What we’ve learned about communications from the 2020 Election

Here are some lessons communicators should take from the recent election cycle:

1. Polls are only as good as people who answer them.

For the second time in four years the media and their pollsters are once again wringing their hands trying to figure out what went wrong. As anyone who has ever done any surveys at all, the truth is that  you have to get a large enough representative sample and a large enough sample size of any particular cohort before you start drawing sweeping conclusions, never mind redrawing the political map of the United States.

The reality is that this year, even more so than 2016, people were less likely to answer phone calls from unknown numbers. Think about it. People are using their phones today less and less as a communication device and more as a way to shop, bank, track their kids, check their health and figure out if they’re getting enough exercise.  Why would you want to stop all that productive activity for a call from a number you don’t recognize?