On September 5th, at 3CMA Annual Conference, I gave a Keynote address at the general session about Nextdoor For Public Agencies, Nextdoor's free government interface. During the address I covered lessons learned, trends, and best practices.

1. Hello
Neighbors

2. Nextdoor Front Porch Chat: Lessons Learned, Trends, and
Best Practices

3. Hello, neighbors! My name is @JosephPorcelli
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Public Agency Lead &
Ambassador of Community

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5. Questionnaire results
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68 Responses, questions mandatory.
Thank you to those who responded!

6. How your departments thinks about the function of communication
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7. The goals you aim to achieve through communication
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8. To improve satisfaction, safety, and trust…
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We must think and communicate
like community organizers

9. Humanizing government is a great start, but does not go far
enough
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We must personalize government,
people need to know YOU care
#CareOutLoud

10. Your residents don’t want you to content AT them
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They want you to have conversation WITH you.
#CareOutLoud

12. Nextdoor is built on trust. Real people at real addresses.

13. Built on local, Nextdoor is the essential app for the neighborhood

14. Neighbors in 245K neighborhoods rely on Nextdoor in 10 countries

15. Encourage neighbors to #Feeditforward
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16. Columbus, OH
“Basement flooded - I could use some assistance”

17. Cynthia F.
Houston Heights East
Rescue needed
11 Thanks · 35 Replies
A rescue is desperately needed at 6007
Wister Court. 4 feet of waster in the house
and rising. Occupants headed to the roof
with animals. Have been calling for help but
can’t get through. If you can help, please
head to the above address. Thank you!
Michael D.
Yorktown/Concord Colony
Road Closures!
175 Thanks · 429 Replies
Ok folks, this is the thread where I will do my
best to post road closures as best I can...
Keep in mind, we do own a wrecker service
IF needed or IF you need advice call
832-771-6998.
Tim S.
Southbridge Crossing
Hurricane Help
388 Thanks · 111 Replies
If you have an EMERGENCY, please contact
me and I'll do my best to help you and your
family. I'm a former Army Medic and have a
4x4 Jeep to reach you during this storm. I'm
in South Ridge Crossing and I'll be out in the
rain helping our neighbors.
Mel M., Greater Southdown
Just saw the
coastguard make a
rescue a couple of
streets over - I hope
everyone is ok.
Thelma W., Avalon Terrace
AWWWSOME, Tim. Thank you for your service,
and your caring heart for your community, but
please be safe and don't take any unnecessary
risks. everyone be safe!!! pray we all come out
on the other side of this, whole!!!!
M
Olivia D., Villages of Bear Creek
They just said on the news they are releasing
water from the dam and we are going to flood
even more. Per ABC 13
Nichole C., Yorktown/Concord Colony
They are saying if you
live in the white area
on the map you do
not need to leave.
Otherwise yes, pack
your bags and leave in
the morning when there is daylight and it is safe.
N
Chris M., Houston Heights East
Headed that way, but not sure if we can cross at
11th Street.
Chris M., Houston Heights East
There is a boat
here I will give this
boat your address.
Sandra S., Houston Heights…
I have someone on stand by. Please advise.S
Members reach out to help each other

18. Thousands of Public Agencies rely on Nextdoor
“Nextdoor made it possible
for us to expand the pool of
people we are able to
engage in neighborhoods
from 12 or 15 to hundreds
and thousands.”
Chief Hank Stawinski
Prince George’s County

19. Nextdoor is your neighborhood engagement platform
Engage more residents in the right places.
Messages are targeted into service areas such as
police districts, city-wide, or into neighborhoods.
Engage with verified residents.
Nextdoor requires each member to verify their
home address use their real name and
communicate in a helpful and respectful manner.
Drive positive outcomes online and offline.
Solicit feedback, educate community with
interactive polls, and improve attendance at
community events and training sessions

20. Some key differentiators
• You don’t have to pay to play to reach your audience
• You don’t have to post multiple times a day, your audience grows
regardless and your engagement is not influenced by volume, but quality
• The audience is your verified residents
• You are automatically verified
• You don’t have to get approval to post logistical election information
• You don’t have to seek/join/manage participation in multiple groups
• For the census, we can upload your census tracts as service areas and
you can geo-target customized messaging to resonate with people in
different types of tracts

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• Nextdoor is an opt-out platform, and the audience
is built-in. Members may opt-out if they wish.
• Communications are initiated by the agency.
• Agencies can geo-target into service areas or
neighborhoods.
• Members can mute discussions or unsubscribe
from an agency.
• Residents see agency posts on their Nextdoor
website or mobile app, as well as through email.
• Residents can thank and reply to agency posts, or
send agency users private messages.
• Agencies cannot see information about residents or
what they are discussing in their neighborhoods.
Nextdoor for Public Agencies differentiators

