How important are surveys to your social media strategy? Keran Smith, co-founder of Lyfe Marketing, uses them all the time.
Keran leads strategy at the firm, which specializes in social media marketing and management, so he knows what it takes to run a successful campaign.
He stopped by to share a few of his favorite ways to use surveys in social media.
Take it away, Keran!
Let’s take a second to think about your ideal social media strategy, shall we? When done right, a dynamic social media presence can offer your business so much more than a hundred Likes or a thousand Retweets (although those are nice too). So how do you do it right exactly? Enter surveys and social media.
Launching surveys can help you engage with your social media audience, kickstart the kinds of conversations that can strengthen your business’s overall strategy, and do tons more. So let’s figure out how to do just that so you can get started.
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Here are 5 ways to include surveys in your social media strategy:
1. Measure customer satisfaction
Social media is where consumers reveal their unbiased opinions regarding the products and services they use. Have you monitored your brand mentions lately? It’s likely that consumers are talking about your brand—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Take advantage of the opportunity to gain free insight with Customer Satisfaction Surveys and get a sneak peek into why your customers are happy or why they aren’t.
Benefits:
- Up-to-date feedback on how customers are reacting to your business
- Understand buzzwords that matter to your audience
- Build customer retention rates and referrals
Survey questions to consider:
- What do you like best about [insert your product or service]?
- Where could we improve?
- How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?
2. Collect demographic information
There once was a salt maker who had a large social media following of slugs. Long story short, he didn’t sell much salt.
When you have a clear understanding of the demographics of your following, you can position yourself to create the type of content your target audience wants to see. That saves your business time, money, and headaches.
Put out surveys on your social channels to gather age, education level, geographic location, gender, income, and other pertinent demographic information that will continuously help to shape your social media strategy for success.
Benefits:
- Audience-centered approach to marketing efforts
- Increased ROI and conversions
- More engaged social media following
Survey questions to consider:
- What is your age?
- What is your education level?
- What is your total household income?
3. Capture market research
Do you know where your potential customers spend the most time online? Who do people perceive as your biggest competitor? Market Research Surveys can help you identify where your customers are, what they expect from your business, and why they might choose your competition.
Make use of social media’s enormous reach to place these surveys in front of the right audience.
Benefits:
- Understand your audience
- Get clarity about what your customers want
- Identify competitive advantages of your competitors
Survey questions to consider:
- How often do you use [insert your product or service]?
- Where do you go first when looking for [insert your product or service]?
- How do you spend your time online?
4. Post engaging content
Creating content that engages your audience on a consistent basis can be tough to do, even for a social media marketing agency.
Videos and images work great but may require too much time and expertise to post on a regular basis. Try creating fun and relevant surveys that can add variation to your content mix and spark engagement amongst your audience.
You could even create a competition among your following and release the survey results for your audience to view later.
The key to success when using surveys as content is to keep your survey both entertaining and brand aligned.
Benefits:
- Greater engagement from social media following
- Added variety to posts
- Increased chance of virality (i.e. “going viral”)
Survey Examples To Consider:
5. Collect RSVPs & contact information
Looking for an easy way to get RSVPs from event attendees? Want to capture the information of a potential social media lead? Though most people don’t think of surveys when looking for such a solution, sending RSVP and Contact Information Surveys via social media is a perfect alternative for those without a website or form maker. They also work very well for storing contact information in one central place.
Benefits:
- Easy to create and collect the information you need
- Low-cost alternative to form builders and event management platforms
- Organize contacts in one place
Survey questions to consider:
- What is your first and last name?
- What is your phone number?
- What is your email address?
Now it’s your turn
Have you used surveys on social media before? Can you think of any other ways to include surveys in your social media strategy? Share with the SurveyMonkey community and let us know in the comments below.
A social media marketing agency with a concentration on lead generation and sales, Lyfe Marketing positions clients for success through social media management services, social media advertising services, website design and content marketing.
