Throw in a Fun Question
If Buzzfeed has taught us anything, it's that you can predict where you will travel to next by answering what you'd like to eat for lunch. OR... that people love trivia and sharing their interests through fun quizzes. This is exactly why you should consider adding in a question that let's your members tell you more about themselves, outside of their connection to your brand and the research you're conducting. You may find the answers you get reveal a greater depth of insight and it's a fantastic way for members to get to know their community.
Include Trivia
Start by asking a few trivia q's in your questionnaire to get people engaged in the study. You can use survey logic to provide members with immediate feedback on whether they guessed the previous question correctly. Try to get creative with your trivia — the more obscure, or trickier the question — the better.
Members Asking Members
Give your members the chance to have a two-way dialogue with their peers by letting them ask a question either via a study or the Member Hub. This is particularly engaging for B2B communities where many of the members are subject-matter experts and can impart their knowledge to their fellow members. Be sure to share the top questions and answers with your community as a shareback in your Hub.
Ask an Expert
Not only will this strategy give your members access to the expert knowledge they want, it will further position you as an expert in your industry. Give your members access to influencers, senior leaders in your organization, customer service colleagues, or in-house product experts.
Design a Product
Let your members flex their innovation muscles by helping you design your next product. This is a great way to understand your members in greater-depth and unearth potential R&D.
Get Personal
Ask your members to tell a personal story, share pictures, or link to content they've posted on social media that's related to your insight community. Our customer in the travel industry asked their community to share their vacation photos and tell the community a story about their trip — this activity resulted in the highest response rate and the resulting shareback lead to greater engagement with the community overall.
Key Takeaway
Take time to infuse fun in your studies and give people a way to share and be creative. Everyone loves to be heard, so take a moment to listen to what they want to talk to about and give them a way to share their story.
