When engaging with external stakeholders, consider these best practices to ensure interactions are productive, respectful, and aligned with both the organization’s goals and the broader community’s interest in this work.
Identify cross-functional partners for engagement
Before initiating external engagement, it’s crucial to identify and collaborate with internal cross-functional partners beyond the core product teams. These “cross-functional” colleagues may include teams from legal, compliance, communications, and other members within or close to Trust & Safety orgs. This collaborative approach ensures that all relevant perspectives are considered, potential risks are assessed, and the engagement strategy aligns with the organization’s values and objectives. As organizations grow larger, it is more likely that multiple organizational leads may independently be in contact with the same stakeholder. Coordinating internally ahead of time can ensure that any and all internal work looks cohesive to the external stakeholder; it can also avoid the risk of external stakeholders being contacted by multiple people in your organization for the same feedback requests.
Decide who conducts the engagement
Selecting the right individuals to conduct the engagement is paramount. These representatives should not only possess a deep understanding of Trust & Safety issues, but they must be able to navigate complex discussions with a diverse range of stakeholders. Consider if the people managing engagements exhibit excellent communication skills, empathy to the external stakeholder’s concerns, and the ability to bridge the gap between the organization and any external organizations, to facilitate a productive exchange of ideas.
Plan for transparency and inclusivity
Transparency is the cornerstone of effective engagement. Transparency involves openly sharing the objectives of the engagement, how input will be used, and what stakeholders can expect in terms of follow-up and outcomes. This openness fosters trust and demonstrates the organization’s commitment to genuine dialogue. Transparency is also key to ensuring that your engagement process is inclusive, hearing from a diverse range of voices, particularly those from underrepresented or impacted communities. This diversity is important to develop holistic perspectives on complex and challenging Trust & Safety issues to arrive at the best outcomes for the engagement.
Understand legal/compliance obligations
Depending on the nature of an engagement, it may be necessary to draft non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or memoranda of understanding (MOUs) to protect sensitive information that might be shared in the course of the conversations. Start these well ahead of time and ensure that NDA / MOU processes are ready for the type of stakeholder engagement at hand. Trust & Safety teams should work with their legal teams to understand what their organization needs to have in place to move ahead with an engagement. In practitioners’ experiences, engagements are commonly held up or thwarted because of the lack of sufficient protections in place, delaying the findings and analysis. Also ensure, if NDAs or MOUs are used, that the external stakeholders fully understand these legal constraints of the engagement from the beginning.
Consider providing compensation
It is important to recognize the value that external experts bring to an organization. Consider compensating them accordingly for their time and efforts. However, depending on the complexity of an organization’s payment processes, external experts may need to be engaged through a fee-for-service contract, onboarded into your payment systems as a vendor, and invoiced in a timely manner. Not all stakeholders will be able to accept compensation or want to, as it may pose a conflict of interest for them personally or with their existing commitments at other institutions. To understand the type of compensation structure both parties expect, it is important to transparently discuss compensation at the outset of the engagement to manage expectations and show respect for the participants’ time and expertise.
Conclusion
Whether it’s consulting with advocacy groups to inform policy development, engaging with academics to understand the implications of new features, or collaborating with government agencies to respond to emergent world events, external engagement can enrich a company’s Trust & Safety strategy. This process of external engagement is as much about building relationships and trust as it is about gathering information or feedback. By giving voice to outside perspectives, companies can foster a sense of transparency and accountability, which is crucial for building user trust.
These engagements also allow companies to anticipate future challenges and opportunities for improvement. External engagement provides a framework for platforms to be proactive rather than reactive, enabling them to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape more effectively. In navigating the complexities of external engagement, remember that the goal is not to achieve perfection but to make informed, principled decisions that reflect a commitment to safety, inclusivity, and respect for all stakeholders involved. As platforms continue to grow and evolve, so too will the strategies and practices of external engagement.
While this chapter is a helpful foundation to developing an external engagement strategy, we recommend that companies remain vigilant and adaptive to changing regulatory environments. Regular consultation with legal counsel and public policy teams is necessary to ensure that engagement practices comply with current laws and best serve the company’s interests. By embracing this ongoing process of learning and adaptation, platforms can ensure that they remain at the forefront of Trust & Safety efforts, capable of meeting the needs of their diverse userbases.
Resources
Please note that the inclusion of the following resources does not imply endorsement of products either by the authors of this chapter or by TSPA.
Acknowledgements
Authors│Matt Katsaros, Vaishnavi J, Alex Leavitt
Contributors│Harsha Bhatlapenumarthy, Jeanne Elone, Stella Ng, David Pounds, Tonei Glavinic
Special Thanks│Leighanna Mixter
