A number of national studies, such as the recent Pew Research Center study, suggest that 62% of Americans support marijuana legalization. An informal poll makes me wonder if this number is actually higher.

I recently put up a billboard to advertise my cannabis investment strategy here in town. I am hoping to bring awareness to investment opportunities in this emerging industry as I feel it is likely to grow significantly in the coming years based on my research.

(Please note: AdaptFirst Investments LLC does not advocate the use of cannabis in any way, nor have any political or social opinion on the topic. Research and commentary are solely for investment purposes.)

Even though the Pew Research Center suggests growing acceptance across all demographic groups (seniors, Boomers, Gen X, etc.), the subject is sensitive, and people can have a very strong feeling about it both “for” or “against”. Knowing this, I was not sure what type of response I would get when I posted the picture of my billboard on Facebook.

I decided to “boost” my post over two days to anyone over 37 years old 50 miles around Greensboro, NC. I also put a limit on the ad budget of $40. These were the only three filters I put on the boost request. I have no idea how Facebook chose the people who received the ad in their feed. Given this, it is possible the sample may not be defined specifically as “random.”

Still, my post “reached” 4,105 people and had 445 “Engagements” (meaning they engaged with my page with either post clicks, likes, shares, and comments). The surprising piece of data came from the breakdown of Emoji responses to my billboard post.

According to this,197 people actively clicked to share an opinion. I thought the results would likely mirror the national average (60% for, 40% against), but that was not the case.

90% of the people who engaged either “liked” or “loved” the post.

Another interesting point to this is very few people on the list were people I actually knew personally. So, the results do not seem to be skewed given personal relationships. Also, the comments to the post were directed specifically at the content on the billboard. So again, this makes me think the results above are reflective of the message of the billboard, rather than the billboard itself.

As I have thought more about this, it seems I have inadvertently done a random? sample poll and the results were significantly different than the expected hypothesis. You could argue that in an of itself could disqualify the result. Is it an “outlier”? It very well could be. Or it could mean acceptance, be it medically or recreationally, is more pervasive than we think. Either way, I thought it was very interesting and will see if similar results occur in future boosted posts.

Sources:

Facebook Analytics for AdaptFirst Investments

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/08/americans-support-marijuana-legalization/

Created on 23 October 2018.

Is marijuana usage more acceptable than national polls suggest?

90% of the people who engaged either “liked” or “loved” the post.