About a year ago someone I follow on Twitter was saying how their major site had been hacked and that they had cleaned it all up but Google was still treating them like persona non grata. They were at a loss what to do. So I sent a tweet to @mattcutts and asked if he could do a friend a favour by explaining what was still wrong with his site. Matt answered straight away.
Sometimes the most obvious things are the most difficult to perceive.
Like last week where I was all in a huff ‘n’ puff about why was it that people all around me were forming these great business partnerships and yet none seemed forthcoming to me. Now usually my self esteem has oodles of spare to get me over rough patches but the day job is really, REALLY unpleasant at the moment and my reserves of fairy dust are low. So I said to myself, why waste time speculating… just freaking ASK. So I did.
I follow 200-odd people on Twitter and so scoured through the list and picked 24 people that I admire, respect and are go-gettin’ types. I set up a Survey Monkey survey asking 5 basic questions.
1. Would they do business with me
2. Had they ever thought of doing business with me
3. What are my strengths
4. What are my weaknesses
5. What advice would they offer me
In the first 24 hours 12 responded and in 48 hours 14 have. Which in survey terms is an awesome response ratio.
So I got answers – great answers!
You might want to give this a go too. make sure you are wearing your thick skin rain-coat because when you ask for brutally honest opinion, some of it it will sting (but only because ALREADY KNOW 
Planned and executed my exit from the corporate world. Walked away with a 6 figure payment to boot.
An interest approach, Allison. It will be interesting to see where these questions will lead.
Hope you find some more fairy dust soon; would you like me to send you some? ;P
Michelle´s last [type] ..MMAT05 – Edging and Sponging
Ingenious idea with the survey…
Daniel Rose´s last [type] ..Culture trumps policy- every time
That is the most creative way I have heard of someone getting information like that. That is an awesome idea. I doubt I am at that level where people even know who I am. But when and if I get there I will keep this kind of action in mind. Being critiqued can be good and bad as you said but it only hurts because you know it is true.
Well Michelle (just between you and me) when you ask, you also plant the seed of the idea in people’s minds. Inception style. Now people KNOW I am looking for projects to work in and won’t be afraid to ask
I love the idea of passing along a simple survey like that, and I’m glad you had such quick and informative responses. Were you able to spark any business partnerships because of it?
Brian@Charleston Marketing Firm´s last [type] ..Nofollow No Problem! Social Networking Rises Above Search Engines
An interest approach, Allison. It will be interesting to see where these questions will lead.
Hope you find some more fairy dust soon; would you like me to send you some? ;P
I like that approach very bold and you get direct answers that you are looking for. I think job interviews should start off with a poll question or when bidding for jobs. It would eliminate certain obstacles.
great article
That does sound like a good and also very brave way to get feedback! I always worry that people tell you what they think you want to hear and not the truth you need
Very interesting, I had not thought of using my twitter contacts like that. I wonder what the average response rate is? as i tend to delete emails that ask me to complete surveys as i don’t have the time.
Online surveys can really help and your idea is really interesting. Asking those direct questions can really help on doing a SWOT analysis for your business because every individual can produce unique answers and brilliant ideas.Your strategy is really great.
Allison,
Thanks for this idea. It was really quite clever to use a survey and that is an impressive response ratio.
It seems to be a while since your last post… did you run out of fairy dust? You have great info here, keep up the good work!
Sally @ Egyptian Qeen Costumes´s last [type] ..Cleopatra Halloween Costumes
partnership does count in business grounds..and yes those surveys mean a lot, it can help us all clarify things we wanted to know since then
cashmere´s last [type] ..Android May Soon Have the Upper Hand
Your post is really interesting. And it only shows how resourceful you are and I really like your strategy: “ask and you shall receive”.The presence of social media is truly useful in catering this online surveys which can truly help our business growth and be able to get some opinions of our potential target markets.
I thought that surveys were hopelessly a waste of time…but I can see that applied this way it would be effective. I’ll give it a shot when my new site is up (now it’s horrific!) and get some feedback.
Very cool concept. Did you have them fill out the survey anonymously, or did they need to/ have the option to identify them selves?
This is a great idea. How did you send our your survey? Twitter platform?