ISIS communications survey results
May 2005

Thank you to the 388 members who responded to the recent ISIS communications survey. Your responses will be very helpful to our future communications efforts!

This survey shows that members are relatively happy with the current ISIS communications efforts, but that improvements in some areas are necessary. While more than 86% of respondents rate overall communications quality at good, more than 11% said the quality is “variable,” indicating that there is still need for improvement in the ISIS communications program.

Other findings show that almost 10% of respondents did not feel that the organization communicated with them frequently enough.

Web site The survey shows that almost 70% of members access the ISIS Web site at least once a month. Not surprisingly, the most frequently visited pages are those that help our members in their jobs: Species Holding, help & support, data quality and reports. Other frequently visited sites are ISIS News and information on the Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) Project.

The survey also showed that, overall, people like the navigation of the Web site, the way the information is presented and the content.

ISIS News Almost 20% of ISIS members have not read the newsletter – more than six percent did not even know that ISIS produced one! Clearly, we need to educate our members about the newsletter.

While responses to questions about the newsletter were generally positive, there are some definite areas for improvement. When we asked our members how often the topics in the newsletter were interesting to them, the majority (51%) chose “sometimes” and 37% chose “most of the time.” A few (2%) even chose “never.”

In comments about improving the newsletter, members made many helpful suggestions for new topics that we should cover in the newsletter, including more focus on conservation, data gathering and “tips” for using ISIS software. In addition, members requested better explanations of the many acronyms used in the ZIMS Project and the zoological community. We will work to assure that more of these topics are included in ISIS News.

More than 90% of respondents found the newsletter useful to their work. Incorporating reader-suggested topics and exploring additional opportunities should help improve its usability.

When asked how they would like the news delivered, 77% said they like it online as it is. In addition, almost 24% would like to see it in print. We will evaluate mailing the newsletter to those who wish to receive it that way in addition to providing it electronically.

Brand identity This survey gave us an opportunity to assess whether members recognize the ISIS brand in our community. While the results of those who recognized the ISIS logo were weak, this was expected. We introduced a new logo less than one year ago and, with the inception of the news ZIMS Project at the same time, this has caused some confusion.

The survey found that, while 86% of respondents recognized the old ISIS logo, only 43% properly identified the new logo. As expected, a high percentage – 34% – associated the new logo only with the ZIMS Project and not with the ISIS organization. We will continue to be aware of this as marketing and communications plans are developed.

To assess the membership’s general feeling about the organization, we asked members to complete the following statement: “The one word that comes to mind when I think of ISIS is ________.” Responses ranged from “good,” “conservation,” and “helpful” to names of our software products, “data,” “animals” and “reports.”

The ZIMS Project This is a critical time for the ZIMS Project. We are approximately one year away from initial deployment of the application. It is imperative that the zoological community is aware of this project, understands its significance and is willing to support it. Therefore, the question, “How aware are you of the ZIMS Project?” was posed. Here are the responses.

Awareness of the ZIMS Project
I am involved and feel I know a lot 64; 17%
I am involved, but do not feel I know much about it 78; 21%
I feel that I know a lot, but am not involved 113; 30%
I have heard a little about it 91; 24%
I have heard about it, but do not really know what it is 20; 5%
I do not know what the ZIMS Project is 9; 2%

More than 30% of ISIS members are not fully aware of the ZIMS Project! More shocking – more than half of those involved, do not feel informed about the project! We will put a major communications effort behind the ZIMS Project in coming months.

Language Finally, there are many members of ISIS for whom English is not their first language. In order to better assess needs for translating materials, we asked members to identify the language in which they prefer to communicate. Surprisingly, 294 of 342 responses (86%) were “English.” (Margin of error +/- 3%; 87-94%).

In addition, 12 chose French and 11 chose German and Spanish. Respondents also suggested Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and more generally Scandinavian.

We asked members, “How would you rate your understanding of written English?” Eighty-nine percent responded “excellent.”

While it seems that our members are relatively proficient in the English language, there may also be members who chose not to respond to this survey because it was written in English. In addition, there were many comments from respondents requesting materials in other languages, and ISIS is working to attract new members in regions that may not be as proficient in English as our current membership. We will continue to explore ways to bring more of our communications materials to our members in multiple languages.

If you have additional comments or suggestions about communications at ISIS, please send them to Michele Peters, Communications and Marketing (mpeters@isis.org). We will consider all member suggestions in our communications efforts.

Thank you, again, to those who found time to participate in this important survey!