'TIS THE SEASON

Along with holiday jingles and tra-la-las, expect the frequency of online surveys this November/December – and beyond – to escalate.

After all, the 2016 POTUS election is less than 12 months away. 

Today, prognosticators say there will be increased emphasis on gathering online and mobile data, adding to the already $10 billion marketplace (more than telephone and face-to-face opinion-izing combined).  SurveyMonkey and peers have done a great job in selling services to professionals like lawyers who now use this kind of polling for all sorts of matters, from assessing racism in potential jurors to backgrounding those up for judicial appointments. 

As well as to communicators and brand gurus.  At the same time, many of us fail to use these tools wisely – and/or follow the pollsters’ leads.  With a tip of the hat to Advertising Age, here are three rules that might make our employers’ bottom lines ring – and our employees’ experience, a bit more compelling:

  • Remember the two Cs – continuity and consistency.  Judging new directions on the results of one or two polls isn’t advisable; asking regularly is.
  • Truth rules.  Yeah, it might not be popular – but if what you’re hearing can be readily validated, leaders need to be told and your efforts, guided.
  • The wider, the better.  Especially inside business, it can be tough to grab employee attention.  And therefore, very tempting to go to the same-old, same-old for questions.  Expand your horizons – and offer incentives for responses.

What’s real is the data we’re seeking.  Make sure you get the right kind of information to guide decision-making, inside and out.

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE 2012 ELECTION

Numbers fascinate us.

Political pollsters live (and die, metaphorically) by them.  They’re the center of accountants’ and actuaries’ work.  PR professionals create news through numbers.  And Web sites and social media attempt to  measure impressions and results in some form of credible numerics.

At the same time, numbers can be manipulated.  Just because only a teeny percentage of Millennials isn’t bored by advertising – or so trumpets an Edelman survey of 4,000 of these cohorts  – doesn’t mean that the vast majority of them don’t fast-forward their Tivos during ad segments.   Any reported quantity of Facebook likes, even in the high double digits, only reveals that many folks are clicking in to participate in a promotion, win a prize, or share information for points.

In short, we’re jaded number crunchers.  The mother/daddy of all statistical generators, the election researchers, showed their true selves this fall, with the U.S. Presidential election.  Instead of guiding and advising candidates, pollsters allowed for the churns and flip-flops of their clients.  [No, it wasn’t just Mitt Romney, trust us.]  A majority of West Coast voters favor gay marriage?  Then, our to-be representatives replied “aye” with vigor.  Healthcare the number-one issue on Easterners’ minds?  You bet, at least some form of Obamacare was sanctioned by all.

Polls, to us, are real opportunities to listen, to guide our behaviors, to refine our actions.  Sure, they’re grist for our external relations colleagues to drive awareness.  We’ve done the same in previous lives.  Consider this:  The best of researchers use carefully planned statistics as an architecture, the foundation for causes and reasons and emotions.  They pore over every word, every question, then copy-test to ensure that the clarity of the question will produce answers of meaning.    When responses appear, they’re sliced and diced and cross-scrutinized to ensure accuracy of reporting, then mapped to indicate future trends and issues (and needed metrics).

That kind of care with numbers is our true North Star, whether driving change or marketing or brand campaigns.   Say it’s so, Mark Twain.