If you need to engage with more than a few people then you will need to allocate a budget for communication, engagement, and promotion. You may even need to hire additional resources to cover the roles/skills you don’t have ready access to. Check with your agency’s financial rules to work out which costs are Capital or Operational expenditure.
Your online engagement budget may need to cover things like:
• marketing – online and offline
• engagement strategy development
• social media strategy development and/or resourcing
• content development
• legal advice
• requirements gathering
• selection and configuration of tools
• online engagement tool procurement/development and security accreditation
• technical service provision, e.g. website development and system integration, and ongoing technical support.