How to gauge public opinion | 5 methods to measure public opinion

Are you trying to gauge public opinion on a particular topic? We can help you with that. In this article we’ll explore our 5 methods to measure public sentiment that are actionable regardless of your sector.

If you’re in the media, knowing which way the wind of public perception is blowing on particular issues is often part of the story. If you’re a government agency or department, having a handle on how the public feel on specific subjects will inform your decision-making and external communications. If you’re in real estate or property development, you’ve got to be sensitive to the feelings of the local communities you’re influencing and growing.

Regardless of your organisational objectives, here are our top methods for measuring public opinion.

1. Create Surveys that ask the right questions

Surveys might sound kind of old-school, but they get the job done, and modern technology makes them far more efficient and effective than the days of postal surveys and employees conducting them on doorsteps.

Using a gamification platform like Drimify, you can easily create and publish branded Surveys online.

For the most helpful results, you need to ask the right questions, and ask them in the right way. They need to be clear, concise, free of leading, loaded language, that might influence people’s answers, and focused on the specific issues you’re investigating.

Depending on your plan to use the data, you could use a mix of closed and open-ended questions for a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, or focus on multiple choice or true or false questions for purely quantitative data that can be analysed more quickly.

2. Arrange focus groups

If you have the resources, and the public opinion on the issue at hand is important enough, you could look to arrange a focus group.

This is where you gather small groups of diverse individuals who altogether are representative of your target audience, or the affected audience.

You can then engage them in structured discussions about the topic at hand. This method provides in-depth qualitative insights, and allows you as an organisation to get a better understanding of underlying attitudes and motivations that might not surface in surveys. You can also ask follow up questions that only occur from things that come up during the focus group.

3. Hold public consultations

Organising town halls, community meetings, or even online forums means you can facilitate a space where individuals can voice their opinions directly.

This is similar to the focus group, but also more inclusive, as anyone with an interest can come along and participate in an open dialogue. This can yield all sorts of insights from the public, but unlike the focus group, which is more controlled, you might not be able to follow up on interesting points as they arise. You can also learn more about how important an issue is through the size of the turnout.

Pro tip: If you’re putting together a public forum, you need to put measures in place to ensure discussions remain productive and inclusive. You also need to bear in mind that the public are not bound by their job to be on their best behaviour, and in particularly sensitive cases of local governance, you will encounter people who aren’t necessarily representative but make the most noise, and in some cases, just have axes to grind and enjoy an audience.

4. Use social media listening

From the 2010s onwards, significant percentages of everyone’s audience has been either live-Tweeting or live-streaming their opinions, or some of the louder elements with more to say are flooding various online forums like Reddit with their opinions on certain issues, with others keen to chime in and agree or retort.

You can follow threads by analysing hashtags, comments on shared posts, and just generally using searches to identify prevalent opinions and emotions. This approach offers real-time insights and helps you gauge public sentiment online.

If you have the resource, and the ends justify it, it could even be worth using specific social media listening tools. There are various social media listening tools on the market, but they all essentially allow users to track several social media platforms for specific topics all in one place, automating and simplifying the process.

5. Gamify complex issues to help people better understand important subjects

In cases where you’re needing to measure public opinion on particularly complex issues, it might be useful to develop interactive games or simulations that can offer users a deeper understanding.

By making complex subjects more accessible through play, you enable individuals to grasp their intricacies and nuances, ultimately leading to more informed opinions. This method was pioneered in the early 2000s and referred to as “newsgames,” as more complex issues aren’t always the easiest things to grasp through articles or shorter news segments.

This approach could be used as part of the process of gauging public opinion, or in response to public opinion, if you believe the consensus is based on misconceptions.

Pro tip: The Dynamic Path™ format allows you to create multiple levels of video content, text, and Quizzes, letting you build a simulation in which to immerse your audience, communicate knowledge, and give users the opportunity to apply that knowledge and build their understanding of the relevant issues.

Key takeaway

Combining multiple methods can yield a more comprehensive understanding of public opinion – not everyone is overly vocal about their opinion on social media, not everyone is necessarily confident enough in their own understanding of an issue to engage, and not everyone responds to Surveys – the silent majority is a time and again proven phenomen.

In particular, integrating gamification to simplify complex issues can lead to more informed and nuanced public opinions, facilitating deeper and more effective engagements with audiences across various sectors.

A multi-method approach acknowledges that public sentiment is diverse and complex, requiring a strategy adapted to the target audience – whether that’s a broader populace, an entire customer base, or a specific segment – for effective measurement and understanding.