The new blog is now part of our website so you can easily surf our site and check out survey templates, webinars and sign up for a free basic account. You can still get the same great content on cool new survey features, Market Research trends and survey creation tips at the  Zoomerang Blog.

Come check out the new Zoomerang Blog.

Zoomerang Premium subscribers now have the option to pass respondent data through the survey URL to capture pre-collected information about your respondents, such as their job function or geographical region, or track additional information about your respondents, such as the website where they clicked the link to take the survey, without needing to ask for this information in the survey.

After you define parameters and launch the survey, you can customize the survey link with unique values for each parameter. When someone clicks the link to access the survey, the parameter value you entered into the survey link will display as the respondent’s answer to the hidden question in your results. Each parameter will display in your results as a hidden question and the unique values you enter for each parameter will display as the responses to that hidden question.

For example: If you want to post a survey on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, you can track which site the respondent clicked the link to take your survey. Once you define the parameter and launch the survey, you can include the name of each site in the link you post in each location to help you identify and create reports based on where the respondent accessed your survey.

In addition, once your Zoomerang Premium subscription is mapped to your Salesforce.com account, you can generate Hidden Questions to display in your survey results:

– When you map Salesforce campaign member information to Zoomerang as you deploy a survey to a Salesforce campaign

– When you pass data through the generic survey link as you deploy a survey using the web deployment option:

    – Each parameter you define will display in your results as a hidden question (with the Hidden Question Label you entered)

   – The unique values you entered for each parameter will display as the responses to that hidden question

   – When someone clicks a link to take the survey, the unique parameter value you entered will be captured as the respondent’s response to that hidden question

Respondent data associated with your hidden questions will display (in green boxes to differentiate them from the questions) at the end of your survey questions from the Analyze Results tab similar to the responses to open-ended survey questions.

Zoomerang has a wealth of information available to help you collect the actionable data you need and analyze the results. You can find a new Zoomerang Survey Tip each day on Twitter which are designed to help make your survey experience a success.

To help keep you up to date, I have compiled the survey tips from the last week for easier reference and I will be posting an update weekly.

– Use a different color and/or font to make instructions distinct from questions – Your survey will be easier to follow

– Estimate the time to complete for your respondents – Respondents can complete 5 closed-ended questions per minute and 2 open-ended questions per minute on average

– Use Tag Clouds to turn a category or tag list of written answers (open-ended response) into a graph

– Place mobile survey keyword codes in ads, in stores, or on coupons & watch real-time results online

You can find compiled lists of the previous Survey Tip of the Days as well as additional online survey tips and suggestions here at the Zoomerang blog as well as links to helpful Zoomerang tutorials and Zoomerang webinars.

Be sure to follow Zoomerang on Twitter if you would like to view the Survey Tip each day. You can also add the Zoomerang blog to your RSS feed or bookmark the site to get the weekly recap. If you have any survey tips you would like to share leave me a comment or send me an email, Zoomerang is all about sharing knowledge.

Zoomerang’s Twitter Integration feature enables you to automatically post a tweet of your survey (including URL) right from the Zoomerang Survey Launch page. By pre-formatting announcements that allow up to 140 characters Zoomerang’s Twitter Integration Feature acts as a Twitter client for your survey, making it a fast and easy way to tweet a respondent request along with the survey URL directly to your followers instantly upon survey deployment.

When you tweet your survey you will also be reaching far beyond your Twitter followers. Along with generous retweets, including keyword hashtags in your survey description will help your survey tweet go viral across the Twitterverse and beyond: In addition to the traditional Google search results, Google Search Appliance is now providing results from Twitter and Bing has also begun indexing tweets.

As social media is becoming a more integral factor to the overall market research feedback loop, Zoomerang subscribers can use URL parameters to segment survey deployments in order to easily segment specific survey groups or targeted deployments. By using a unique code for each audience, Zoomerang subscribers can determine how respondents to a MySpace survey, Facebook poll or Twitter survey compared to respondents in a control group.

Whether you are deploying a short customer satisfaction survey, gathering event feedback, surveying students regarding a school issue or interested in visitor feedback on your blog or website, posting your survey on Twitter can quickly bring you a world of actionable data and by using Zoomerang’s Twitter Integration the online survey process has become even more efficient.

