Survey Effectiveness

Surveys are a very effective way to reach your audience.  They are fairly easy to construct, and are user friendly. People taking surveys, are given a choice of answers to select, so it is not that complicated for them to actually complete. It is important to know who your audience is, so you don't confuse the audience by using a vocabulary that is too advanced for them.  surveys are effective, because you can reach a broad audience and receive results fairly quickly.  It is important to consider your target audiences characteristics. Characteristics such as level or literacy, language problems, and geographical  issues should all be taken into account while designing a survey for a specific group of people. along with learning about their characteristics, the researcher should also make sure that the anonymity of the respondents are protected. Another factor to be aware of while creating a survey is the respondents personal information. Some things are very touchy to certain people, and they may take offense or decline to answer certain questions because they feel  infringed upon. Things such as personal finances, sexual behaviors, and drug use are things that should be taken into  high consideration before actually being used.

I think everyone has taken a survey before, and personally when I take one, I find some level of fun and interest in them.
I was looking online the other day at some people that create surveys for their website viewers. This website,smart girl used surveys very effectively. Now, the website clearly is a young to middle aged teenage female's website, but they have their niche and were looking for results on favorite music. A simple survey was conducted which got out to 476 people around the world last June.
The survey basically asked these young women about their favorite music, their least favorite music, and how they are incorporated into each girls lives. The statistics were given at the end, which allowed for everyone involved in the survey to view the results of others, along with the public. At the end of the survey, the participants were promised that their personal information, would be kept confidential, which is very important.