community [1] (Kang, 2014). Trust also improves quantity and quality of responses from the community (ELLIS-JONES, 2015) [3]. It might be difficult to measure trust in the process, but it will shape the foundation of community engagement effectiveness.

Study Case: GO-JEK

GO-JEK is Indonesia’s startup that focuses on transportation services based in Jakarta. It is an evolution of traditional transportation that uses motorcycles (ojek) in Indonesia. The founder, Nadiem Makarim discovered an ojek) in Indonesia. The founder, Nadiem Makarim discovered an ineffectiveness in ojek system where driver passively waiting for passengers, charge an opaque fee to cover their income and trust issues related drivers attitude towards consumers. In 2010, Makarim started with 20 motorcycles that can be requested via phone call but did not show any significant growth. Later in 2015, He created an on-demand mobile platform that provides transportation and courier services (motorcycles and cars) with three major visions; speed, innovation and social impact. GO-JEK drivers able to maintain their own working hours through mobile application because they can pick client’s request that suitable with their position. Price will be shown transparently to both drivers and consumers. At the end of service, the consumer is required to give ratings of service and review about the driver.

Gojek Mission

Also read: GO-JEK Makes it Into Fortune’s Change The World List, The Only Company from Southeast Asia on the List

GO-JEK’s application has been downloaded more than 40 million times with average 50 million transactions process per month. GO-PAY, the online payment system that launched in the middle of 2016, has become the largest digital wallet in Indonesia. Obviously, this achievement impacts on driver’s income which is approximately higher than minimum wage. Despite being chosen by Fortune as one of the companies that made social impacts in 2017, it has problems, both internally and externally. This case will explore how community engagement interact in both contexts.

Internal Context

Internally, GO-JEK drivers are the main stakeholder in this case because they are directly impacted with GO-JEK system and could be categorized as internal communication stakeholder. Before GO-JEK, traditional transportation system coordinated independently based on areas. From personal interviewed by founder, each driver should line to pick up consumer. In addition, with Jakarta traffic situation and competition between drivers, it is unlikely to get minimum income per month. Nadiem Makarim as a hosting leader performs consulting and coaching method (Theaker et al., 2012) [4] to approach community and providing a supportive environment where stakeholder has the power to improve in community. GO-JEK system creates a new place for drivers where they are involved actively to arrange their working environment. The challenge is driver’s transition from conventional system to a new flexible environment using internet platform system. Engagement method comes with education process such as orientation workshop to introduce GO-JEK values and instruction article related to mobile application system.

Instruction article

However, there are various technical and field problems encountered drivers and evoked to create an initiative community relation among GO-JEK drivers called Komunitas Gojek Indonesia (Indonesia’s Gojek Communities), an Internet-based forum for GO-JEK drivers. This capacity building practice includes each driver participation to share information about traffic jams and shortcut routes, or simply their day and achievement in the forum. Drivers experience advance performance as the result of this process. Indeed, the goal of internal engagement is a mutual beneficial relationship between employee and organization (Theaker et al., 2012) [4] . While drivers experience growth in their profit, GO-JEK maintains productive performance which affects their reputation.

External Context

Externally, Indonesia citizen is the main stakeholder as the consumer. GO-JEK provides a place of new transportation option in Indonesia. Though it might not the first transportation based mobile application and have big rivals such as Uber and Grab, GO-JEK conceived relatable persona in slogan ‘Created by Indonesia’s child’ settled a sense of belonging in the community (Johnston & Sheehan, 2014) [2] . Engagement process is developed through mobile application system where consumers have full access to their order. Prominently, GO-JEK answered consumer basic need which is trust and restored public opinion that said motorcycles driver could not send documents or value items because they are improvident. Even the founder put consumer trust as a big issue, saying GO-JEK defends on their consumer though they related with investor and merchant. Subsequently, a strict recruiting process for driver and merchant is applied. This trust restoration supported by influencer (such as public figure and actor) mention and generated public participation to try this system.

Testimonial by influencer

Further, use of rating and review encourage consumers to indirectly compare GO-JEK with another transportation system. Satisfied consumers start to write their experience on a blog, give GO-JEK another earn media for reputation.

Consumers’ blogs

Empowerment result has seen when GO-JEK face a challenge. Apparently, vehicles with two tires are not supposed to be a public transportation in Indonesia and Ministry of Transportation decided to banned online transportation application. However, citizen -which is the consumer- organized community action groups, appointed their support and protest through a petition on social media and claimed that GO-JEK existence has benefited their life. In 24 hours, Minister of Transportation canceled the banned, allows this system to be operated until formal public transportation cover public’s need.

Indonesian president’s twitter about gojek petition

In internal communication and consumer public relations context, GO-JEK and the founder still hold a major control in community. Though they permit an active contribution in community, it is limited to marketing cause-related. Authorizing of decision-making is conducted by the founder that in this case act as opinion leader.

