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Shire of Manjimup

Antenno - community engagement in rural Australia

The Shire of Manjimup is in the South West region of Western Australia about 320 km south of the state capital Perth. The seat of government is the town of Manjimup, and the Shire supports a population of 9,250 and covers an area of 7,027 sq km.

Council Size: 123 Employees | Population: 9,250 | Solution: Antenno

We have seen the number of devices steadily increasing and 'Antenno' is now a buzzword in our Shire.     Andrew Campbell, CEO, Shire of Manjimup

The Challenge
The Shire of Manjimup needed a solution to communicate more effectively with their community, something more targeted than their website, email notifications or social media platforms. They identified a need to have a direct two-way communication between the Shire and the community.

The Shire didn’t want to spam their community, they wanted to find a way to only send relevant information to individuals. They also wanted to simplify the service request process and make it easier for customers to lodge service requests.

The Datacom Difference

The Shire selected Datacom’s community engagement mobile app Antenno, which allows people in the community to receive alerts and notifications to stay up-to-date with council information. People in the community choose topics and places of interest so they only receive notifications that are relevant to them. This also means people don’t need to search for information, read lengthy email notifications or watch social media feeds.

Antenno creates a two-way communication loop making it easy for people in the community to report issues or share ideas through the app directly to council. This eliminates the need for the community to identify who to contact at council or wait in a call queue.

Antenno appealed to the Shire because they wanted customers to lodge service requests and with Antenno they now have only one application that covers both notifications and service requests. The license for Antenno is held by the council and is set up as a monthly subscription service. It is available on both Apple and Android smartphones and members of the public can install it for free.

Results

The Shire of Manjimup was the first customer to implement Antenno in Australia. Datacom worked first on collecting all the information, such as GIS mapping information for the various publishing zones the council would set up for notifications, to get started.

The second phase was a single day of onsite training to prepare Manjimup staff for using Antenno, including the authoring of posts and administration functionality. By the end of the training, the team had created and scheduled several posts for the go-live the following day.

Antenno allows the Shire to send out urgent information quickly, as well as inform people about important decision making that affects the broader community. The Shire has found that linking their website to the Antenno posts ensures that residents and visitors have been exposed to information that they might not necessarily have seen otherwise.

Uptake of Antenno by the community so far has been very positive. On average, posts have a ‘view’ engagement rate of 15%, and an ‘impressions’ rate of 45% - both well in excess of the 2% engagement rate that’s considered ‘good’ on Facebook.

“Information about what is happening in our Shire is clearly advertised. I like that you can receive notifications. The same info in the newspaper is often overlooked.” Resident of the Shire of Manjimup

“This is a great initiative. It is so simple but effective way of finding out what is happening in the area before it has happened!” Resident of the Shire of Manjimup

The Shire staff found the administration of the app simple and easy to use and it has been accessed by multiple council departments, covering a wide range of topics. The reporting functionality has also been well received by the community, with 58% of issues reported relating to roads and footpaths and 11% relating to rubbish and recycling.

“Antenno will provide an important link between the Shire of Manjimup and anyone with an interest in our region. The type of information being released includes Shire announcements, planned road closures or road works, upcoming Shire approved events, rubbish and recycling reminders and more.” Paul Omodei, President, Shire of Manjimup
 

“The Shire of Manjimup is pleased with the community response to Antenno. The ability to be able to send information directly to residents and visitors is invaluable and has resulted in a significant increase in community engagement. We have seen the number of devices using the Antenno app steadily increasing and ‘Antenno’ is now a buzzword in our Shire.”
Andrew Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Shire of Manjimup

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