22. “Air game” Public Affairs/Community Relations
● Goals: Tell stories to humanize government, demonstrate care, and aptitude
● Audience: Businesses, visitors, media, electeds, and residents
● Region: Local, regional, national, global
● Author: Institution/person
● Approach: Entertaining, creative, informative
● Goals: Solve problems to increase resident satisfaction and trust
● Audience: Residents
● Region: Local
● Author: Person - Invested communication and program practitioners
● Approach: Personal, proactive, and geo-targeted communications
“Ground game” Customer Service/Neighborhood/Relational Engagement
The social media landscape

23. Most important is impact. Building stronger local communities.

24. Use cases: Inform, Educate, and Activate
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25. Keep neighbors informed

26. Educate with polls
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27. Activate neighbors to help
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28. Warn residents about hazards
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Tell them what they need to do to prepare

30. Extend reach and cross engage
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31. Use cases: During an event
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32. Geo-target relevant information to those who care/impacted most
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33. Acknowledge something is happening
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34. Reduce anxiety by staying in touch
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35. Find out what people are doing (or not doing)
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36. Encourage kindness
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37. Use cases: After an event
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38. Close the loop
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39. Assess damage
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40. Grieve and heal together
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41. Measure reach and performance
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42. Find out how many people you reached
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See post impressions, a sum of three
numbers:
• Unique views of the post in the newsfeed
• Unique opens of the email notifications that
are sent to members
• Unique clicks on the daily digest that many
members receive

43. Metrics by hood and service area
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44. Download Content and Engagement detailed metrics
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Download metrics for neighborhoods and service
areas (additional metrics in a .csv file)
• Metrics by user and area
• Metrics by post
Download Content & Engagement Metrics
• How many posts over time
• Comments by post (sortable by service
areas, time period, and author)
• Who posted what, when, and where

45. Download and graph Poll data by service areas or neighborhood
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46. Measure link clicks to understand interest via service such as bit.ly
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47. Assess performance
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48. Product update
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49. Agency app
Product Highlights:
● Easily access Nextdoor on the go
● Will be available for iOS and Android
● Rolling out soon

50. Reply to reply
Product Highlights:
● @Mention and notify a member
from a thread in a reply
● Accessed via the reply button in
a comment
● Next up: threaded comments

51. Kindness Reminder
Product Highlights:
● Promote civility by reminding
members to be kind in replies

52. New reactions to posts
Product Highlights:
● Provides more options for
engaging with posts
● Rolled out last month
● Feedback?

53. Best practices
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54. How to accelerate member growth
Send invites via
mass
communication
tools
Convert web
Visitors into
members via
badge and slideout
Cross post polls
results and videos on
Social
Encourage people to
join at community
meetings
Host press
conference
to announce
partnership

55. Profile - Personalize it!
● Nextdoor provides an
opportunity to build relationships
with your residents
● Use your real name and upload a
photo of yourself to your profile
● Posts with a real name and
personal photo get 110% more
engagement
● Also use Nextdoor to introduce
your staff- or encourage them to
introduce themselves

56. Or use bitmojis!

57. Have conversations with residents, don’t content at them
● Use a neighborly tone
● Avoid using jargon, acronyms, or
government speak
● Use collective language such as
“we”, “us”, and “our”
● Do not close discussions by
default. Allow your residents to
engage with you
● Don’t be afraid to use humor!

58. Every post should have a graphic

59. If it’s hyper local, post as often as needed
● Post as needed; ask yourself,
would this message be relevant
to the majority of neighbors?
● As much as possible, target your
messages to neighborhoods or
your custom service areas

60. Grab their attention and get to the point
Subject line:
● Make it engaging - include the
“what happened” and the
“where”
● If there’s a call to action, include
it in the subject line
Body of message:
● Keep it short and to the point. If
including a lot of text, break into
paragraphs
● Screenshot PDF’s and attach as
images

61. How to manage residents’ expectations
● Do a dedicated post to remind
residents that you cannot see
posts they share with each other in
their Nextdoor neighborhood
networks and that they must call
911 for emergencies or your
constituents service line or 311 if
they require services
● Consider adding a sentence or two
to the bottom of every post
reminding your residents that you
can’t see their neighborhood
conversations

62. Front Porch Chat
● Are you planning to offer an API so we can use apps like Hootsuite or Archive
Social?
● What are the best ways to deal with misinformation and uncivil comments?
● Why can’t we advertise?
● Why can’t we see what neighbors are discussing? We really want to!
● Others?

63. Which one new feature would you prioritize?
Go to Menti.com
Type in code: 92-46-5

64. How to get started and resources
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Nextdoor.com/agency
• Agency technical help center - agencysupport@nextdoor.com
• Weekly training webinars - bit.ly/NextdoorGovWebinar
• Agency resource center - https://medium.com/nextdooragencyresources
@JosephPorcelli | 857-222-4420 | #NextdoorGov | joseph@nextdoor.com
@Nextdoor on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

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Thank you!
Joseph Porcelli ・ 857-222-4420 ・ Joseph@nextdoor.com ・ @JosephPorcelli