Communications Survey Results
Even the tardiest respondent only took 19 days! I am confident that this level of response gives us a true representation of feelings about our communications at this time and allows us to draw some meaningful conclusions, and in turn implement some useful actions.
Below I’ve listed the questions with their responses and some brief comments from me. At the end I’ve put in what we intend to do to make things better.
How often do you visit the Scottish Orienteering website (or one of its sub-sites, e.g. Scottish Orienteering League sub-site)?
| Hourly | 0 |
| Daily | 20 (6.64%) |
| Weekly | 94 (31.23%) |
| Monthly | 107 (35.55%) |
| Yearly | 34 (11.30%) |
| Never | 14 (4.65%) |
| Other (please specify) | 32 (10.63%) |
It seems that over 95% of us visit the Scottish Orienteering website at least some of the time, with the majority of us visiting it weekly or monthly. Surprisingly, though, no one visits it hourly!
SCORE is our quarterly magazine. Do you read SCORE?
| From cover to cover | 131 (44.71%) |
| Only interesting articles | 83 (28.33%) |
| Only particular sections | 28 (9.56%) |
| No | 51 (17.41%) |
Over 80% of us read at least some of SCORE, which clearly demonstrates that it still has a very valuable part to play in our communications. However, I was really more interested in the next question:
Since SCORE is now distributed digitally are you:
| More likely to read it than before | 34 (11.41%) |
| Less likely to read it than before | 105 (35.23%) |
| Just as likely to read it as before | 108 (36.24%) |
| Just as likely to read it as before – I still get a paper copy | 51 (17.11%) |
Over 35% of us are less likely to read SCORE than previously because it is now distributed electronically. Personally, I’m surprised that this number was not higher…
We have a monthly email newsletter that is distributed via club secretaries. Do you read the monthly email newsletter?
| Always | 89 (30.17%) |
| Sometimes | 142 (48.14%) |
| Never | 64 (21.69%) |
Nearly 80% of us read the monthly email newsletter at least sometimes and many of the people who never read it don’t get it! This was, I feel, the most significant finding from the whole survey.
Which social media platforms do you use?
| Hourly | Daily | Weekly | Monthly | Yearly | Never | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 (8.65%) | 112 (38.75%) | 36 (12.46%) | 15 (5.19%) | 6 (2.08%) | 95 (32.87%) | 289 | |
| 4 (1.49%) | 36 (13.38%) | 19 (7.06%) | 25 (9.29%) | 8 (2.97%) | 177 (65.80%) | 269 | |
| YouTube | 2 (0.74%) | 20 (7.41%) | 60 (22.22%) | 81 (30.00%) | 23 (8.52%) | 84 (31.11%) | 270 |
| 3 (1.15%) | 9 (3.44%) | 5 (1.91%) | 6 (2.29%) | 8 (3.05%) | 231 (88.17%) | 262 | |
| 0 | 3 (1.13%) | 7 (2.64%) | 10 (3.77%) | 12 (4.53%) | 233 (87.92%) | 265 | |
| Snapchat | 4 (1.52%) | 5 (1.90%) | 4 (1.52%) | 5 (1.90%) | 1 (0.38%) | 244 (92.78%) | 263 |
| Other | 0 | 12 (8.82%) | 10 (7.35%) | 5 (3.68%) | 1 (0.74%) | 108 (79.41%) | 136 |
A lot of numbers, so perhaps the “Never” column is most interesting here: YouTube is the most popular social media platform, with Facebook a close second, although Facebook is generally used much more frequently. Social media doesn’t seem to be incredibly widely adopted by orienteers in Scotland…
Which social media platforms do you use to follow Scottish Orienteering?
| Hourly | Daily | Weekly | Monthly | Yearly | Never | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 (1.11%) | 19 (7.04%) | 46 (17.04%) | 34 (12.59%) | 3 (1.11%) | 165 (61.11%) | 270 | |
| 2 (0.78%) | 15 (5.86%) | 12 (4.69%) | 14 (5.47%) | 1 (0.39%) | 212 (82.81%) | 256 | |
| YouTube | 0 | 0 | 2 (0.80%) | 2 (0.80%) | 11 (4.40%) | 235 (94.00%) | 250 |
| 0 | 1 (0.40%) | 0 | 0 | 1 (0.40%) | 248 (99.20%) | 250 | |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 (0.40%) | 249 (99.60%) | 250 | |
| Snapchat | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 (0.40%) | 249 (99.60%) | 250 |
| Other | 0 | 3 (1.72%) | 3 (1.72%) | 2 (1.15%) | 1 (0.57%) | 165 (94.83%) | 174 |
Facebook is the most popular platform to follow Scottish Orienteering on, followed by Twitter. This is unsurprising as we currently have virtually no presence on the others (partly because they are not so widely used).
