Building and Managing your own Online Survey Panel

Why would you want to build and manage your own online survey panel?

There are a number of reasons why organizations decide to set up their own panel:

1.     To create a online community of respondents who share a common characteristic, such as gender, age group, location, profession or hobby. This will allow future research projects to target people who have already been screened for relevant attributes.

2.     To have access to respondents from all over the world. Although there are some respectable online panels that provide respondents from around the globe, it is possible that they won't have exactly the right characteristics needed for upcoming research projects. In this case setting up your own panel could be a great solution because you will be able to post recruitment ads, for example on Facebook groups, that are likely to attract participants with the specific characteristics you're looking for.

3.     To build a community of respondents who would like to participate in your company's research initiatives and be rewarded with various perks such as points or prizes which they can spend in the rewards catalogue at their leisure.

4.     Organizations may also decide to create their own panel when they simply want total control over how data is collected and processed; whereas online panels will often make use of proprietary technology and processes it is possible they don't fit perfectly with an organization's requirements and could result in important elements like question wording being lost.

Building and managing your own panel: what you need to do

1.     Firstly you'll need to decide what type of online survey panel you want to create. Will it be generalist or will it focus on a specific niche?

2.     Once you've decided on the target audience for your online panel management, you'll then need to think about the best way to attract participants. Do you want to post recruitment ads on social media or forums? Or will you incentivize participation with rewards such as points or prizes?

3.     You'll also need to come up with a system for screening potential respondents. This is important because you don't want to waste time and resources interviewing people who don't meet the criteria for your research project.

4.     The next step is setting up the actual panel. Most online panels offer a bespoke or hosted solution, meaning that you'll be able to log in and change the branding as well as alter how data is collected and processed

5.     Finally, once your panel is set up you'll need to manage it on an ongoing basis by constantly promoting it and recruiting new participants. You may also want to consider establishing a reward program for frequent one-time contributors who meet certain criteria such as completing 5 surveys within 1 year of signing up or 10 surveys total.