Social Media Survey Integration

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is an overrated marketing tool. While it has some potential – especially as a customer service platform – most companies don't benefit from it as much as marketing gurus like to claim they will, because it takes a considerable amount of work, reaches only a limited audience, and its content is often ignored because of the high number of companies that have tried to use it for marketing. But it certainly still has its uses, and one of the ways it can be used is to create a quick survey – one that will allow you to collect data on your followers and find information that may help your business.

Social media represents a convenience sample, so it's not always the best strategy for research that is more intensive or affects larger business decisions. But convenience sampling – especially as a way of simply generating ideas for your business – is still useful, and you may be able to utilize these surveys in several ways: Social Media Research Companies can use social media surveys as a way of gathering data on how they should continue to use social media.

For example, the company could find out what kinds of Tweets people would respond better to, and how likely people would be to read or share a Facebook status update if it contained X type of information. Generating Ideas We've often talked about feedback gathering, and how many companies run qualitative surveys or hold interviews in order to generate ideas for their business before running a quantitative survey. Social media can be used for this same purpose, giving you the option of gathering information and feedback that will help you develop questions for a more scientific study in the future.

Learn more about qualitative surveys and quantitative surveys . Research Announcements You may also want to consider using Social Media as a way to research how to announce future products, both on social media and elsewhere. Surveys about a new product or feature are always useful, and if you perform those surveys on social media you may (although it could be unlikely) generate a social media buzz about your upcoming changes.

Social media is also a platform to reach your customers like any other, and while convenience sampling isn't the best way to gather data, for a lot of companies it's still a very useful way to learn more about the customer mindset. You may also be interested to read on: How to Post Surveys on Facebook Using SurveyMethods Effective Ways to Use Facebook Surveys