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Let your community know that you’re launching The National Community Survey (The NCS)! We’ve created the templates below to help you spread the word about the initial survey launch and prepare residents who may be randomly selected to participate. Sharing the news on social media can help boost participation rates by assuring residents that those mailings are part of a legitimate survey effort from their local leaders, and that you value their input. We recommend posting a different message for the first few weeks that the survey is open, to reach residents as survey invitations are landing in their mailboxes. These suggested posts are optimized for platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Nextdoor. Simply fill in the blanks to personalize the text for your community or organization, then copy and paste into your social media platform. To help increase your reach, encourage staff, councilmembers, community partners, and local news outlets to “like” and “share” your social media posts
Streamline your processes by having all your resident engagement in one place. To transition subscribers from another engagement platform to Polco, follow these steps: Download a list of subscribers, residents, or registered users from your other engagement platform. You may be able to do this on your own, or you may need to ask the platform to give you a list. Once you have the list of emails, import them into Polco as an email list. Send an email through Polco to these individuals, inviting them to provide input through Polco and subscribe to be notified about future engagement opportunities. Sample email script:“Hello, resident! The XYZ (City, Town, County) of ABC (Insert City/Town/County Name here) is transitioning from [other engagement platform] to Polco for ongoing community engagement. We value your opinions and want to make it easier for you to share input on important issues in our community. Please help us make better, more informed decisions by engaging with us on Po
After the analysis for your project is complete, your project manager will provide a link to your report of results. While we recommend viewing the results online, you can download those results as a PDF report to share with your colleagues and community. Here’s how to do so.Begin by clicking on your closed survey. On the right, you’ll see a box entitled “Actions.” Click “Download PDF” at the bottom of that section. Once the PDF downloads, you can save it to your computer, print, and/or attach to an email as needed.
Learn how GPAL synthesizes a mass of public data so government leaders can connect with their communities, better understand quality of life, and make informed decisions. A cross-industry collaboration, Government Performance Action and Learning (GPAL), has transformed government performance measurement. Polco and academic, government, and private partners amassed a rich database using public information. GPAL synthesizes the public data into easy-to-read indicators on community livability. “[It’s] performance measurement doesn’t include a bunch of spreadsheets and data entry,” said Jonathan Wiersma, Polco’s Vice President of Marketing. In this press conference, Wiersma, Michelle Kobayashi, Polco Vice President of Innovation, and Tobin McKearin, Polco Vice President of Data Science, give attendees a closer look at GPAL and its capabilities. See the full press conference on this exciting launch here!
Curious about the difference between probability-based versus open participation surveys? Here are some details: What's an open participation survey and what are the benefits?An open participation survey is offered to all residents in a community. This method is important because it provides engagement opportunities to all, thus often providing a higher number of completed responses overall and for population sub-groups. It can be less resource intensive and require less time from administration to actionable data. It is programmed as an online survey with invitations sent widely through as many communication channels as possible (social media, email lists, newsletters, media reporting, etc.). Open participation surveys also can benefit from snowball sampling whereby existing survey respondents can recruit their friends and acquaintances and response grows like a rolling snowball. This sampling method can be used to elevate general awareness of the research effort and increase overall
We’d love to learn more from thought leaders like you around what problems in government should be a focus for innovation! Our product team has been very focused on improving your experience with Polco, and we would love your feedback. We have created the Local Government Innovation Survey to provide you the opportunity to do so! At your convenience, please share your thoughts with us! Your feedback helps us learn and start conversations that can lead to new ways to empower residents and raise communities!
Emailing your subscribers is a great way to let them know when you post a new survey or poll on Polco. Polco makes it easy to let them know you need their input. There are two ways to email your subscribers on Polco: 1) when creating a survey or poll and 2) when you want to share a survey or poll you’ve already published. When creating a new survey or poll, you’ll see this feature as part of the publishing process. Once you get to the Outreach page of the publishing process, you’ll see the toggle to “email all subscribers” along with the ability to send a survey invitation to your email lists. When you want to share a survey you’ve already published, or remind your subscribers to take the survey, click on your survey and click “Share and Manage Access.” Scroll down to “Email to Subscribers and Invitees.” Edit the email to say whatever you’d like. Then toggle on “email to all subscribers.” This will send an email to all of your subscribers inviting them to take your survey.
Emailing your community is an important way to let them know about your survey on Polco. Previously, Polco sent an email to all subscribers every Thursday letting them know about local governments requesting their input. This Thursday email included links to surveys in the jurisdictions to which they had subscribed. In this way, subscribers got a reminder each week to respond to surveys currently open on the city’s profile. Recent changes replaced the Thursday email with a new form of email outreach. Instead of reminding subscribers each Thursday to answer open surveys, subscribers will receive an email as soon as your survey is published. You can toggle this feature on or off on Polco for each survey. Subscribers will only be notified by email of surveys they haven’t voted on yet. To use this feature, create a survey or navigate to a currently published survey. If using a currently published survey, click “Share and Manage Access.” Scroll down and you will see the option to email all
Your survey is complete. What’s next? There are several ways to effectively use your survey results to make informed decisions with confidence. Collecting data is only half the battle. Once results are in, it’s important to create and execute a plan. Below are six strategies to help your organization use resident input in long-term planning. Your next steps will partly depend on the type of survey you conducted. For example, how you use The National Employee Survey insights will differ from how you use The National Community Survey insights. Your city’s next steps may be to update a comprehensive plan, ask residents or employees further questions about critical focus areas, or make a policy decision. No matter which survey you’ve administered, keep the following “6 Es” in mind as you engage with your community and fellow leaders after the results are in. Envision Results inform how officials can take action to move their communities forward. For instance, Pearland, Texas’ survey resu
Our survey science experts are always adding new surveys to the Polco Library for you to use in your community. These surveys range from just a few questions (2-5) to many questions (10-15). For the most part, you’ll find that surveys in the Polco Library tend to have 5-10 questions. We’ve intentionally included more questions in these surveys to give you a more extensive range of question options to choose from. You can always edit a survey from the Polco Library. Navigate to “Library”, select a relevant survey, and click “Save to Drafts” at the top or bottom of the survey to save it to your profile. Navigate to the Polco LibraryClick “Save to Drafts” Navigate to Overview or Content and click “Edit and Publish”When you navigate back to “Overview”, you can click “Edit and Publish” and simply delete any inapplicable questions before publishing. Choose the questions you’d like to useClick the trash icon next to any questions you’d like to delete When you’re finished, save and publish you
Quick question does Polco have a QR code option for surveys?
Many municipalities used our Community Equity and Inclusion (CEI) survey to gather feedback from their residents. What steps are you planning to take after your initial CEI survey?
Can I determine the order that respondents will see polls in a poll set? For example, say that I created five polls (questions) in a poll set. Will respondents see them in a random order (different for every respondent) or can I set the order so respondents see the questions in a certain order?
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