Position yourself and your company as an authority by generating publicity based on polling information which you create in house or commission from an agency. The media need facts for stories, and these can be generated from credible and significant sample size surveys, and the company which drives the research can leverage that for publicity, internal communications and investor relations.
On this podcast I share key considerations on poll creation and what to do with the results so that they deliver maximum impact.
SPEAK|Pr is for business owners to unlock the value in their organization for free with effective communication and is hosted by international Pr agency owner and entrepreneur Jim James.
In return, I will continue to bring massive value with two weekly shows, up to 3 hours per month of brilliant conversations and insights.
Monthly subscriptions start at $3 per month. At $1 per hour, that's much less than the minimum wage, but we'll take what we can at this stage of the business.
Of course, this is still free, but as an entrepreneur, the actual test of anything is if people are willing to pay for it.
If I'm adding value to you, please support me by clicking the link now.
Position yourself and your company as an authority by generating publicity based on polling information which you create in house or commission from an agency. The media need facts for stories, and these can be generated from credible and significant sample size surveys, and the company which drives the research can leverage that for publicity, internal communications and investor relations.
On this podcast I share key considerations on poll creation and what to do with the results so that they deliver maximum impact.
SPEAK|Pr is for business owners to unlock the value in their organization for free with effective communication and is hosted by international Pr agency owner and entrepreneur Jim James.
In return, I will continue to bring massive value with two weekly shows, up to 3 hours per month of brilliant conversations and insights.
Monthly subscriptions start at $3 per month. At $1 per hour, that's much less than the minimum wage, but we'll take what we can at this stage of the business.
Of course, this is still free, but as an entrepreneur, the actual test of anything is if people are willing to pay for it.
If I'm adding value to you, please support me by clicking the link now.
Organisations, governments, companies, and political parties all use polls to drive conversations and create compelling content, which is one of the main elements of public relations. Polls give an opportunity to establish credibility and to be a thought leader on any topic. The caveat, though, is that in order to be a thought leader, a poll or a survey must be seen to be independent and have enough scale to be meaningful. Polls are an avenue to showcase one's expertise. Through it, you can tell a story or create a narrative around a product or service that can be justified by the data from a poll. It can also be used as part of substantiation for news that's going to be in a press release, article, or white paper. Polls can be used at events like(virtual) press conferences or product launches as well as in brochures, in advertising, speeches, and annual reports. There are many different ways that this content can be used and repurposed. To create a poll, first begin with the end in mind. Think about the story or initiative to be established in the media and the data needed to do that. Next, think about the content. Issuing a poll that no one is interested in will not get you anywhere. Simply look at the current media or talk to people and see what's trending and what questions are not being answered. That's the void to be filled with information discovered from polling. Once there is a topic, think about questions that will produce meaningful answers. One important point is that the questions themselves should be of critical importance, because how the questions are crafted will determine the way they are answered. Avoid questions that sound biased, such as if you craft a question this way, "All people believe this is wrong and it shouldn't happen. Do you
agree:
yes or no?" The question is loaded with a negative bias, which may cause apprehension and so some may therefore choose not answer it. Instead, ask questions that are even-handed and will elicit an accurate response. The media may even want to see the questions to understand the data, so if the questions are self-serving, then the data itself will lack credibility. The next step is to think about the format of the question. It can be a yes or no question, or asking people to rate something on a scale from 1 to a certain number. There can also be a blank space for the answer. It's good to have a mix of these kinds of questions, because the yes or no questions create a simple chart, while the scaling creates a sense of relativity, and the open text creates a narrative. It gives your respondents the chance to provide answers you may not have thought about. Afterwards, think about the headlines and the stories that will be told, as the format of the questions can be geared towards that. For instance, for a research-heavy white paper, you'll want quantitative data, so including yes and no as well as scale questions could be useful. If the poll is for a blog where you want to showcase a narrative, the questions could be more of the open text type, as the goal