Webinar Series / Episode 5

How not-for-profit professionals should be using search data to truly understand the public

Special guest

Sam Gilbert
Sam Gilbert

Researcher at The Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge

@samgilb

Hosted by

Watch the recording (59 mins)


What’s the webinar about?

I bet that at some point in 2020 you’ve turned to Google with concerns about what’s been happening in the world, seeking answers to questions that you may not have wanted to ask your partners, family or even your doctor...

Things like:

  • Loss of smell and taste
  • Can coronavirus live on packages?
  • Is it safe to travel to Italy?
  • Should I self-isolate?
  • Can you freeze cheese?

Sound familiar?

This year has shown us, more than even before, that the internet can become a welcome friend in times of crisis, signposting us towards help and advice at life’s most significant and intense moments.

Humans perform a massive 5.6 billion searches worldwide every 24 hours, and in the UK and the US at least, it’s usually Google that we turn to with our needs, thoughts, wants, concerns, questions and more. Google is therefore, effectively, a gatekeeper of the public’s most candid truths - and this makes it an incredibly valuable data source for anyone whose job involves trying to understand (and help) people.

While marketers are somewhat au fait with search data, there’s still a huge opportunity for those working in the not-for-profit sector and in social science to get to grips with Google and to do more search listening to inform their work. We’ll explore that in this webinar, where AnswerThePublic's Hannah Harris chats to Sam Gilbert, Researcher at The Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge and Sophie Coley from Search Listening.

For consumer and B2B marketers, the webinar will show that you could (and should!) use the skills you’ve learnt in your marketing career to benefit society as a whole - not just your clients or businesses.

Not-for-profit or public sector attendees will learn how to apply advanced marketing research methodologies which will get you to the heart of what people think and do.

What you’ll learn:

  • How search data is a vast reservoir of human needs and desires, growing deeper every minute
  • How to access insight which is socially useful, and at the heart of what people really want to know
  • How responding to long-tail content gaps can have a positive impact on behalf of your client, business or organisation
  • Practical Search Listening skills that you can use straight away using tools like AnswerThePublic