Tidelines 2016 Reader’s Survey: What You Told Us

Our annual reader’s survey provided valuable information to the Tidelines team. We appreciate the kindness of those who took a few minutes to share their opinions with us. We’re especially grateful for the large number of comments that relayed thanks and encouragement.

Here is a summary of the results.

Who Responded?

250 of our over 1200 followers responded, a response rate of approximately 20%. Over 90% were Seabrook property owners, two-thirds of whom spend 75% or more of their time on the Island.

Content

These categories of posts were rated most popular and valuable:

• weather emergency/traffic/road closures;
• music and cultural events on and in the vicinity of the Island;
• local news such as restaurant and store openings in vicinity of the Island;
• governance news (i.e., POA Board, committees, Town council minutes); and
• Seabrook-based organization events.

There was a gradual diminution in popularity among the remaining types of content, but there was no strong indication that radical adjustments in amount and general types of content are required. We will strive to optimize our focus on the most popular types of content.

E-mail Followers

A significant majority of respondents who subscribe to e-mail updates on posts receive them immediately as they go up. We wish to remind our followers that they also have the option of receiving daily or monthly digests as well. Information on how to do this is included on our front page.

We asked if followers would like to subscribe to and manage e-mail separate feeds for different types of content. Three-fourths of respondents said they prefer one single e-mail feed that captured all posts.

Content Organization

We asked our followers if they would prefer to see posts organized according to different topics so that someone could see all posts related to, for example, POA committee meetings in one place. The overwhelming response to this idea was positive. We will soon be making some changes to our online format that will make this easier.

Comments

The overwhelming number of comments were laudatory, and we appreciate the kind feedback. There were several that offered constructive suggestions. We’ve taken those to heart and will use them to consider adjusting some types of content to come more in line with our followers’ needs and interests.

—Tidelines Team