would be to gather thoughts and foster involvement from the participants in the survey. Thinking about the structure of the content is important, because not only will it determine the structure of the questions, but the structure of the questionnaire itself as well, how many questions to ask of which type, in which section they're going to be in, and ultimately, how long it will take to answer the poll. The number of questions is worth thinking about in order to have significant results. However, do remember that a quick poll may give you simple answers that might not produce meaningful data that would have been One view is that a sample size needs to be a minimum of 1,000 respondents, but that might still not be representative of Incentivize people to answer, but not in a way that would skew the results. This is an effective way to get answers, the population. The general rule would be to take into but always look at the cost of what will be given away. There could be a reward for every nth person who answers the form or a lucky draw among the respondents. Next, consider the consideration the overall universe of whom your questions size of the sample. To be statistically significant, the are about, and then idenfity a percentage that would make the subsequently translated into content. sample size needs to be credible. For an internal survey, the aim would be to ask everybody, but 70&-80% is also results relevant. A sample survey could first be send out reasonable enough. If it's an external survey, how many people do you need in order to turn the survey into something that you could actually take to the media and say this is credible? to a small percentage of the target audience just to proof test the questions. This will help determine if you'll be able to get the narratives you're looking for. Bear in mind that there will be a margin of error, so the sample size needs to accommodate a margin of error of up to 5%. Once you have all of th se, you can use survey tools to create the poll or you can use n a third party agency. The bene it of a third party agency i that you will have the credibil ty of the results that are prod ced by a third party, because esearch is big business. There re companies like Nielsen, hich has revenue of over $6 illion, Kantar which has $3.85 b llion worth of research, IQVIA ( ormerly Quintiles and IMS Health Inc.) with $3.5 billion, and hen there's Ipsos which has over $1.9 billion in revenue. So if you've got the budget and scale that requires glob l research, there are companie that can do that, but there re also smaller independent age cies as well that can create su veys. Simplicity is the next key element of a visual. People Quantitative market research where public opinion or business opinions are gathered can be done in house or with third don't have the time to read through all the results. They want a graphic, possibly a picture showing the key result party agencies. Third party agencies also have the benefit. With this, think about who's g ing to be reading the infograp of understanding how questions should be written, which is also really important and could be slightly difficult to create on ic. Where are they? Are they loo ing at it at work or at home? n a mobile device or on a big screen? Would you also wan your own, as it does take some skill to write questions that to make this a graphic that hey could share and use in their own presentations? Becaus if something is novel and eas are balanced, comprehensive, and tease out interesting facts and to read, then it's shareable ust from the quality of your con figures from people. Polldaddy SurveyMonkey, and even Facebo ent. Then think about fonts, col rs, and design. There are platf rms like Canva with infograp ic templates (or you can even k are some tools you can use if you want to create the poll uild your own) and Visme. Th se will help you turn data int something appealing. n your own. Poll.app.do is a Fac book-specific app that creates p lls, and its pricing is bet een $8-$28 a month to surve 1,000 to an unlimited number of participants per poll, so if y u're looking for a polling t ol that specifically wo ks on Facebook, this app wil do LinkedIn also has its own free and simple polls. PollDaddy and Survey Monkey are two of the major platforms for polls, and they produce great output. The questions are simply placed into their system, and then they're provided with the database of respondents to which the surveys will be sent out to. The charts and the narratives from these polls will then create the opportunity for media coverage. To create coverage, show facts that can be delivered as a press release and also as an infographic which is the combination of information and illustration. If you can create contrarian results or evoke shock when people wouldn't have expected or believed something to be true, then that's guaranteed to get you interest from the media, especially if it's accompanied by a well-written press release, article, or an invitation to an interview. As seen in the election season for Americans and with COVID worldwide, polling creates great narrative for public relations. Lastly, think about the frequency of a poll. It's one thing to generate a poll once, but if you can make it a regular thing, then it starts to become something that the media are looking for from your company, and it helps to establish you and your company as the authority in the industry.