[Air-l] Using LinkedIn for survey sample

[Dave Lester]

Hi Elena,

Last Fall I conducted an online survey about the Oregon Trail computer
game (http://www.oregontrailsurvey.com) that authenticated users by
using the Facebook API (now the Facebook platform) - it was the first
of its kind.  Internet surveys are by no means new, but the new
openness of these communities (via apis) is, and offers the potential
to reach target audiences for research.  I'm currently working on
creating a free web service called Surveylicious
(http://www.surveylicious.com) that will allow individuals to create
their own surveys on Facebook, and share them with friends - I
sometimes  blog about this as well.

To reach individuals who played the Oregon Trail computer game, I
contacted the administrators of Oregon Trail enthusiast groups (there
are hundreds on FB) - asking for them to send out a mass message to
their members, discussing my survey.  Someone also created a group
promoting the survey; as users added themselves their addition to the
group was shown in their friends "feed." Word of the survey spread
virally.  I ended up with 480 responses from 44 states and 4 different
countries in only 8 days - with almost equal representation of both
genders.

The trade off in my own research was achieving a convenient sample
set, as opposed to a scientific one.  With that said, I was able to
achieve remarkable diversity in those who participated.  I consider my
research to be much more the collection of oral histories, rather than
any type of scientific survey.

I don't use linkedin, and haven't explored possibilities for
conducting surveys there, but I'm very interested in how this pans out
- please keep me posted.

Best,
Dave Lester

http://www.davelester.org
Center for History and New Media
George Mason University