Principles of Social Issue Research

How many times have you used data points to persuade a funder, sponsor or even individual donors to invest in your social impact work?

Data is used all the time as a mode of influence - to either encourage or discourage involvement, shift attitudes and instill new behaviors. This is the intent of research and insights by leaders looking to advance the cause and mission of their organization or brand. What’s interesting though, as we ponder the data used as persuasion, is whether or not the data really reflects the intended response or impact of a population.

As the saying goes, the quality of data in reflects the quality of data coming out.?

Should leaders care about data quality and approach to building insights for persuasion? I often hear answers from leaders who say the research was “directional,” or “intended to at least provide the context for the need or role our organization cares about.”

But where this becomes even more challenging is in the marketing and awareness building space, where the aim is to use market research to understand the viability of support, activism efforts or even interest. The problem, however, is that many leaders are too quick to perform studies without doing the necessary due diligence: building accurate samples, asking the right questions and performing the right analysis to get at the best strategy for public engagement.?

Instead, they’re focused on proving what they want as right instead. This is often seen when:

• All viewpoints are not represented in samples.
• Questions are leading.?
• Issues aren’t put into the context of broader happenings and everyday life of respondents.?

The result is false positives all across the board. In poorly designed social issue research, the outcome will likely give indications that support of the issue is likely, leading leaders and organizations to believe the public is interested and they will show up at the next march/rally … when in all likelihood, support and interest are low.

So when doing social issue market research on the general public, how do we ensure that we truly get an accurate sense of their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on a particular issue or topic? From my years of working on, leading and publishing more than 20 studies a year, I follow five guiding principles to ensure we deliver not just the insights we need to make better strategies, but that we also ensure we have the real opportunity, challenges and barriers reflected in our work - especially when it comes to marketing and activating the public.?

In this series, I’ll be diving into these guiding principles so social issue researchers and marketers have a better understanding of how to build stronger market research studies to guide strategy for social impact.

1. Building a real sample of the public.
2. Understanding issues in context.
3. Creating better questions.
4. Segmenting audiences appropriately.
5. Reviewing data without bias.

Stay tuned.