Considering Scottish Orienteering communications as a whole, please rate your satisfaction with them currently:
| Very satisfied | Satisfied | Quite satisfied | Not satisfied | Not at all satisfied | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 (10.20%) | 117 (39.80%) | 124 (42.18%) | 22 (7.48%) | 1 (0.34%) | 294 |
This says to me that we are doing fine, but that we could do better.
Considering how you would like Scottish Orienteering to communicate with you in the future, please rate the importance of each area:
| Very important | Important | Fairly important | Not important | Not at all important | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website | 193 (67.72%) | 61 (21.40%) | 26 (9.12%) | 2 (0.70%) | 3 (1.05%) | 285 |
| Paper SCORE | 43 (16.35%) | 69 (26.24%) | 45 (17.11%) | 63 (23.95%) | 43 (16.35%) | 263 |
| Digital SCORE | 37 (13.26%) | 91 (32.62%) | 81 (29.03%) | 52 (18.64%) | 18 (6.45%) | 279 |
| 94 (33.22%) | 117 (41.34%) | 62 (21.91%) | 7 (2.47%) | 3 (1.06%) | 283 | |
| 25 (9.09%) | 61 (22.18%) | 42 (15.27%) | 52 (18.91%) | 95 (34.55%) | 275 | |
| 11 (4.15%) | 17 (6.42%) | 38 (14.34%) | 52 (19.62%) | 147 (55.47%) | 265 | |
| YouTube | 1 (0.38%) | 12 (4.60%) | 31 (11.88%) | 64 (24.52%) | 153 (58.62%) | 261 |
| 0 | 6 (2.32%) | 15 (5.79%) | 52 (20.08%) | 186 (71.81%) | 259 | |
| 0 | 1 (0.39%) | 10 (3.86%) | 51 (19.69%) | 197 (76.06%) | 259 | |
| Snapchat | 0 | 2 (0.77%) | 11 (4.23%) | 50 (19.23%) | 197 (75.77%) | 260 |
| Other | 2 (1.38%) | 0 | 6 (4.14%) | 28 (19.31%) | 109 (75.17%) | 145 |
The website is seen to be the most important part of Scottish Orienteering communications. Both formats of SCORE have a key part to play, but we clearly need to do much more with email, with 74% of respondents feeling that this was at least ‘important’.
What topics are you most interested in? (Please select your top 3.)
| Results | 120 (41.52%) |
| Fixtures | 193 (66.78%) |
| Event Reports | 134 (46.37%) |
| General News | 189 (65.40%) |
| Elite News | 72 (24.91%) |
| Junior News | 78 (26.99%) |
| Veterans News | 44 (15.22%) |
| Rules | 0 |
| Scottish Orienteering League | 143 (49.48%) |
| Scottish Orienteering Urban League | 70 (24.22%) |
| Governance/Administration | 38 (13.15%) |
| Sports Science | 0 |
| Coaching | 82 (28.37%) |
| National Centre | 36 (12.46%) |
| Other (please specify) | 20 (6.92%) |
Fixtures and general news of most interest, no interest at all in rules or sport science!
Summary
So, this is all very interesting, but what does it mean? Here are my thoughts:
- The website should be the hub of our communications and as much information as possible should be available here.
- Members should be able to read SCORE how they prefer.
- SCORE should be easier to find on the website so people can go back to it more often.
- It should be easier to, and more obvious that you can, sign up for a paper copy of SCORE so people can get that if they wish.
- We need to communicate better via email.
- People should be able to sign up to email updates easily.
- We should continue to engage via social media.
- Twitter is particularly good for in the field updates.
- We should utilise YouTube more, by creating and posting interesting videos.
We have done/will be doing a few key actions to take things forward. Virtually all content will be going onto the website. You will be able to get SCORE however you prefer, and we will make it obvious this is your choice. We will be greatly improving the email newsletter – look out for that soon. We will continue to update Facebook and Twitter, and we will be actively looking to produce more video content – so if you’re interested in that, let me know!
I feel we only need these relatively few, relatively small, changes to make our communications great; I hope you’ll agree, but I would of course be interested in any thoughts you have. Remember too, we all have the ability to take a cool photo or interesting video, so don’t be afraid to get your phone out and communicate!
Ross McLennan SOA Marketing & Communications Director