Promoting your survey on social media
Once your project is up and running at MyCommunity.net, it's up to you to gather as many responses as possible. There's no need to panic, however; social media makes generating your own publicity easy. Here's how:
On Facebook
Once completed, share your survey with your network directly from the project page. This will connect your project photo to a Facebook post, as below. Tailor your comment to catch attention, and remember to tag followers or friends you think will share your survey on their own Facebook profile.
On Pinterest
If you have the Pinterest Pin-It Button installed on your browser, head to your project page and click the 'P' button. An image of your project will then be added to your boards, which you can share or invite other people to comment on. Alternatively, copy the link to your project page, go to the Pinterest board you want to add it to and click add 'pin'. Then click 'add from the web' and paste in your link:
Pinterest will ask you to pick a photo to attach to your link. Once this is done, select a board, add a description to your photo and share it to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
On Twitter
Twitter is where opinions live. Broadcast a message on your profile which includes the following:
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a link to your project – Twitter will automatically shorten this, so don’t worry about using all 140 characters in one go
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an image related to your project – the more eye-grabbing the better!
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a very brief description of your project
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the Twitter handle (username, e.g. @MyCommunitynet) of an individual or organisation interested in your project
If you include a person's Twitter handle at the beginning of the tweet, it will only be visible to that person and anyone who follows both you and that Twitter account. If you put the Twitter handle anywhere else in the tweet then everyone who follows you will be able to see your tweet.
On LinkedIn
It's always worth sharing your survey with your business network on LinkedIn – especially if your project relates to your industry. To do so, click on the pencil on the right hand side of your homepage, as below.This will allow you to create a post like the one below. Your image and name will appear; and be sure to add a project photo to the top of the page.
While copying text from your project page to make up your post is a good idea, avoid duplicating the complete text you have already written, as viewers will see this once they click the link to your survey.Be sure to include a catchy headline and a hyperlink to your project in the text body. Once you've finished creating your post, click 'publish'.
Finally...
Don’t be afraid to email friends and colleagues about your survey, prompting them to answer it and share the project via their own social media networks. It’s a good idea to include a template Twitter/Facebook post and an image they can use in your message. By making it easier for them to share your survey they will be more likely to do so.
Make sure your contacts know your Twitter handle or have 'liked' you on Facebook – this way they can mention you in their post, which you can then share or retweet yourself.
Once your survey has run over a few weeks and notched up a set of responses, there are other social media techniques you can use to source even more respondents. Find them here.