Social media survey questions: Examples and best practices

As of April 2024, the total global number of social media users reached 5.07 billion, up from 4.2 billion in 2021. Put another way, more than half the world uses social media. It’s no wonder marketers in nearly every industry are using these channels to get to know their target audiences better.

One of the best ways to gain valuable insights from customers is to ask them to complete online surveys. However, getting surveys in front of customers can sometimes be challenging.

Apart from the most obvious channel — a business’s own website — there are innumerable places on the web where a marketer can find customers. They can reach out to and connect with customers in groups (through mailing list databases) or one by one (through email opt-ins and ad clicks).

But the best option is going where huge numbers of the target audience are already congregating — on social media.

Asking social media survey questions gives marketers the ability to reach members of their target audience where they regularly hang out. To gain the insights your business is looking for, you’ll need to be deliberate and concise when developing questions, and you’ll need to strategize how and where you’ll ask them. In this article, we’ll look at what social media surveys are and how you can benefit from them, and we’ll give examples of different types of social media survey questions.

Social media surveys and their benefits

A social media survey, as the name implies, is a method of gathering opinion and observational data through a social media platform. Whether it’s via Facebook or LinkedIn, Instagram or Tik Tok, marketers can use social media channels to ask a target audience to participate in surveys. They can do this by sharing the surveys as posts on the business’s social media channels or through social media ads on a platform.

“Creating an effective social media survey can be a great way to gather insights, opinions, and feedback from your target audience,” says Noel Griffith, CMO of SupplyGem, a website that offers reviews of digital business platforms.

There are many benefits to using social media as a survey distribution platform. The key advantage is how easily your business can reach its target audience. With so many billions of people already on social media, it provides a built-in audience that regularly engages with content.

Add to this the refined targeting capabilities that all social media channels offer — your business can select the demographics it wants to reach with posts and ads — and getting survey responses from the people you want to hear from gets a whole lot easier.

Another benefit of social media surveys is that social media platforms provide a smooth user experience. Plus, people spend a lot of time on them — an average of two hours and 31 minutes a day.

Of course, it’s important to note that having a ready-made audience doesn’t guarantee survey responses. But meeting a few basic requirements will help ensure success.

First, a social media survey must be easy to use, quick to complete, and engaging. Second, it must communicate to customers that its purpose is not merely to collect data, but also to give the customer a voice. To accomplish this, you need a brief survey with a compelling headline.

“Keep your survey brief and to the point,” says Griffith. “Social media surveys should be kept relatively short so that people don’t become frustrated and give up before they’ve finished.”

Some marketers also include an incentive for participating in surveys.

Common social media survey questions

The questions you ask in your social media survey depend on your overarching goals. For example, if your business wants to learn about how loyal its customer base is, your survey questions should focus on finding out how committed the customers feel to your brand.

Regardless of the goal, however, the quality of the questions is key. “Make sure your questions are clear and easy to understand,” says Griffith. “Avoid long, complicated sentences or jargon that could confuse respondents.”

Here are some common categories of social media surveys and examples of social media survey questions businesses can use.

Product or service social media survey questions

Many businesses use social media surveys to ask their target audience how they feel about specific products or services. The questions typically cover topics ranging from general user satisfaction to opinions or observations about specific features. This data can help the business plan future products and services, upcoming promotions, and even inventory levels.

Here are some typical product or service social media survey questions:

• What is your favorite item from this product line?
• If you could get any product from this product line for free, what would it be?
• Do you prefer the red, blue, or green product?
• Would you consider purchasing this service bundle for $99?
  • Yes
  • Yes, but for a lower price
  • Maybe
  • No
• Does this service package include what you’re looking for?

Customer service social media survey questions

Whether you conduct business online, in person, or both, customer service is crucial to your success. After all, the way a business treats customers affects the overall customer experience and the perception of the brand.

