How Do I Promote a Survey or Data?

Your organization just spent months collecting data, surveying, and/or polling on a topic or trends related to your stakeholders or brand. Now what? How do you get the world to take notice?

Numbers alone do not a news story make. Unlike Field of Dreams, just because you build it, it does not mean the journalists will come. Or cover it.

If you expect news coverage and engagement regarding your survey results, you will need a strategy in order to maximize opportunities for coverage, both by media and others.

Here are some tips to get started:

• Review the data for trends. What are the biggest surprises or takeaways? Record this in an executive summary.
• Review the data for jargon. Remove it and use lay terms whenever possible.
• Create a news release sharing the biggest takeaways from the survey, linking back to the entire executive summary and survey on your website.
• Do not password protect it; but do include that attribution and a link back are required to use the data.
• Beyond the news release, pull data and create a bylined article for additional media outreach. Consider how the data might be used in various op-eds or thought leadership efforts over the long term versus just that one byline.
• That same data? Weave it into your organization’s key messaging for inclusion in media interviews, other news releases, speeches, presentations, etc. Give the report life beyond one news release.
• Record executive leadership providing key takeaways from the report and make them easy to download for media. Also post to You Tube and share with stakeholders.
• Speaking of social media, don’t forget to create a digital strategy for the leadership team to make it turnkey for them to share the data over time, versus a one-off post on LinkedIn (which we see all too often and then nothing ever again).
• Determine if there are any relevant bits for other stakeholders such as partners, vendors, colleagues, or other employees to share on social media, and create sample posts and strategies to make it easy for them to do.
• Have a newsletter or means of connecting with stakeholders on a regular basis? It should be included in there as well.
• Create infographics and visuals that show the data beyond just words or quotes.
• Create a strategy to weave in data and linkbacks to the survey on your own blog.
• When leadership are making presentations and speeches, providing the data on a branded thumb drive for attendees to download.
• Record a podcast about the data and upload the episode to all streaming platforms. Link back to that as needed.
• Use the data in award submissions for the brand if it makes sense.
• Consider the hyperlocal media. Where are you based? Work with the local media in the community to help amplify what you are doing.

Let us create a strategy to amplify your survey or data. Connect with us today.