To help keep you up to date, I have compiled the survey tips from the last week for easier reference and I will be posting an update weekly.

– Survey your blog subscribers to help develop more engaged readers and a higher quality subscriber list

– Employee surveys can help reveal where resources are being utilized most effectively to help reduce redundancies

– Select respondent samples that are representative of the population AND who have the knowledge to answer the questions

– When tweeting your survey keep the survey description under 98 characters to allow enough room for the URL & retweets

– Gather feedback regarding specific services currently on the market with a Service Evaluation Survey

You can find compiled lists of the previous Survey Tip of the Days as well as additional online survey tips and suggestions here at the Zoomerang blog as well as links to helpful Zoomerang tutorials and Zoomerang webinars.

Be sure to follow Zoomerang on Twitter if you would like to view the Survey Tip each day. You can also add the Zoomerang blog to your RSS feed or bookmark the site to get the weekly recap. If you have any survey tips you would like to share leave me a comment or send me an email, Zoomerang is all about sharing knowledge.

The 2009 Black Friday results from The National Retail Federation reported that while 195 million shoppers hit stores or Web sites over Thanksgiving weekend (up considerably from 172 million in 2008) shoppers spent less, with average spending falling 7.9 % (from $372.57 per household last year to $343.31 this year).

According to the survey, 32% of shoppers purchased toys, an increase of 13% from last year. Additionally, more people purchased sporting goods (13% vs. 11% last year), personal care or beauty items (22% vs. 19%) and gift cards (21% vs. 19%). The most popular purchases were of clothing (51%) and books (40%), which remained nearly unchanged over last year. In order to nab the best holiday items, more shoppers headed out for bargains while it was still dark outside – nearly one-third of shoppers (31%) were at the stores by 5 am compared with 23% who were at stores by that time last year.

Check out eBay’s activity on their transaction map for a Black Friday shopping visual representation.

Most signs point to a positive trend when it comes to online sales and traffic this year. comScore reported Cyber Monday 2009 online sales were up 5% over last year to $887 million which matched the heaviest online spending day in history (December 9, 2008). For the holiday season-to-date, $12.26 billion has been spent online, marking a 3% increase over the same period last year. Hitwise reported Amazon once again topped the list as the most visited retail website, seeing a 44% increase in visits compared to 2008 and received 16% of the visits among the top 500 online retail sites. Wal-Mart was the second most visited with 10% of visits followed by Target with 5%, BestBuy came in fourth with 4% followed by JC Penney with 3 %. Wal-Mart took the top spot for the most visited online site on Thanksgiving Day this year but Amazon edged out Wal-Mart on Black Friday. This is the fifth year in a row that Wal-Mart was the top visited site on Thanksgiving Day and Amazon has been Cyber Monday’s top visited site since 2006.

Among the top 20 sites visited on Cyber Monday 2009, Staples saw the largest increase in visits compared to 2008 with a 61% increase while Barnes & Noble saw a 46% increase. The Apple Store, which didn’t make Hitwise’s top 20 sites, saw a 71% increase in visits on Cyber Monday 2009 versus 2008. Online stores who dropped in traffic from last year included Overstock.com (down 25%) and Home Depot (down 29%).

So now that you have the numbers for this year’s buying frenzy be sure to review the 13 worst holiday spending blunders from MSN Money 

Zoomerang has a wealth of information available to help you collect the actionable data you need and analyze the results. You can find a new Zoomerang Survey Tip each day on Twitter which are designed to help make your survey experience a success.

To help keep you up to date, I have compiled the survey tips from the last week for easier reference and I will be posting an update weekly.

–  Do an advertising effectiveness survey first and spend your budget wisely

–  Integrate feedback data with transactional & financial data to help identify the actions that really make a difference

– Use Skip Logic to target several languages in order to return one set of survey results

–  Customize your survey – Choose a template design color theme that matches your image/logo

–  Integrate feedback & CRM to automate deployment of event-driven surveys & to personalize content

You can find compiled lists of the previous Survey Tip of the Days as well as additional online survey tips and suggestions here at the Zoomerang blog as well as links to helpful Zoomerang tutorials and Zoomerang webinars.

