Surveys 101, Part 1 : Designing your survey at MyCommunity.net

mycommunitynet
Feb 11, 2015
3 min read

Whether you're campaigning against change, canvassing local views or researching the market for a new product or service, writing an effective survey can make a world of difference to the data you obtain and the things you can achieve with it.

It's important to get it right first time. That's where we come in; over the next week, the MyCommunity team will be providing you with our three-part blog guide to writing effective online surveys and getting the most out of MyCommunity.net.

In part one of our guide, we'll be looking at Project Design, before taking a closer look at Question Types and Common Survey-Writing Mistakes. Got tips of your own? We'd love to hear them via @MyCommunityNet on Twitter.

Let's get to it..

Designing your MyCommunity Project

You've chosen MyCommunity because you know our survey technology will help you connect with your local community. You're at 'My Projects' on MyCommunity.net and ready to write your survey. What next?

Consider your audience and aims

Step one in our survey editor requires you to write a project page to encourage users to answer your survey.

Make this page engaging and easy to read. If you’re surveying your community on a complex issue, shorten the description on your summary page and add a ‘more details’ link in the survey editor, directing users to a blog or article which explains the topic more fully.

For your survey title, use a call to action such as “we need your help”, and remember to stay persuasive when writing your project summary. Your community will need a reason to open and answer your survey – even if they're committed to the issue under discussion.

Use images wisely

A good image can make a great deal of difference to your campaign response. For your project page, choose a relevant and interesting image to encourage people to click through to your project summary.

Titles, titles, titles

With your project image, your project title is key to drawing MyCommunity users to your survey. It’s a snapshot of your campaign and might be the first time a respondent has considered your survey topic before. Think carefully about the words you will use. Asking a question can often engage people much more effectively than a longwinded, obvious title.

Brand power

If you’re hosting your survey for a large company or charity, use your brand to your advantage. MyCommunity users are more likely to click on a project that includes a logo or brand name they already know – even if they disagree with what that organisation does or represents.

Be Fontastic

In the survey editor, using bold to highlight words or paragraphs can be a great way of drawing attention to important aspects of your campaign. Keeping text too small is a good way of making your readers lost interest. Use your font wisely!

Focus

You've published your survey in order to achieve a result. Make your aim clear throughout your project: link every paragraph in your project link back to your topic, and emphasise how the results you obtain will be applied in ‘real life’. By empowering your community in this way, respondents will be more likely to complete your survey.

That's it for Part 1, folks. To create your first free survey, visit MyCommunity.net. Look out for Part 2 on Monday, when we'll be looking at the types of question you can create using our survey editor.