Are Public Opinion Polls Reliable?

We often see statistics being quoted. Perhaps it’s in a magazine with the ‘8 out of 10 women agree’ type of thing. Or, it could be on the news, ‘200 people out of 300 survey think that so and so made a bad decision’. They are everywhere, but just how reliable are they. We will explore the issue below.

Firstly, it is important to note that not all surveys are performed equal. Different polls will use different methodologies, and this then presents its own problems. Is the science valid? Has the survey been carried out in a scientific manner, or is it simply a matter of ask a few people a few questions and then extrapolating the findings to everyone. How many people have been surveyed? What are the characteristics of the group being asked? All of these things make a difference, and if you do not have access to this sort of information, then it is better to take the experiment with a pinch of salt, because you cannot know if it is reliable or not.

A poll may sound fantastic. For instance, ‘we surveyed 1000 people and 8% told us this, that and the other’. That sounds good;surely, a group of 1000 people is going to offer a fair and unbiased response to the question. However, this may not be the case. For example, imagine there is an argument that the local racetrack (e.g. Silverstone) should be closed down because it is too near to a primary school and the noise is distracting for the children. If you then polled people at a Formula 1 event at the weekend if the track should be closed, the majority would say no. However, if you asked the parents of pupils at the school, they may say yes.

As you can appreciate, it is important, when undertaking a public opinion poll, to ensure that you ask a wide audience so that you do not receive answers that are biased. If you are not told who the participants in a study are, how can you know whether the results are accurate? When magazines tell you ‘8 out of 10 women think this product makes you look younger’ who are the women they asked? Those that work for the company and have a vested interest in the product? Or, those who are impartial and genuine. These are questions that you should be asking whenever you are trying to gauge the validity of a public opinion poll.

Opinion polls are a great way of gauging certain types of information, and they can be very good for market researchers. However, it is important that you question the claims that are made and that you find out a little more about the study before you take it as gospel. In other words, you must be objective when making evaluations about online opinion polls.

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Fun Things to Do Online

We all get moments where we are deathly bored, but according to the proverb ‘only boring people get bored’, and there are plenty of things to do, if we just know where to look. If you can’t be bothered to go outside, if it’s late, or if you’re grounded, or somehow not able to go outside, then the internet is the place to head. There are so many fun things to do that you shouldn’t get bored. Let’s have a look at some of the best things to do online when you’re at a loose end. 

Spend Imaginary Money

One thing that I love to do is to pretend that I’ve won the lottery. I then search the internet for all of the things I want to buy – shallow and superficial, I know, but it’s still fun. I start by finding my dream house: it has to be by the sea, but up high in case of floods; it has to be on the Atlantic; it has to be modern; it has to be spacious; it needs at least five bedrooms; it needs to have a wet room, or an extremely attractive bathroom. Once I have my house I might go shopping for added extras – I’ve always fancied a room with trampoline floors, so I add that to my house. I also add a slide from my bedroom to the swimming pool so as soon as I get up I can have fun and go swimming.  

Make Some Real Money

Once you’re bored with spending money that you don’t have, you can start making money that you do have. There are a few things that you can do to make money online:You can take online surveys – these can make you a nice bit of pocket money. However, you will usually get vouchers, but this is a good thing if you often shop at those places.You can write blogs. You’ll need to do a little research into how to make money from blogs, but it can easily be done once you know what you’re doing.

Start an Online Poll

There are a few sites where you can start a free poll online. Here, you can ask people any question you want. People don’t have to respond to your poll though, so don’t be too silly with the type of questions that you ask, or you might not have any answers. Taking online surveys can be great fun, and it’s a fantastic way of finding out how other people think. When you take or set up a free poll, it doesn’t cost you any money, so you can do it repeatedly. It’s a great way to spend a few hours when you’re bored.

Play Games

There are loads of places where you can play games online, and the great thing is that many of them are free. Whatever you like playing, you’ll find it online. I’m particularly fond of word games, and there are some fantastic ones out there.

