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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Want to know about your social media audiences? Try asking

Several years ago, as Twitter and Facebook were beginning to serve as alternative venues for comments and discussion about blog content, I asked measurement expert Katie Paine what this meant for those trying to get a handle on reactions to what they wrote. It used to be easy, after all, when all the feedback appeared in the blog’s comment section. But now, with people commenting just about anywhere, how could bloggers stay on top of reader reactions?

“They’ll just have to go back to asking,” Katie said.

Of all the social media measurement methods hashed and rehashed in blogs, presentations housed on Slideshare, webinars and other channels, asking gets about the shortest shrift. Yet it can produce invaluable results.

Every couple years, my podcast co-host, Neville Hobson, produces a survey for FIR listeners. The information we glean from the results helps us shape our content and make the case to prospective sponsors that our audience closely matches their market. The research also provides some surprising insights, like the number of listeners who don’t work in PR or communications.

You can survey just about any group of participants in any social channel for little or not cost using tools like Survey Money, Zoomerang, Twtpoll and a host of others. So I’m befuddled that organizations looking for a handle on the interests and issues of their fans, friends and followers spend more time on sentiment analysis and site analytics than they do asking.

The outputs of social media monitoring services are invaluable, but there’s also a goldmine of useful data that can be obtained from a survey. National Public Radio (NPR) has surveyed both its facebook fans and its Twitter followers. The results of the Twitter survey were released recently, letting NPR know that this slice of its audience…

  • Interacts with NPR content on a daily basis and use Twitter more than once a day
  • Takes advantage of non-radio distribution channels for NPR’s content
  • Gets all or most of its news online
  • Is looking to NPR to tweet hard or breaking news
  • Follows between two and five NPR Twitter accounts, which produces a rich experience
  • Is satisfied with the volume of NPR tweets

All of which can help the organization adjust its approach to Twitter as well as the other channels through which NPR delivers content. The survey also points up differences between those who follow NPR via Twitter and those who get their updates via Facebook, an audience surveyed earlier in the summer.

With this kind of information available for the asking, why aren’t more organizations surveying their social media audiences?

The Twitter survey results are here; the Facebook results are here. NPR also offers a Slideshare presentation that digs deeper into the data it has uncovered:

NPR Twitter User Survey 2010

10/12/10 | 6 Comments | Want to know about your social media audiences? Try asking

Comments

  • 1.Hi Shel,

    I thought the NPR follower insight study was great. We are doing a audience study for Network Solutions Social Media and hope to share the results soon.

    Shashi

    Shashi Bellamkonda | October 2010 | Washington DC

  • 2.You make a great point, Shel. Surveys have always worked well as an inexpensive feedback tool, yet we always feel the need for the shiny, new measurement toy...just like with social media in general. Plus sometimes surveys can better show behaviors and outcomes based on certain tactics than just listening/monitoring.

    How often would you suggest surveying? And what would you say to someone who says your fans are followers aren't an accurate representation of your customer base because they are already predisposed to your brand? I'm guessing something about the value of consumer retention, but interested in your thoughts. Thanks.

    Justin Goldsborough | October 2010 | Kansas City

  • 3.Hi Shel,

    I completely agree with you here. Although I work for an SM monitoring and analytics firm I believe that all that data is semi-useless unless you can make sense of it, which always takes a human. And what better way to try to make sense of the data than by asking your community straight out.
    ex. "We saw a big increase in traffic when we did X, why did you guys enjoy X so much?"
    Sometimes the best understanding comes out of just asking why.

    Cheers,
    Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos

    40deuce | October 2010 | Toronto

  • 4.I love the fact that NPR is taking a proactive approach to understand their social media followers. I totally agree with Sheldon and I don't think enough people take advantage of the fact that they CAN survey their community. As for the approach I would suggest making the survey as customer friendly as possible and launching it through your Twitter and FB pages. A few tips:


    * Customize the survey for each group it is being sent to and steer away from generic topics and questions.

    * Using open ended questions gives customers a chance to share their feedback in their own words. This can also be very insightful for additional data mining later.

    * Tell customers that their responses are anonymous to eliminate hesitation and uncertainty.

    * Offering incentives, like sales coupons or free products, may entice customers to give their feedback.

    As far as monitoring your social media data; with all of the Twitter tools available it should no longer be an issue of trying to tie ROI to your reach in Social Media. Find a metric that best matches your goals and then find the measuring tool tie it all together.

    Hope this helps.

    Best,
    Jason, Social Media Manager for Zoomerang

    Jason Miller | October 2010 | 265

  • 5.I think you make a few very interesting points. Surveys are still one of the easiest and most comprehensive methods of gathering feedback online. Additionally, there is a wealth of tools out there that can help anyone measure their social media activities across most of the platforms. Thanks for your valuable insight.

    Anna Gueldenhaupt | October 2010 | London

  • 6.Dear Cheap:

    The answer to your questions depends on whether that's the audience you're trying to survey. In any survey situation, you're looking for a random, representative sample. By querying people who visit your site, follow your tweets or listen to your podcast (for example), you're defining the sample at the outset. It's not likely you can apply the same statistically scientific rigor to this kind of survey as one that pulls from a completely random sample, but you can still determine trends and identify preferences. You can also apply the representative part of the equation by asking questions about such things as age, gender, location, income levels, etc. (based on what's important to you). And you can increase the randomness by asking your followers/friends to spread the word about the survey, increasing the breadth/scope of the audience that will participate.

    Shel Holtz | October 2010

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