Until Nov. 14, BC students have the opportunity to take part in a survey that will help BC plan for future marketing and how to draw in the community college demographic via advertising and social media. The survey takes about 20-30 minutes to complete and every student who finishes it is entered into a drawing to win a $150 gift certificate to Amazon.
The survey is comprised of questions that ask how students use social media platforms and how students spend their free time. It is made up of seven different pages with a variety of questions surrounding radio, newspaper, social media and more.
The radio portion of the survey asks students when they listen to most, what kind of music they listen to, and if music is streamed, where it is streamed from.For television preferences, the survey asks students when they watch television, how they go about doing so (through cable, game system, online, etc.) and what shows they watch the most. As for the newspaper section, the survey asks when students read a printed newspaper, what is their favorite, and what online news source students use. Other questions the survey asks have to do with what sort of access to social media students have, the way they communicate with others, their opinions on texting with BC, and social networking basic information.
BC got involved with Interact, the company conducting the survey, through conferences held by Washington State Public Information Commission and the National Committee for Marketing and Public Relations. Dr. Pamela Cox-Otto, the CEO of Interact, often speaks at their conferences. According to Sharon Berg, BC publications and communications manager, the college decided after hearing some of the results from using Interact to learn more about what social media platforms students are using and how they want to be reached. From these results, BC will be able to figure out if they’re purchasing the right media at the right times, according to Berg. “The more students who take it the more reliable the results, so their participation is very, very important to us,” said Berg.
Cox-Otto and Interact specialize in focusing specifically on two-year college media preferences in order to help colleges make smarter purchases with their money. Instead of the college going to a bigger marketing agency, going to Interact will ensure that the results include information only from the community college demographic and specifically BC students, as the survey is customized to BC only.
“Using the survey that we do, we’re able to show the college places where maybe they aren’t the places where huge audiences go, but they are places where community college students go and where people like community college students might go. In doing that, you can make a smarter buy,” Cox-Otto said.
In the end, the survey has the potential to help future and current BC students.
Berg said: “Bellevue College students have demonstrated a tremendous amount of care for the betterment of the college. We have so many student leaders, so many involved and active students, we felt sure that enough of our students would embrace this study to make it successful. The survey takes 20 to 30 minutes and it is online. The more people who take the survey, the more reliable the results and at this time we are falling short of the number of participants required to give us the level of accuracy we need. Our goal is 400 responses.”
For students that are interested in taking the survey, it can be found at their website The password for BC students to take the survey is 177814, which is the specific BC survey code.