Earlier this month, I opened up my very first Reader Survey. My hope is to gather feedback from each of you so that I can continue to get better at blogging/writing and to continue to give you information that you want to read. It’s a win-win really.
Thanks so much for responses! The data is giving me a lot to think about and I hope to use the feedback in very intentional ways.
I want to share with you some of the data that I received to help you understand who my average reader is:
I have a fairly even mix of women to men. Female readers was a little higher with 53% of the respondents. The average age is between 25 and 34. Interestingly, there were no responses from readers under 25 or over 65.
Most everyone has some college experience with the majority of readers holding either an Associate’s or Bachelor’s Degree. Most of my readers identified themselves as either a Corporate Leader or Other (lesson learned – I will put a field so that you can indicate what is “other”).
The average annual income falls somewhere between $40,000 and $60,000 and most all of my respondents live in the United States, although there were responses from India and Greece. Indiana is the state where most of the readers reside.
Everyone responded that they are Christian and most attend Assemblies of God churches. The majority of people attend church at least weekly if not more than once a week. All responses showed that your faith is very important to you and you would like to see me talk about my faith more.
Most of you first found my blog from Facebook and you’ve been reading my content from 2-4 months. Most of you read the blog on my site, although a fair number of you read it from an RSS feed or through your email. Most said that they usually read the new posts that come out and Leadership was the subject that most of you enjoyed the most.
As I’ve reviewed the information, there are 4 things that I’ve learned from these surveys:
- Feedback is always valuable. The good and bad of feedback, both are valuable. The choice to take the feedback and apply it is mine. As I go through life, creating content for my blog, I can miss the goal of writing and getting this kind of feedback is going to help me stay on track and even get better at this.
- Volume leads to validity. I didn’t have the number of responses that I had expected. It leads me to question the validity of the data because of this. For example, is there an even mix between male and female readers? Maybe…or it could be that more women were able to respond than men. So, next year, I must find a way to get the word out about my survey and increase the response rate to one that would provide valid data.
- Critiques must be carefully reviewed. When you’re asking someone to critique the work that you do, you are opening yourself up for vulnerability. The critiques can be in conflict with one another or they can beat up any self-esteem you have left. Balancing the critiques from a survey with what you know to be true about yourself and your ‘art’ is vitally important in these moments.
- I have great readers! My favorite part of the survey was reading your comments! You were so encouraging to me and you really have provided me with GREAT ideas and suggestions on how to improve. The things that you are most proud of literally made me pause…and thank God for each of you!
Once again, thanks so much for your feedback! I plan to do this survey each year so that I can have comparative data as well as practical feedback to continue to improve. Your participation will be vital going forward!
On a final note, will you share this blog with others? I’m going to challenge you to share it on Facebook, Twitter, or by forwarding an email to 3 people you know over the next week. Will you accept this challenge? If so, I want to say THANK YOU in advance for your vote of confidence!
One final question: Do you see any additional insights from the survey results I’ve shared with you? Comment below…
Excellent insights Tim! I’ve been doing reader survey’s several times and it’s been very heplful! What do you plan to do differently based on new feedback from your readership?
Thanks Paul! I think the reader survey will help me write better content that will help the readers in the areas that they need it most. Also, the feedback has helped me to stay motivated and excited about what I’m sharing here on the blog. I’ll be excited to compare the results from this year to next year to see what has changed, etc…