Socialsuite is a technology platform that helps organizations measure the impact of their programs on communities. In April, they launched a free COVID-19 impact monitoring tool so organizations could rapidly listen, understand, and act to help their people during the COVID-19 crisis. The tool also allows users to learn what is working well for similar organizations and share results to compare global trends. Socialsuite’s goal is for organizations from around the world to use the COVID-19 tool to learn from each other.
Through researchers and partners around the world, Socialsuite has distributed the free tool to many local networks of organisations to help them understand and act on locally relevant insights based on the pooled data from their region. The more organisations that use the tool, the more valuable the global and local shared insights on how to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis become and the quicker every organisation can adapt, especially with the help of their funders. More than 5,000 surveys have been submitted as of the end of May, and survey requests are growing. Socialsuite wants to continue to boost the participation rate while maintaining engagement for recurring surveys. Socialsuite also wants to encourage organizations and funders to take action from the data collected from the COVID-19 survey. In these early stages, Socialsuite is facing challenges with knowing what feedback to collect without causing survey fatigue, building global awareness, and engaging grantmakers. They came to the LabStorm group for advice as they tackle these challenges and continue to grow. Here is what the LabStorm community had to say.
Focus on storytelling. Socialsuite uses open text boxes in surveys to provide respondents with the opportunity to provide relevant details and context to their answers. Socialsuite noticed that when they provided free text boxes on their COVID-19 tool, people often provided very long responses on a range of topics that were not always related to the question. LabStorm attendees noted that in this unexpected response from survey-takers, Socialsuite has unearthed a good marketing opportunity. Attendees suggested that Socialsuite utilize storytelling to capture important sentiments conveyed in the responses, and share them out publicly on their platform. Stories motivate people, and making the platform more focused on stories could attract more attention to Socialsuite’s offerings. Socialsuite is already discussing collaborating on a storytelling project with another LabStorm participant.
Get creative to reach a global audience. Socialsuite collects COVID-19 feedback from around the world and shares their findings with local partners and overseas media to accelerate the development of locally relevant insights. In order to reach this international audience, Socialsuite is ready to expand their platform’s language options beyond English. LabStorm participants recommended starting by translating their work into a few key languages that match the needs of their audience. Attendees suggested using linkedin translator groups to get fast and inexpensive survey translation or offering the translation project up as a socially distant volunteer opportunity. In order to get the word out to a wider international audience, LabStorm attendees noted that Socialsuite could pursue contracts with social media influencers around the world – Attendees who work in Asia or Africa mentioned that social media can often be an effective way to get the message out to citizens. . After the LabStorm, Socialsuite put these suggestions into action and started a project collecting feedback from over 1,000 medical centers around the world on the impact of COVID-19 on hospital services and translating their findings to 7 languages.
Invest in working more with local governments. Socialsuite has recently seen more interest from local governments. One local council used the results from Socialsuite’s COVID-19 survey to create more outdoor space for exercise. Socialsuite wants to make sure they are prepared to adapt to local governments’ unique needs. In order to build connections with local governments, LabStorm attendees recommended showing how the results from the survey are being used by other local governments. Socialsuite has begun implementing this idea and has increased their communication with local governments and encouraged them to share their learnings from the COVID-19 survey.
This LabStorm showed us that simple changes can make a big difference. Socialsuite is consistently using feedback and learnings to make their COVID-19 survey more accessible for users and groups that want to share the results. Do you have experience in storytelling, fast translation, or working with local governments? Leave a comment below or send a message to [email protected].
The May Covid-19 Social Impact Report has just been released by Socialsuite and can be downloaded here.
