Reflection on my Surveys

I approached this task in five stages:

·         What did I want to find out and why

·         Who could I ask to participate

·         What tools were out there that what would fit my needs

·         Design the questionnaire and send it out

·         Analyse the answers

What did I want to find out and why

During my research I concluded that a personal brand is a two dimensional thing

·         what you want it to be; and

·         how you make other people feel. 

So based on this I designed two surveys

·         one for a performer

·         one for an audience

For the performer I wanted to see and explore the following:

·         what they knew about personal branding

·         how they thought it had helped or hindered their career

·         what they think made up their personal brand

For the audience I wanted to

·         What they saw

·         How they felt

Who did I ask

I wanted professional performers to complete the Performers survey and I realised my professional network along with social media was a rich source of data and potentially even richer if they extended the invite to their wider network.

I used my social network with social media for the audience survey.  This excluded any performers. 

The tools

Text books say the larger the sample the more accurate a survey tends to be more and reliable because it is anonymous so it encourages greater honesty, and it is more economical than an interview. 

Firstly I designed a questionnaire for the performer. I did an outline on paper first and divided it into 4 sections: Personal data about the respondent so I could do a comparison, their knowledge of personal branding; training or advice on personal branding and their feelings about other performers   I was seeking to explore their views without leading them so qualitative questions were more appropriate and quantitative questions were rarely used.

I searched the internet for online survey tools.  With the exception of Pirate Survey they all required either a monthly or annual fee for the functionality I needed e.g. more than 10 questions per survey and more than a 100 responses.  I decided to use Pirate Survey to pilot my questionnaire.  As I started to draft the questionnaire I began to realise that there were some limits with this tool. I completed the questionnaire and decided to pilot it with BAPP colleagues I only had 5 responses from my colleagues, but that was enough for me to analyse the suitability of the questionnaire and the tool.  I also tried out the reporting functionality which was limited.  

Because of the challenges with editing, retrieving and reporting I decided to transfer the questionnaire to a tool I was familiar with and happy with the functionality, Survey Monkey. I upgraded from the basic account, for 2 months subscription and that gave me more functionality e.g. better flexibility in the layout of the questionnaire, and the options to use more than 10 questions in one survey. 

I sent the final questionnaire out through Facebook, with a covering letter, consent, and a web link to over 200 of my contacts. 

Audience Survey

I then designed an audience questionnaire to find out what an audience sees, feels and hears and in addition I had some questions on current and past performers which I hope will inspire me for my artefact.  This questionnaire was even simpler.  It was short and asked only 7 questions, I decided not to pilot this survey and I used Facebook to send it out to over 200 of my non performing contacts.

360 or personal questionnaire

During my research I started to think about my own personal brand and decided that this should form part of my artefact.  I designed a questionnaire which asked what people thought about me (this was difficult and task I put off).  I was keen to get some really honest answers so I really stressed that this would be anonymous and I did not ask any personal questions.  I wanted to seek views from people who knew me well and others that had only a brief encounter with me.  Again I used the survey monkey tool to draft the questionnaire and I sent out the link to 30 people, who I knew would answer honestly, via Facebook.

I am now at the analysis stage and if anyone has any hints tips on how to use this tool I would be grateful for some advice.  I have found lots of common themes between the questionnaires, the interviews and my reading so I am feeling quietly confident that the questionnaire was pitched right.