10 Social Media Survey Tips

Before taking your survey into the social sphere, there are a number of important things to consider. We've compiled a list of 10 social media survey tips that will help you get the most out of your next research endeavor and increase your reach on various social media platforms.

The first thing you should do (or have already done) is define your goals. This may be as simple as stating what you want to get out of your findings. It could also be figuring out who your ideal respondent is and figuring out where to find them online.

Once you have a clear set of goals defined, the next step is to find your audience. It might be helpful to do a bit of background research on various social media site demographics, and then ask yourself: where would you find your ideal audience? Are they really into Twitter? Not so big on LinkedIn? Furthermore, do you need to buy a sample to reach these people? Every person and demographic is different, so don't waste your time by trying to tackle every single social platform.

This should go without saying, but demands to be repeated. Track your sources by using a tracking URL. It will better allow you to analyze what platforms work better than others so you don't waste your time on the ones that don't.

In order for surveys to be "sharable", they must be short and sweet. We use a rule that works pretty well across the board, it's called the 10-7-140 rule. Limit mobile surveys to no more than 10 questions, keep answer options to 7 maximum, and use no more than 140 characters per question. I might also add that it helps to keep the question types pretty basic, as well!

If your ideal audience heavily uses Twitter, set up a promoted Tweet. If they are more present on Facebook, use a boosted post. Social ads can be a huge help to your campaign and only cost what you are able to pay.

Encourage social sharing by making a fun, cool looking page. Always include links that allow users to share your survey with their friends.

Let's be honest, the attention spans of people on social media is getting shorter and shorter by the day. If you can't share results in a timely manner, you've lost your window of opportunity. Rather, share your survey results in real-time while you still have their attention.

Another cool way to incentivize survey completes is to donate to a cause. Pledge to donate a small amount of money per survey complete to a charity of their choosing. Not only are you doing good for the world, but your audience will regard you very highly.

If donating to charity doesn't do the trick, offer other incentives like gift cards and points. This is a surefire way to get people's attention. If you don't have the budget to give away a small gift card to each respondent, enter people into a raffle to win a prize instead.

Lastly, consider altering the format of your survey into a quiz-style questionnaire to make it fun and engaging. It should still be kept short, but people love taking quizzes to find out their results. In addition to that, let people share their results to social media to keep the ball rolling.