Be sure to follow Zoomerang on Twitter if you would like to view the Survey Tip each day. You can also add the Zoomerang blog to your RSS feed or bookmark the site to get the weekly recap. If you have any survey tips you would like to share leave me a comment or send me an email, Zoomerang is all about sharing knowledge.

The latest statistics from The Pew Internet & American Life Project’s Twitter and Status Updating (Fall 2009 Report) show that 19% of U S internet users (about one in five Americans) are actively posting updates about themselves using Twitter and other similar service. The latest estimates released by comScore put Twitter’s usage at 58.4 million unique worldwide visitors while eMarketer estimates Twitter will have 26 million domestic users in 2010.

With user numbers rapidly growing, Twitter has become an ocean of market research data just waiting to be explored. The Twitter search function allows you to quickly find mentions of products, services and companies in specific context, acting as a free repository of general and honest conversation where a wide range of information can be gathered.

To gain even more insights you can survey your Twitter followers directly and watch as your survey reaches others in the twitter community through re-tweets and hash tags. Whether you want to test out a new product concept or find out the most popular theme among your friends for a party, Zoomerang is a great tool for both personal and business surveys. You can use the Text Import feature to automatically program your survey to save you time and with Zoomerang you also have the ability to view real-time results of your survey as well as share survey results on your website or blog with friends, colleagues and site visitors.

5 ideas for a Twitter Survey

1. Gather opinions on current events 

2. Get feedback about a recent webinar or podcast

3. Learn what tools people are using to promote their business

4. Ask your friends about their favorite apps

5. Collect feedback on events and conferences

For additional Twitter tips and suggestions be sure to read Chris Brogan’s 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business and Select Courses’ 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Twitter Research.

To help keep you up to date, I have compiled the survey tips from the last week for easier reference and I will be posting an update weekly.

– Use Tag Clouds to easily quantify open-ended survey responses is easy – Just drag & drop words and phrases into tag lists

– A quick survey on a how to handle a difficult business question generates responses that can be directly put into practice

– Resist the urge to code/track employee surveys – When it’s discovered (and it will be) you will have reinforced distrust

– Prevent duplication of efforts and list fatigue – Coordinate efforts with colleagues using Zoomerang Enterprise

– Rather than cramming every Q you have into a single customer sat survey, do multiple surveys throughout the year on different topics

You can find compiled lists of the previous Survey Tip of the Days as well as additional online survey tips and suggestions here at the Zoomerang blog as well as links to helpful Zoomerang tutorials and Zoomerang webinars.

Be sure to follow Zoomerang on Twitter if you would like to view the Survey Tip each day. You can also add the Zoomerang blog to your RSS feed or bookmark the site to get the weekly recap. If you have any survey tips you would like to share leave me a comment or send me an email, Zoomerang is all about sharing knowledge.

Zoomerang has a wealth of information available to help you collect the actionable data you need and analyze the results. You can find a new Zoomerang Survey Tip each day on Twitter which are designed to help make your survey experience a success.

To help keep you up to date, I have compiled the survey tips from the last week for easier reference and I will be posting an update weekly.

–  If a lot of open-ended questions seem necessary, you may need to do qualitative research (i.e. focus groups) first

–  When surveying users of particular product types ensure users of current brands are represented in approximate proportions to market share

– Transition to online surveys from paper surveys easily with the Text Import feature – No more manual calculations!

–  Avoid sending survey invites Monday AM, Fridays & over the weekend to help improve response rate

–  A good sample (subset of a population) can be better than talking to everyone

You can find compiled lists of the previous Survey Tip of the Days as well as additional online survey tips and suggestions here at the Zoomerang blog as well as links to helpful Zoomerang tutorials and Zoomerang webinars.

Be sure to follow Zoomerang on Twitter if you would like to view the Survey Tip each day. You can also add the Zoomerang blog to your RSS feed or bookmark the site to get the weekly recap. If you have any survey tips you would like to share leave me a comment or send me an email, Zoomerang is all about sharing knowledge.