If the service is exceptional, a customer may rave about it to friends and family, fueling valuable word-of-mouth advertising. If it’s rotten, the customer may complain about it, not only in private circles, but publicly — like in a public social media feed.

Here are some useful customer service social media survey questions:

• How would you rate the customer service at our store on a scale from 1–10, with 10 being “excellent”?
• Who is your favorite customer service representative?
• How could we improve our returns process?
  • Include a shipping label for returns
  • Offer more drop-off options near me
  • Provide clearer return instructions
  • Issue digital receipts
  • Other
• How do you prefer to reach customer service?
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Live chat
• Was customer service able to answer all of your questions during your last experience?

Customer loyalty social media survey questions

It’s essential for a business to understand its target audience’s level of loyalty toward the brand and what fosters that loyalty in customers. Such insights help the business make future decisions in areas such as promotions, internal processes like product or service design and customer service, and advertising campaigns. After all, it takes far less money to retain existing customers than it does to gain new ones, so it’s important to keep existing customers as happy as possible.

Here are some customer loyalty social media survey questions to consider:

• How many times have you purchased from our business?
  • 1–2 times
  • 3–5 times
  • 6–9 times
  • 10+ times
• On a scale of 1–10,  how likely are you to recommend our business to your friends and family, with 10 being very likely?
• Would you purchase a similar product or service from one of our competitors?
  • Yes, if the price and quality were the same.
  • Yes, for a lower price. 
  • No, I prefer to buy this brand.
• How would you rate your loyalty to our brand on a scale of 1–10?
• Would you consider purchasing a gift card from our business for a friend or family member?

New product idea social media survey questions

Businesses are always looking to satisfy their target audience’s needs. But sometimes even a well-informed business will have trouble coming up with the right new product or service to sell to its target audience. To stimulate ideas and mitigate the risk of investing in a product or service that might bomb in the marketplace, your business can ask its customers exactly what they want to see.

Here are some examples of new product idea social media survey questions:

• If you could change this product in any way, how would you change it?
• How would you suggest we improve this service?
  • Better customer support
  • Clearer set-up instructions
  • Better troubleshooting instructions
• If you could add a new product to this product line, what would it be?
• What do you most want to see in this new product?
  • Improved user experience
  • More convenient access
  • New design
  • More security features
• What product feature do you dislike the most and why?

Social media usage questions

If marketers are using social media as a way to learn more about their customers, then they also need to know how their customers use social media. For example, which platforms do the customers prefer, and how often do they use them?

Here are helpful social media usage questions to include:

• Which social media platform do you use most often?
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • X (formerly Twitter)
  • TikTok
  • Other
• How much time do you spend on social media each day?
  • Less than an hour
  • 1–3 hours
  • 4–6 hours
  • 5–7 hours
  • 7+ hours
• Which day of the week do you usually spend the most time on social media?
• Which social media platform do you use least often?
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • X (formerly Twitter)
  • TikTok
• What time of day do you typically use social media?

Regardless of which types of questions you include, it’s important not to make them all mandatory. “Give respondents the option of skipping questions if they wish,” says Griffith. “This allows them to answer only the questions they feel comfortable with and prevents them from becoming frustrated by difficult questions.”

Social media surveys and more with Jotform

When it comes to selecting a tool to help you create social media survey questions, Jotform is the easy choice. This survey builder comes with thousands of survey templates, all of which are easy to customize — right down to the finest details.

Griffith offers another helpful piece of advice for organizations who focus on the user experience: “Make sure your survey is mobile friendly so that it can be completed on any device.” Jotform makes that easy, too.

You can leverage the benefits we’ve covered in this article by using Jotform survey forms in posts or ads on social media platforms. All data gathered through the survey responses is highly secure. Plus, you can turn the raw data into actionable insights using Jotform Tables and Jotform Report Builder.

In addition to creating social media surveys, you can use Jotform for any other business process that requires forms, including invoicing, scheduling, and registrations.