By: Michelle Gross

Following the response from my previous post, or lack of response thereof, I was pleasantly surprised by the reaction I got from my survey. I feel people were open to answering the questions I posed in this format because of its fun and engaging demeanor. I also got some very positive feedback which I am now congregating to formulate for my next story pitch. I wanted to keep the questions as open as possible. I was very interested to see what preexisting information people actually know about the Brooklyn Navy Yard and likewise what they are curious to know about. I was not surprised to find out that many people don’t know a lot of about the Navy Yard, however I was surprised to learn that people seemed genuinely interested to learn more. I was also surprised to see the comments in reaction to this question:

“How do you think the Brooklyn Navy Yard can better integrate themselves into the local community?”

People had some fascinating ideas, and I will definitely be delving deeper into when I begin pooling the information together for my story.

I was also more strategic in how I advertised this survey. I realized following my last post, that putting a link onto your Facebook wall or even a random tweet isn’t enough. While I did received a couple comments in those forums, it wasn’t enough. So I went straight to the source. Directly from the survey document I linked to all of my social media platforms including: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even yahoo (which I now have an account for). After that, I emailed people directly from my gmail. This was the money-maker. I was able directly send the survey to over 50 friends, family and even a couple colleagues who work in the Navy Yard. I noticed that the response I received was more immediate. Friends were also a little confused as to why I was surveying the, (this was a first for me) but understood when I explained its purpose.

You can view my Brooklyn Navy Yard survey here or see below.