Posts Tagged ‘public opinion’
Friday, April 26th, 2013
It is hard to find an appropriate use for Google Surveys, because, as we outlined in a review article last fall, its capabilities are limited. But last week we needed a quick incidence test of how many U.S. adults own a certain type of investment product. Google Surveys seemed perfect. It was not fast, by the way. It took five days to collect data from 200 respondents. Google says this is because we asked a screening question before asking about product ownership. Even so, this survey took longer than a standard omnibus.
But what struck me most about my trial run with Google Surveys was the Creepy Factor. It made me realize in a most uncomfortable way that Google tracks everything I do. I knew this already, and I follow ongoing discussions about online privacy. I have a personal g-mail account, a G+ page, and I use Google as the starting point for almost everything I do on the Internet. I know that they track everything I do. But it was never so creepy and apparent until I fielded a Google survey. How was it creepy? (more…)
Tags: ethics, Market Research, omnibus, Online Surveys, privacy, public opinion, Public Polls, survey technology
Posted in Data Collection, Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Omnibus Surveys, Online Surveys, Public Polls | Comments Off
Friday, September 21st, 2012
During a presidential election year there is no escaping the flurry of public opinion polling and the intense scrutiny that surveys get from the media. But love it or hate it, there are excellent reasons to pay close attention to this year’s political polling.
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Tags: best practices, journalism, media, methods, news, phone surveys, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling, survey, Survey Design
Posted in Data Collection, Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling, Survey Design | Comments Off
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
Survey response rates are now staggeringly low—in the single digits. A typical response rate for a relatively high-budget, carefully executed phone survey is merely 9%, down from 36% just fifteen years ago. Here are the numbers from research conducted earlier this year by the Pew Center:
Survey Response Rates Continue to Decline
If you want to throw money at a survey and try really hard to boost your response rate (the high-effort survey shown in the chart above), you can likely get up to 20% to 25%. But you will need to:
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Tags: phone surveys, public opinion, Public Polls, response rates, Sampling, survey
Posted in Data Collection, Public Polls, Sampling | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012
Last week there was a flash of news coverage for a PR-driven survey that documented these important facts:
- Most American think Obama would do a better job than Romney in defending against an attack by aliens from outer space
- Most would not “mind” a minor alien invasion, because they expect aliens to be cute
- Most think there is a higher probability that aliens exist, compared to superheroes, vampires, and zombies
- More would call on the Hulk, instead of Batman or Spiderman, to help fend off an invasion
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Tags: journalism, news, omnibus, public opinion, Public Relations
Posted in Omnibus Surveys, Public Polls, Public Relations | Comments Off
Friday, May 18th, 2012
I recently saw a press release about a study showing that only 19.5% of news release headlines are optimized for SEO. It brought to mind all kinds of issues about how best to report numbers in press releases. In particular it highlighted the important issue of whether specific numbers are meaningful and whether they communicate a misleading sense of precision.
For example, when a survey reports a margin of error to any decimal place, it suggests a level of precision that is misleading. Do a quick search, and you’ll find press releases reporting margins of sampling error such as +/- 4.8%, +/- 10.5%, or +/- 1.85%. These numbers are based on sample size formulas that assume perfect random sampling and one hundred percent response rates, which are almost never achieved. (more…)
Tags: public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations, survey
Posted in Presenting Research, Public Polls, Public Relations, Turning Data into Stories | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Election years are a perfect time to learn about (and brush up on) the fundamentals of survey research. Not only are the airwaves inundated with public opinion polling, but methodological experts are called upon to talk about developments and current best practices as new technologies and methods become central to measuring consumer and public opinion and behavior.
This week the Poynter Institute is offering a webinar of particular interest for PR professionals, whether or not you care about political polls. We also recommend it for any marketing professional because this type of polling is an exemplar of what all marketing research tries to achieve in measuring what people think and what they are likely to do. (more…)
Tags: data quality, journalism, Market Research, media, news, omnibus, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations
Posted in Public Polls, Public Relations, Resources and Recommendations | Comments Off
Thursday, December 29th, 2011
Even if you are not involved in political polling, it is worth paying attention to the methods and best practices of political pollsters. One reason is that few other areas of research offer a way to completely validate one’s methods. Pollsters are using sampling and survey methods to predict the behaviors of a much larger population. Then in just one day that population behaves, we get a near-perfect count of exactly how they behaved, and we know whether the methods worked.
Several industry colleagues have recently been debating the merits of calculating and reporting “margins of error” in political polling, and pointed us to some surprising data from The New York Times: (more…)
Tags: journalism, public opinion, Public Polls, Sampling, statistics, survey
Posted in Market Research, Methods & Tools, Omnibus Surveys, Public Polls, Sampling | Comments Off
Thursday, September 29th, 2011
Is it true that the Associated Press refuses to carry stories from online surveys? Yes, as odd as that seems nowadays. But news media face a difficult problem given how easy it is to conduct biased public opinion polling, especially now with online panels and social networks. So some news organizations like the Associated Press (AP), The New York Times, and ABC News have developed guidelines that specify for a survey or public opinion poll to be valid and reliable, it must be conducted by telephone.
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Tags: Data Collection, Internet, journalism, omnibus, Online Surveys, phone surveys, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling
Posted in Data Collection, Omnibus Surveys, Online Surveys, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
These days most researchers agree that if you want to do a random sample phone survey of the U.S. population, you ought to include cell phones. More than one-quarter of the population do not have landline telephones at home. Those who do have landline telephones are less likely than ever to answer them, and less likely than ever to participate in surveys.
But it is not easy to include cell phones. The sampling protocols and the post-stratification weighting become more complicated. You need to account for a higher probability of cell phone owners being in your sample, because most of them also have landlines. You can’t use automated or predictive dialing to call cell phone numbers. You can’t target geography as well, because area codes and exchanges have become mobile. And people get mad at you if they have to pay for incoming calls, so you need to offer cash.
What’s the bottom line effect on costs for a survey that includes cell phones? A recent study sponsored by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) documents the following: (more…)
Tags: bias, Data Collection, Market Research, phone surveys, population, public opinion, Public Polls, research, Sampling
Posted in Data Collection, Future Trends, Market Research, Public Polls, Sampling | Comments Off
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
A good chart is the best way to understand the law of diminishing returns when it comes to sample size. So for our June 2011 newsletter we built an interactive graph for choosing sample size. It’s cool, educational, and useful. Moreover, it will show you just how mind boggling the numbers behind sampling can be. It may even give you more sympathy for the majority of people who just don’t “get it” or believe it when it comes to statistical sampling.
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Tags: charts, Market Research, population, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling, survey respondents, visualizing data
Posted in Charts and Data Visualization, Data Collection, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Omnibus Surveys, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling | Comments Off