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How To Carry Out Market Research On A Small Budget

For larger companies that make significant profits, market research is easy – they simply outsource it to a specialist company that can deliver the results they want. For smaller companies, though it is a different story – particularly for those that are new to the market. Contrary to what you may be told by others (usually the market researchers themselves!), undertaking market research does not have to be an expensive endeavor. Today, we are going to teach you a few tricks of the trade that will help you to better understand your market. The best thing is that the techniques we discuss are inexpensive and easy to manage. Read on to find out more…

The Internet is Your Friend

In the past, it was relatively expensive to undertake market research – sure, you could just stand on a street corner and accost people as they walked by, but this is largely unreliable as a method of gauging opinion. Usually, though, the only option for obtaining reliable results was to hire a market research specialist. Fortunately, the internet has arrived and it has opened up many avenues for us to explore our markets. For example, we can create a poll and target our potential customer base.

The best way to reach your audience is to create a poll online, but the type of poll you develop will depend on whom you want to reach and what you want to achieve. For example, are you looking to target your existing customers? If you are, then you can send them an email directing them to your poll, or you can send an email with the poll attached. Alternatively, you may want to target a completely unrelated group in an attempt to establish how to attract a different customer base, in which case you will need to establish the best way of targeting your potential customers online. For example, you might want to ask younger people, in which case you can link a survey from one of the social sites that has a younger demographic.

Depending on the type of person you want to target, you will have to ask questions in different ways:

1.       To target existing customers:

a.       Find there contact details online and direct them to the opinion poll. Or, have the poll appear on your website and send emails to your customers asking them to kindly complete the form.

b.      Ask them how they feel about your service

c.       Ask them how you can improve

d.      Ask them what else they may like you to offer

2.       To target potential customers:

a.       First place the poll somewhere that you know they will visit

b.      Ask them what they think of the sort of service you offer

c.       Ask them what price they are willing to pay for the service

d.      Ask them how often they will use the service

e.      Ask them what sort of things attracts them or turn them off from the services that you offer.

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Is It Sensible to Allow People to Vote Online?

                                         

 Many people argue against a move towards online voting concerning political polls. This is because people are afraid of problems such as fraud. However, other people argue that online voting is the way of the future, and that if we were allowed to vote online, we would have much better turnouts – as opposed to the low numbers that we see now. Well, there are good and bad points to voting online. Below, we are going to look at the advantages of doing so.

Advantages

·          Convenience: Many people fail to vote because it takes too much time. You have to go to your local polling station and queue, or you have to go to the hassle of filling in a postal vote and then finding a post box. Yeah, it’s not hard, but it’s something people would rather not do. With an online vote, they won’t have to. They’ll simply go online and cast their vote – it’s very easy. 

·          Security: People often say that online voting will be insecure, but we already use the internet to run opinion voting poll with little problems. Furthermore, most of us are happy to do our banking online, register for tax, and complete various other forms. Very few of us have any problems with fraud, and when we do, it is usually our own fault for not being careful. We have already heard of accusations of vote fixing. We rely on people to be honest and count votes correctly, but there are so many people involved that it is inevitable that mistakes are made, or that people skew results on purpose.Sure, we may have computer problems, but they will be traceable, unlike the mistakes of people (purposeful or otherwise). 

·         Participation: We have a very low turnout of voter in the UK. This is especially true of the younger    generations who simply don’t care about voting anymore. If we were to make it more accessible to them,   then perhaps they would be more likely to vote. This would allow many more people to take part in the   running of the country. At present, the people who turn out are mis representative of the population at large, because only the most politically motivated vote. 

·           Cost: It costs money to run traditional voting booths. You have to pay people to operate the voting stations and to make sure that people are voting correctly and that they are not cheating or looking at other’s votes. It costs money to hire the venues and to pay people to actually count the votes. An online system will be much simpler to run, and will enable us to save money; which given the massive deficit that the government owns, would not be a bad thing. 

·          Real time tallies: OK, so part of the fun of the general elections is in waiting for the scores to come in. we have special program mes where we go through all of the different towns, waiting for people to add up the votes. With online voting, we can do it in real time. We can see who’s winning and when, and we can watch as they get overtaken. It’s all quite fun.

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