Social media surveys

Social media platforms enable you to create and engage communities online. Growing by attraction, these communities connect ever greater numbers of like-minded people who share opinions, ideas, and information of interest with one another.

The networks that evolve on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare, Google Plus might include the very audiences your business serves. And at some point, you may want to ask for their feedback. For example, let’s say your company is planning to introduce a new mobile app and wants to do a little more market research. You might consider posting a short survey on Facebook and offering a 50 percent discount to the first 50 customers who complete it for you.

You can use a host of SurveyMonkey social media survey templates to find out which platforms your target audiences and communities prefer. Once you know which networks are most effective for reaching the people you want to hear from, you can then choose from an exhaustive collection of SurveyMonkey templates to create questionnaires for any purpose imaginable. Your surveys can be embedded directly on Facebook, or shared as a link on Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Plus and in an email.

To understand which social media channels are most effective for reaching your market segment, first explore how they use social media. Already know where to find your target audiences? Share your market research, lead generation, customer loyalty, and customer feedback surveys there.

Do your clients and customers use the Internet and social networks? If so, which ones? Are they on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare, Google Plus—or all of the above? How often do they participate in these communities, and for what purposes? What devices do they use to connect, and how likely are they to engage as a consumer? A mobile user will engage with your products very differently than someone who primarily accesses the internet from Mac or Windows desktop. Use this information to build your digital marketing strategy, including which types of content to deliver (video, blogposts, images, infographics, how to, or other), how long to run promotions, and which key influencers to target

Identify the key influencers in your business or social networks, and design strategies to engage them to amplify your messages. Invite them to write a guest product review, or ask them to participate in a podcast panel discussion. Develop content and social media marketing that includes their third-party perspective on your company, product, or service to foster authentic conversations.

Improve survey response rates by asking members of your online networks to complete and encourage others to complete your questionnaires on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest. Extend the reach of your survey by asking your contacts to like, post, tweet, pin, plus or otherwise share it with their social or professional networks.

Invite your networks to provide honest and immediate feedback. For example, ask members to try out a new smartphone and online app you’re developing and share their thoughts about the user interface and experience. Include an incentive to encourage them to complete your survey.

As your number of fans or followers increases and you build your relationships with customers and clients on social networks, poll these communities to find out what they think of their experience with your business. Thank them for this valuable feedback with incentives and loyalty rewards.

Use polling and surveys to add an element of fun to the conversation. People love to take fun surveys that give them insight about themselves; use things like dating or love surveys to build community engagement and interest and leave members more receptive to your next idea, promotion, or request.

Use one of our sample questionnaires as is, or customize it for your purposes. Or build your own surveys using our many different survey question types.

Are your customers, clients, or other audiences on the internet? How often? What devices do they use to connect and where? What purposes do they typically use the internet for—personal or business? If they were to use the web for one purpose only, what would it be?

Learn more about your target audience’s mobile phone and app use. If they use the internet or web applications, do your audiences use them on mobile or cell phones? Are they big smart phone users, and frequent consumers of new applications? Do they own an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or Windows phone? How often do they use their phones to access their online social networks? Are they inclined to buy apps often, and if so, what kind of apps? Use this feedback to decide if your business should develop and offer a mobile app too.

How often does your audience watch movies or TV shows streamed online? Would it make sense to integrate more video advertising and promotions into your online communications or marketing plans?

Which sites do your customers use? How often? How often do they download and upload to them? Are they hesitant about storing particular data online? Consider consumers’ and B2B customers’ responses to these questions as you develop online and mobile applications.

Which sites do your audiences frequent? And how often? What are their primary purposes for using these sites? Which site are they MOST likely to use, if they were to use only one? Evaluate which channels to use in your social media marketing campaigns.

Find out which social media buttons a company includes on their website and which drive the most online traffic for them. Use this information to baseline and measure traffic as a result of specific social media activities.

How often do your B2B customers frequent professional networking sites? Learn which of these sites might be good for introducing interactive thought leadership campaigns to build awareness about your company or the business solutions you offer.

Find out how your customers, clients, or other audiences use Facebook. Are they actively engaged, frequent visitors? Or occasional drop-ins? Do they use Facebook mainly to connect with friends and family, or are they members of other interest groups too? Customize this survey for any social network application.

How often do your customers and clients tweet or check their feeds? Is Twitter a good place for your brief news flashes or short promotions? Find out about your respondents’ usage to decide if Twitter is a good channel for your purposes.

Ask respondents if they’re regular Pinterest users, and if many of their friends are also on Pinterest. Do they use it often? Have many pins? How many pins currently have prices attached? How did they sign up for Pinterest? Use this information for planning survey-driven product promotions.

Find out what blogs your target audience posts to and reads regularly. Identify respondents who might be potential amplifiers of your messages, as part of your community engagement strategies.

Learn about the interest-sharing sites your audiences are using, and how frequently, and decide whether it makes sense to engage there to promote your product or service.

Which video viewing sites does your audience visit most frequently? You might be surprised to learn that Youtube is not the only video site your audience uses. What channels and programs are they most likely to watch? If you’re planning online advertising or marketing, use this feedback to decide which of these channels might be most effective for your target audiences.