Surveys Are Still In Vogue For The Tech Giants

 

By Adriana Rocha

The discussions around the decline of surveys and their data validity are hot in the market research industry. However, if surveys are in decline for a bunch of market researchers, it seems it is not the truth for the tech giants, with Twitter more recently also joining the “Survey Club”.  They released few weeks ago “Twitter Polls”, and now anyone can add 2 questions to any tweet, and for the next 24 hours, people can place their votes. As Twitter states in their blog, “For poll creators, it’s a new way to engage with Twitter’s massive audience and understand exactly what people think. For those participating, it’s a very easy way to make your voice heard”.

This Twitter poll feature is super simple; still it gives marketers a new great “tool” in their toolbox for engaging and learning with people in a social media channel. But is it just an “interactive micro-content” tool, or is Twitter launching a new powerful survey tool? As we advance through the era of marketing as experiences, brands can count on micro-surveys as a new interactive way to engage with their audiences, and collect “in the moment” insights. This opens up a whole new dimension for marketing research and consumer insights possibilities.

For those still thinking that surveys are in decline, have a look into this marketing technology landscape  infographic, and you will realize the survey software arena is blooming, and the competition becoming even fiercer with the entrance of tech giants into the space. Additionally to Twitter (with its Twitter Polls),  Google (with its Google Consumer Surveys)  and Facebook, (with its  Facebook questions) also offer survey tools for free, or at very low cost, available to anyone wanting to ask questions, either with the objective of engaging or understanding their audiences.

For marketers, conducting surveys used to be something they had to leave to their market research departments. Nowadays, survey and poll features are integrated into a variety of  marketing technology platforms, from email marketing to social media marketing, making it easy, fast and affordable to anyone create surveys, gather customer feedback, ask questions and get fast responses from consumers, at any touch point, and soon enough through every “smart” device in your life.

I believe the main question for market researchers should not be if surveys are dying. As surveys become shorter, more interactive, mobile-friendly and even easily embedded into marketing experiences like this new Twitter Polls, I believe the main question should be: who will own surveys within the organizations in 5 years from now: Marketers, Technologists or Market Researchers? What is your bet?