Public Services

Frequently Asked Questions

Nextdoor is the world’s largest online neighbourhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information and services.

Nextdoor for Public Services is a free, local engagement tool for government agencies and community service providers across Australia.

Nextdoor can help you target and engage directly with an existing audience of verified residents living in your local service area.

NoNextdoor for Public Services has been designed to help public services communicate directly with local residents in the neighbourhoods they serve. Public Services and not-for-profit community organisations are not required to pay to use Nextdoor, and neither are Nextdoor members.

No. Nextdoor is a free, hyper-local engagement tool that can complement existing communication and engagement tools already being utilised by organisations and agencies, but offers key benefits that others don’t offer. These include:

  • Free: There is no cost to access Nextdoor for Public Services.
  • Instant access: On Nextdoor, you have an in-built audience of verified local residents and businesses which you can instantly engage. All users are already subscribed by default to receive public service updates when they sign up.
  • Targeted and local: Messages can be sent state/territory-wide or can be geo-targeted to a specific suburb, or service/catchment area.
  • Enhanced reach: All public service posts result in a simultaneous email. Even if a resident is not signed into Nextdoor, your message will immediately appear in their email inbox, increasing your reach. ‘Urgent alerts’ also trigger App, email, and SMS notifications.
  • Only local residents: All users are verified at a specific address so you can be certain you’re only talking to residents in your specified service area.
  • Easy: You only need to post on Nextdoor when you want or need to - the audience grows organically. You also have full control and can also initiate and close conversations. 

No. Users cannot initiate conversations with you directly via the Nextdoor platform. There are no conversations to engage in or moderate on Nextdoor, outside of what you initiate yourself. You can close a conversation at any time, such as after a period of time or if the discussion goes off topic. 

Think of posting on Nextdoor like walking into and then out of a community meeting. Say what you need to say, answer questions if appropriate, then close the door.

Public services have the ability to remove posts or replies to their posts if the reply is not relevant to the topic of the post or violates Nextdoor's Member Agreement. You can also close discussions on posts (i.e. "disabling replies") at any time, which prevents comments from being added. You can also reopen discussions at any time. 

Staff have complete control over how much time they spend on Nextdoor. Nextdoor is extremely quick and easy to use. It takes just a few minutes to create or reply to posts.

Nextdoor is a lower frequency platform than other channels. We recommend posting one or two times per week with relevant content. The Nextdoor audience is already highly engaged and people are most interested in what is relevant to their local area. 

Some agencies choose to post more often, since they communicate with one or more neighbourhoods about specific issues. Overall, Nextdoor reduces the total time required to communicate with residents by eliminating duplicate tasks associated with managing multiple accounts or email lists.

Your Nextdoor account can be set up to allow multiple users across the organisation to utilise the platform such as community development, comms/engagement or emergency management staff. 

The most effective way to use Nextdoor is to deliver relevant, personal and localised engagement, using a different voice and style from normal corporate communications.

You can utilise Nextdoor to post information about local events and activities, post urgent announcements or emergency alerts and receive instant resident feedback on key topics through neighbourhood polls.

In response, users can react to your posts, reply to them, or send you a private message. Public service agencies are on Nextdoor so users can;

  • Receive helpful, timely, and trusted information from verified government agencies or community services
  • Receive emergency alerts from verified government agencies

  • Receive invitations to upcoming events and community engagement activities

  • Provide feedback on your programs, services and initiatives

You can only view reactions or see replies to your own posts or private messages that users send directly to the agency. Private messaging is available to everyone on Nextdoor including resident users, local businesses, and public service agencies.

You do not have access to users’ information, nor can they see user posts or profiles or any other content on Nextdoor. 

Once signed up to the platform, you can also view metrics and generate reports on user numbers, public service content and engagement levels. When users comment on your posts, you can see the persons’ name and the suburb they live in e.g. “Sam K. • Coogee“.

If users prefer to not receive information from your organisation, they can unsubscribe or mute the posts. 

Nextdoor can provide you with sample posts to introduce your organisation on the platform, feedback on relevant content and the best ways to engage with your local communities.

The control of information and provision of services is operated and provided by Nextdoor Australia Pty Ltd. 

Nextdoor collects member information including first name, last name, email address and physical address. Only users who are able to verify their identity and home address can sign up.

None of the neighbourhood content, member information or conversations are indexed by Google and cannot be found in any search engine or available publicly.

Nextdoor prioritises our users’ privacy and does not share or sell information to third parties, advertisers or anyone else. Nextdoor complies with Australian Government Privacy Legislation and also adheres to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the world’s strictest rules to protect people’s online data.

For more information on our Privacy Policy visit: legal.nextdoor.com/au-privacy-policy-2020.

Nextdoor is a trusted, private and secure network and Nextdoor is committed to the safety of our users. We take active measures to ensure the safety of people using the platform and the information shared.

Nextdoor has clear Community Guidelines that stop negative behaviour like trolling, aggressive language or the spread of misinformation. Every Nextdoor user must be a verified local resident using their real name and address. 

Nextdoor does not tolerate violations of privacy or threats to someone's physical safety. Content is moderated and posts can be reported for violating Nextdoor's Community Guidelines. Friction points on the platform also ensure safe and positive behaviour, such as kindness reminders aimed at slowing people down as they post and automated tools which detect when key words are used and prompts users to rephrase their posts. Nextdoor also works closely with the Australian e-Safety Office to implement some of the best practices in online safety by design. 

For more information on our Community Guidelines and Policies for users, public service agencies and businesses visit: help.nextdoor.com/s/article/community-guidelines.

Yes. Many people who do not have Internet access at home can still access it through their work, library, or mobile devices. Nextdoor is accessible through mobile web browsers, as well as through dedicated apps on both Android and iOS.
Yes. You have the option to share your posts from Nextdoor to your agency’s social media pages. The shared post will only show your original content, links, and attachments, but will not include members’ replies to your post. Public service agencies also have a public-facing URL for their Nextdoor page.

Online training videos and manuals are available to help new agencies use the platform. Nextdoor staff in Australia are also available to provide you with as little or as much support as you need in using the platform.

Nextdoor is an international, privately-held company with headquarters in San Francisco, California and backing from prominent investors. 

Nextdoor has been operating in the United States for over ten years with one in every three people (50+ million) using Nextdoor. Prior to 2016, Nextdoor was entirely funded by venture capital firms. Recently, Nextdoor has introduced a low-cost revenue model in the US which allows businesses to advertise local deals to the communities they serve. The US operations support Nextdoor in Australia.

Nextdoor launched in Australia in October 2018. Awareness has been growing rapidly via grassroots community campaigns, word of mouth and media coverage. There are now 3,200+ Nextdoor neighbourhoods established across every state and territory. 

During the bushfires and the COVID19 pandemic, Nextdoor experienced unprecedented adoption by people across Australia seeking to connect and offer help within their local neighbourhoods. Since January 2020, Nextdoor experienced a 91% increase in daily active users across Australia and continues to maintain a #3 ranking on the App Store in Australia.

Over 5,000 public services worldwide are using Nextdoor. Local councils, state and federal government agencies, and community service organisations across Australia are signing up to use Nextdoor to share critical, real-time information at the neighbourhood level from fire alerts to power outages, road closures, community meetings and service changes or increase their local engagement in new and creative ways.

Complete the form at nextdoor.com/au/publicservices.
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