Your Survey Is Ready. But What About Participants?

How are survey participants typically found? Well, it’s not a child’s play, but a long and time-consuming process. It usually involves sharing your survey on social media or distributing it by e-mail. However, both of those methods have limitations: your social media will most likely only reach your friends and relatives, while e-mail distribution is quite random and have a low response rate.

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The question of which medium is most successful depends on which target group you need. Below, we will walk you through which medium to choose while sharing your survey.

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E-mail

If your target group consists of members of some specific group (e.g. association, profession or company), sending e-mails directly to them will be the most effective strategy.

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Social media

If you need a broad target group, sharing your survey on social media will be reasonable. Firstly, you will have access to your friends, family and acquaintances. Secondly, you can join Facebook survey-swap groups, which concern research projects and finding participants - such as those here, here and here. Survey-exchange Facebook groups work to a mutual benefit - when someone answers your survey, you answer theirs in return, although it’s not obligatory.

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Social media join people from different parts of the world, professions and ages, so it’s easy to collect a wide variety of participants. However, you may also fall prey to an unproportionate amount of trolls, speeders and unfit participants - a price you pay for sharing your survey in a space open to anyone.

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Survey networks / online panels

A simpler and often more effective way to get responses is a survey network such as PollPool. PollPool is based on a simple sharing-economy concept: ‘do some, get some’, which makes finding participants very time-efficient and self-determined. Although it works similarly to survey-exchange Facebook groups, it leads to better results in terms of quality and statistical accuracy. PollPool works very simply: you answer existing surveys on the platform and in return, receive answers to your own survey.

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If a person came across survey network, they are most likely a survey creator themselves and they are committed to answering surveys accurately. Moreover, the platform counteracts the typical statistical distortions through its structure.

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Tip: Offering a 10/20 Euro voucher to win while answering your survey may be an extra push for some people to take it. At the same time, it comes with a minimal cost from your side.

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Still not sure? Check our other posts on the topic -- 3 Easy Ways to Recruit Survey Participants and I need survey participants.

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Click for the next part of the guide --> The big challenge: your data quality