Our blog has moved to our main site. We feel moving forward that we would like to keep the conversation and engagement directly within our space. Please go to www.pollstream.com for recent content. Have a great day!
As communicators we often talk about the importance of “speaking the same language” as our audience. Our customer Baker Hughes LITERALLY faced this challenge as they looked to engage over 33,000 employees spread across 90 countries, speaking 8 different languages.
They used PollStream’s Multi-Language and Poll-in-Email tools to educate & inform their employees about the company’s generous Employee Stock Purchase Program.
By creating an engaging, relevant and interactive two-way dialogue with their employees – in 8 different languages – enrollment in the stock plan increased 28% with 2200 new participants and nearly 700 existing participants electing to increase their contributions.
A great example of how literally speaking the same language as your employees can have a measurable impact on your business.
I encourage you to read the full story here.
And of course, we’d always love to have a conversation about the work you’re doing. Let’s talk.
During this week’s broadcast of For Immediate Release with Shel Holtz I talked about how the Harvard College Fund enriched their fundraising efforts with alumni by asking not just for funds but for stories about their fondest memories of the Ivy League.
Their challenge was an ongoing one – how do you engage alumni for annual contributions?
Harvard had an active list of email addresses for their alumni community and had traditionally blasted it in pursuit of straight-up requests for funds.
For the campaign I spoke about this week, Harvard leveraged PollStream’s Poll in Email to complement the request for funds with an engaging and emotional opportunity for alumni to reflect back on their college years.
Whether their strongest memories were about their academic, extracurricular, or the friendships they made the aim was to tie the request for funds to the college experience that the participant identified as being the most impactful.
The first question of the poll was:
Who at Harvard had the most positive influence on your undergraduate experience?
- Professor/Teaching Fellow
- Academic Adviser
- Classmate/Fellow Student
- Extracurricular Leader (Coach, Employer, etc.)
- Harvard Administrator
To Harvard’s surprise and excitement, open rates soared and 85% completed the poll, spending nearly 4 minutes each to tell one of 500 submitted stories, some of which were selected for publication in The Yard.
A great example of how giving your community an opportunity to give can result in riches you’d never anticipated.
I thought I would direct everyone’s attention to part three of Omar El Akkad’s four part series on cloud computing. PollStream is mentioned in this Globe and Mail article on choosing the right cloud provider.
Have a read!
As our American cousins sit down to feast I thought I would throw my hat in the ring to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving on behalf of the gang here.
I also thought I’d share a couple things that I’m thankful for.
I’m thankful to work with an insanely talented team at PollStream. A group of super smart developers, marketers, customer focused account managers and visionaries who make every day different because they dare to dream.
I’m also thankful for one colleague in particular, the one and only Dzung Tran who spends his work day making everything you see from us look amazing and his personal time raising funds for prostate cancer.
Walk this way and donate to Movember!
So I challenge you to take Dzung’s lead and walk this way – make a Movember donation now!
Happy Thanksgiving!
As we talked about in today’s broadcast of For Immediate Release with Shel Holtz, our customer TD Canada Trust was looking to promote financial literacy amongst Canadian holiday shoppers. Based on what they’d learned from their annual holiday survey, TD is providing tips on how to prevent the worst spending blunders as Canadians begin their shopping.
To get the word out TD not only embraced traditional media through press releases but social media, a tactic that included the use of an engaging quiz poll from PollStream.
The quiz was included in the press release to drive up interest, and allowed the press and the public to determine what kind of holiday shopper they are and then share those results with their friends on both Facebook and Twitter.
Not only did this approach earn significant media pick-up, but since the average quiz participant had more that 300 friends on Facebook alone the quizpoll greatly multiplied the reach of TDs message. That’s the kind of gift that keeps on giving.
I encourage you to take the quiz yourself and share it with your friends to see just what kind of gift giver you are – http://vote.pollstream.com/4513
We’re thrilled to announce our support of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF).
A nonprofit organization that addresses youth unemployment and under-employment in Canada by providing programs that support young people who are creating their own employment through entrepreneurship, CYBF is using a custom poll template to allow the public to vote for their favorite video submission as part of this year’s Chairman’s Awards.
As our president Steven Green says in today’s press release, CYBF has a great track record of championing the leaders of tomorrow and we’re excited to be associated with them.
What’s New @ PollStream
November 18, 2010 in Steven Green | Tags: api, cleveland clinic, comment engine, hive, ontario place, poll, poll in facebook, poll mobile, pollstream, rbc, sparkplug, the the hive | by Steven Green | Leave a comment
It has been a while since I have sent out an update to members of the PollStream community. There has been so much going on these past few months that I just have to stop for a moment to share some news with you all.
In June we moved to our new offices located at 18 Hook Ave in Toronto’s up and coming Junction neighborhood. The new office is large, light and bright and ready for guests, so feel free to drop by any time!
On the project side of things we have been very busy with client implementation since the move to the new office. The Cleveland Clinic’s employee communications program is well underway, the Ontario Place public consultation enjoyed fantastic participation and RBC has launched their Pollution Probe annual quiz. I was shocked to discover that I only scored 3 out on 10 on the Pollution Probe quiz – I couldn’t believe how poor my ‘energy literacy’ was!
Currently we are busy with a new Hive implementation with our partners over at Rideau Recognition Solutions. I recently spent a lot of time with the gang from Rideau; Peter Hart, Peter’s son Jordan and Max Brown, while at the VPHR conference in Paris. It was my first time presenting outside of North America and it was wonderful. Paris is certainly a lovely place – even in the midst of month long national strikes.
The PollStream developers have been incredibly productive this fall and have delivered a ton of new functionality that many of you are familiar with first hand by now. For those who may not have discovered these new enhancements….read on!
The New Year is just around the corner and from our view is gearing up to be a breakthrough year. I thank you all for helping us get to where we are today and for staying with us as we grow together in 2011!
Best,
Steven Green