Writing Successful Omnibus Survey Questions
Choosing an omnibus survey can be a simple approach to getting survey data, because it is usually inexpensive and fast, and involves asking just a few questions. But there is sometimes a downside to...
View ArticleOptimize Your PR—Don’t Do Silly Surveys
We are strong advocates of using surveys for public relations outreach. Commissioning surveys that answer interesting questions to help drive news stories and other types of communication can build a...
View ArticleWriting for Journalists and High-Level Executives
Clients tell us that one of the biggest challenges they face is writing great research reports. There is the overwhelming difficulty of turning data into stories — making sense of volumes of data...
View ArticleHere’s Why Silly Surveys Are Actually Dangerous
Silly surveys, in all their forms, have long been a thorn in the side of authentic, truth-seeking research. When I see silly surveys, I roll my eyes and complain (to anyone who will listen) about the...
View ArticleTwo Ways to Find Data for a PR Story
In an article published some years ago entitled Data-Driven Journalism, Walker Sands, a Chicago-based marketing and PR agency, outlined two ways to get media placement for your company or your client...
View ArticleJournalist Tips on How to Communicate PR Surveys
On Monday I received media training from one of the research industry’s top professional organizations: The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). They hired Brenda Foster, a career...
View ArticleFive Research Lessons from the Pandemic Years
Last week we published the Spring 2023 Versta Research Newsletter which offers our feature article on Five Research Lessons from the Pandemic Years. It documents the dramatic shifts that COVID-19 has...
View ArticleThe Rigors of Good Research: Three Examples from Thought Leadership
One of the biggest challenges Versta Research faced during the first year of COVID-19 was a huge and puzzling spike in the amount of fraud on research panels. We saw many organizations falling victim...
View ArticleWhy You Need Designer Data
One luxury of doing primary research is that you can get data perfectly tailored to the problem you need to solve. Primary research allows you to design how data will be elicited, and how, exactly,...
View ArticleHow to Use Surveys for Thought Leadership on a Shoestring Budget
If you need super-fast, super-cheap (but rigorous) research insights for thought leadership content, the just-published Versta Research Summer Newsletter is for you. It features an article, How to Use...
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The Quirk’s Deck
Thank you for your interest in our July 16, 2020 presentation at the Quirk’s Event! Here is the deck we used for that presentation. Feel free to download and circulate. Soon, we will have a full video...
View Article4 Things to Ponder Before Choosing an Omnibus Survey
Versta Research fields omnibus surveys, and we often recommend such surveys for our clients. But omnibus surveys do no not always save money or offer the insights that are needed, and so we often...
View ArticleFocus on Solutions in PR Surveys
A public relations client early in my career gave this assessment of my work: “Joe is strong at highlighting problems, but what I really care about is solutions.” That was many years ago, after I...
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This PR Survey Is a Dream Come True. If Only It Weren’t Nonsense.
This data we saw last week reflects the type of data that PR professionals absolutely dream about and hope for when they conduct surveys. It shows hugely dramatic differences among the 50 U.S. states....
View ArticleHow Polls Pass CNN’s Quality Review
This list of 16 questions that CNN will ask before they are willing to publish your polling data is worth reading because somebody at CNN clearly knows their stuff. It is far better than anything I...
View ArticleVersta Research in the News
The Versta Research spring newsletter comes out this week, and highlights some of the work we have done that is in the news and recently published. Here is a sampling: New Index for HR Management...
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Versta Research Just Turned 10
Happy birthday to us! We were born on January 19, 2009 in the depths of a recession with nowhere to go but up. Many of the research firms that were around back then have disappeared, sold themselves...
View ArticleHow Random Correlations Ruined a Gender Story
The problem with most business approaches to “analytics” is that they rely on automated, unthinking algorithms. The algorithms scan boatloads of data and generate correlations that are surprising and,...
View ArticleWhy Fake PR Surveys Outperform Real Ones
Sure we laugh at those ridiculously biased fundraising “surveys” from politicians. But for some reason, the poorly (but more cleverly) designed surveys put out by corporate PR departments often get a...
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Does Starting with a Story Bias Your Findings?
Two audience members at our LIMRA talk (see Public Studies: Advice for the PR Team and Advice for the Research Team) asked questions about biased research findings. Doesn’t starting with the research...
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