Go-jek’s engagement model

On the other hand, GO-JEK driver’s community and CAGs by consumer have equal perspective and contribution in the practices, allow them to co-create their community and maximize their action. Since the environment empowers sense of responsibility, each member actively contributes in the community.This Case illustrates how community engagement constructs an ideal participation between organization and public. Obviously, community engagement could adjust in every field through related context. It is unlikely to say that community engagement a new practice. Instead, it is decent to declare that community engagement is essential in public relations. In terms of building-relationship, this practice has shown a great impact throughout the case, although the level of engagement depends on initiator and purpose context. Naturally, it is PR’s job to be aware of engagement’s elements and performs it in the community. Further study about the impact of engagement intensity on the relationship and maintaining stable engagement might be necessary for this field.

[1] Kang, M. (2014). Understanding Public Engagement: Conceptualizing and Measuring its Influence on Supportive Behavioral Intentions. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26(5), 399-416. ↩ ↩

[2] Johnston, J., & Sheehan, M. (2014). Public relations : Theory and practice (4th ed.). Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ↩ ↩

[3] ELLIS-JONES, Rhodi. (2015). When ‘PR’ became ‘engagement’. Public Administration Today,(41), 6-11. ↩ ↩

[4] Theaker, A., Yaxley, H., & Ebooks Corporation. (2012). The public relations strategic toolkit an essential guide to successful public relations practice (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. ↩ ↩ ↩

[5] .Tiwari, R., Lommerse, M., & Smith, D. (2014). M² Models and Methodologies for Community Engagement. Singapore: Springer.↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

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The Journal of Adaptation

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” - Socrates

It has been 56 days since I moved to Brisbane, the farthest city that I have lived from my family. Being an introvert, there were numbers of preparation and questions that I had considered before I packed my bag and went to Brisbane. I arrived in Brisbane international airport with baggage in my hand and a bachelor degree in my pocket, felt ready for everything that the world would offer to me.

DAY 1

Winter breeze welcomed me in Brisbane, but not for too long. The thing that I love most about Brisbane is the sun which luckily shines for 283 days a year. Coming from Indonesia, multicultural dimension and hospitality is familiar for me. With 78 thousand students from 160 countries, Brisbane is full of diversity and reminds me of home. I was shocked on how everyone is smiling and saying ‘g’day’ and it got me a vibe that Brizzie people really know how to enjoy their life. Next thing that makes me fall in love with this city is the landscape. Brisbane sure is famous as one of fast growing cities in Australia but still, I found the balance between modern and historical atmosphere. Every corner looks like an Instagram picture. &nbsp

Cultural Forecourt, Brisbane

DAY 15

I am studying Master of Communication at The University of Queensland, the first couple weeks were fabulous. Experiencing integrated system of education made me realize that international education is not just a trend. I get the knowledge from the best expertise in the field who oddly welcome me saying that knowledge could be learned from anyone. In addition, it is supported by a decent facilitation. There is a variety of workshops and services that can be accessed to enhance my skills. I had never known that I got a glimpse of talent with camera before MAPS workshops.  

Interview Simulation, UQ School of Communication and Arts

DAY 24

At this point, you might consider that I have adapted to this city. Homesickness did not hit me at the beginning, I was so overwhelmed with new things. After a while, classes and assessments have kept me busy. Later I found out living in a new environment need a lot of works.

Campbell Place, The University of Queensland

Though it is only three hours faster compared with my country, my body needs time to adjust to the situation. Many times, I slept early and woke up at night, certainly it affected my study hours. Being a bilingual student adds more works for me. I thought that my IELTS certificate alone is enough while certainly there is a huge gap between learning and experiencing it by yourself. Whereas it as a part of culture shock, it intruded my assessment.

DAY 33

The perk of being a postgraduate student is that you know what will happen next. Time flies fast and it really depends on me how to spend it. Knowing that I should change, I am moving forward and planning new step. Fortunately, it is easy to access help in university, only one-click on student center services and they offer me solutions. I joined EAC to improve my writing skill, at the same time practiced my listening and speaking skills. As a Christian, I found myself a focus group in UQ chaplaincy center which provides a peaceful place for the religious clubs such as Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and other religion.

UQ Chaplaincy Center

Tari Bali Community

Hearing that working out 30 minutes would increase your brain capacity, I tried to do the same thing. My student apartment has a fine fitness center but it is not fascinating to me. Tari Bali is one of communities that I found in UQ. I get the opportunity to learn Balinese dance and chat with people who keen on Indonesian culture.

DAY 45

Exploring Brisbane is one of my favourite activities since Brisbane is full of cultural and art places. GOMA is my place to spend weekends, it has different theme and activities each month, you would never get bored.

Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Brisbane

Homemade food is always delicious

Another thing in Brisbane that regularly is held in various places is outside market which provides fresh food every weekend. It is a good chance to try my mom’s recipe and throw out instant noodles. 

DAY 56

When you live by yourself, you might feel like you have freedom. And you also have full control and responsibility for yourself. There are dips through times but I choose to focus on positive things. It helps me to manage my study time and the balance of healthy lifestyle. Meanwhile, I get the best education system and I am living in the city with various gems inside it. What could go wrong?