Get Started on Polco
Polco offers a range of tools and resources to help you onboard quickly and effectively. By understanding these tools, you can leverage Polco to its fullest potential. To start, watch our Onboarding Video, then explore our Knowledge Base for in-depth tutorials and support materials on every aspect of using Polco.
Get Buy-In From Your Team
It's important that both your Polco administrators and your staff understand how the platform works. Even if your team members aren’t directly posting surveys or polls, they will likely assist with outreach and answer questions from the community.
Staff should also understand Polco’s benefits, such as its ability to collect resident input on important issues. Whether you're gauging public opinion on a new budget, planning initiative, or community project (e.g., choosing playground equipment), Polco's diverse question formats can help gather insights that are valuable across different departments.
Create and Post Your First Questions
Creating and posting questions on Polco is straightforward but requires thoughtfulness. The questions should be simple, neutral, and non-leading to ensure survey credibility. Polco supports various question formats, allowing you to craft questions that align with the information you're seeking.
Each question can include additional context, such as links or background information, to help respondents better understand the topic. For a complete guide, check out our Question Creation and Posting Tutorial.
Reach Out to Your Community
Effective outreach is critical to maximizing participation in your surveys. Engaging as many community members as possible ensures more accurate and representative results. Polco automatically verifies respondents, but it's still important to actively promote your surveys.
Social media remains one of the most efficient ways to reach a broad audience. Polco’s user-friendly platform fits into the busy lives of your community members, allowing them to participate on-the-go. To increase your reach, follow our Engagement and Outreach Tips for the best practices.
Analyze the Data
Once your survey is complete, the next step is to analyze the data. Understanding and communicating the results is crucial for transparency. Your respondents are not just providing opinions; they’re expecting to see how their input will be used.
Polco’s data analysis tools offer clear insights into trends and preferences, helping you make informed decisions. Dive into our Data Analysis Guide for step-by-step instructions on interpreting survey results.
Learn from Your Efforts
After collecting and analyzing your data, take time to reflect on the process. Were your questions clear? Did you engage a diverse and representative sample of your community? Did you gather enough responses to make the results actionable?
Use each survey as a learning opportunity to refine your approach. Whether it's improving question clarity, boosting outreach, or increasing response rates, continuous improvement will help you make the most of your community engagement efforts on Polco.
