Post the pre-written survey to your profile in a few simple steps and start getting feedback
Survey experts at Polco’s National Research Center create surveys and polls which appear in your “Recommended Content” in the Content section to help you assess and understand a variety of experiences, perceptions and needs of your residents. While you can tailor the questions to fit your community, we recommend keeping the wording unchanged as much as possible for consistency and accuracy.
Accessing the survey
If you do not already have a Polco profile for your community, you may sign up for one here. Once signed in:
- Visit the Content section and look for the Recommended Content on the right, or click here.
- Choose the survey or poll you’d like to use (here, the Mayors Innovation Project survey) and click Save as Draft (you can edit drafts before you publish the survey).
- The survey is now ready to publish. Click on the survey in the list, make any additional edits you'd like, and click Publish at the bottom.
Most Recommended Content surveys and polls do not require customizations before you publish them. However, you can choose to replace the generic “your community” and “your local government” with something more specific, like your City’s or County’s name.
Note: Ensure your profile is active by including an image and description to your profile before publishing. At any point, if you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our team using the chat form in the bottom right. We usually respond within 1-2 minutes.
Messaging for Your Survey
The best way to promote your survey is through any existing social media outlets. You want to let your community know why you are asking these questions, and what you will do with the information. Suggested messages for a website or social media:
- {Community name} is asking our residents to tell us your thoughts on COVID-19 vaccinations within the community - Please complete this quick survey {add survey URL}.
- After you complete this quick survey {add survey URL}, please share our Facebook and Twitter messages with other community members. Help ensure the voice of the community is heard.
In addition to utilizing social media platforms and the community website, you may want to promote in more traditional modes, like flyers and newsletters. Suggested messaging for flyers and community newsletters include:
{Community name} is asking our residents to tell us your thoughts on [topic] - be heard!
Join your neighbors on polco.us/[shorturl] to provide input. More information at [short link to city blog].
Remember to engage community partners to help get the invitation to as diverse a group of residents as possible!
Recommended Content Walkthrough Video: This example of how to publish a recommended survey uses the Community Equity & Inclusion Survey as an example, but can apply to any survey or poll that is available in the Content section of your Polco profile.
(Optional) Allowing guest responses
We encourage you to require respondent registration as it allows you to contact people for future polls. The default on Polco is to require registration. To turn this requirement off, you need our Guest Response feature, which you can get in our Basic plan. (Note: If you have activated guest responses on your profile you will also need to select “Allow Guest Respondents” for your specific survey at the bottom of the "Create Survey" page.)
