To engage with civic issues or their government, people have always needed to get information and talk to people. Access to the internet, social media, and mobile communications has changed civic engagement somewhat -- but it's not really helping to bring in new voices or amplify marginalized ones. Well-educated, well-off people still tend to do it more, according to a new Pew report.

The good news is: lots of civic engagement is happening. In Civic Engagement in the Digital Age, Pew Internet found that nearly half of American adults personally participated in a civic group or activity in the 12 months ending in August 2012. This includes working with citizens or issue-related groups, attending meetings and demonstrations, political campaign volunteering, and more. Furthermore, many U.S. adults reported they'd recently contacted a government official or spoken out in a public forum -- 39% offline, 34% online.

Also, nearly 40% of adults do political or civic activities via social networking sites. That's also two thirds of all adult users of social networking sites.

Pew noted: "On social networking sites, income-related differences are more modest -- but civic engagement in these spaces is still most prevalent among those with higher educational levels." And: "Among social networking site users, political participation is identical for those who live in the lowest earning households (annual household income of less than $10,000) and highest earning households (annual household income of $150,000 or more)."

Age wasn't a huge differentiator for offline civic engagement. Pew found that younger adults were just as likely as older adults to engage in civic matters overall. However, "Political engagement on social networking sites is especially commonplace among the youngest Americans, as two-thirds (67%) of all 18-24 year olds (and nearly three quarters of those young adults who use social networking sites) engaged in some sort of social network-related political activity in the 12 months preceding our survey. Older adults tend to be fairly politically active on social networking sites to the extent that they use them, but are relatively unlikely to use these sites in the first place. So, although nearly six in ten social network-using seniors are politically active on these sites, that works out to just 13% of all Americans in the 65+ age group."

Pew's survey didn't specifically examine activity at the local community level -- this was lumped together with state and national-level civic engagement. But it's reasonable to assume that the findings would apply at the local level. The report contains a rich level of detail -- so if you know the demographics of your community (or segments within your community where you wish you spur engagement), you can determine how likely these people may be to use of respond to online civic engagement.

Does online civic engagement make a difference? Pew found that 43% of social networking users said they decided to learn more about a political or social issue because of something they read about on a social networking site. But far fewer (18%) took action based on this information. And overall, most Americans' political conversations and contributions still take place offline.

What does this mean for community information and engagement projects?

In a nutshell, it's important to have digital components to your efforts -- including social media and e-mail. Also, since social media and e-mail are highly popular activities on mobile devices, it's important to make your offerings as mobile-friendly as possible.

If your organization offers or funds local digital skills training (perhaps in partnerships with schools or libraries), it might help to include civic engagement examples in your classes. For instance, show people how to sign up for e-mail or text alerts of local civic issues, or compile a list of recommended community Twitter accounts or Facebook users or pages that people can follow to stay engaged with their community and local government.

You could also encourage or help local governments to become more open and user-friendly online. Most local government websites are difficult to navigate, slow-loading, and not at all mobile friendly. Plus, most local government could use some help with navigating social media and engaging with the community there. You could provide help and encouragement on these fronts -- either directly, or by making introductions to local tech and social media experts. You can also offer to publish local government documents and data in user-friendly ways. Events such as the Civic Data Challenge and the National Day of Civic Hacking can provide inspiration and examples for these efforts.

But while digital and social media are important for civic engagement, don't neglect real-world engagement. Events, public forums, demonstrations, training, and more are still the most powerful channels for civic engagement. These can be supported by digital channels, but they need to keep happening in the real world. And lower-income, less-educated segments of your community will always need more direct outreach in order to get, and stay, engaged.