We use Verify a lot here at ZURB, both for consulting and to help with product development. Like many of you, we're constantly tweeting out our tests to get those 30-50 results we're looking for. This can get old, and you'll quickly exhaust your contact list if you don't mix it up. We've found several good ways for you to generate more responses that we'd like to share with you today.
Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter
Of all the potential ways you could send your test out, these three have proven to be the most successful time and again. Your Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts and Twitter followers are firmly in the camp of people who love you; they want to take your tests because they want to help you out. In some cases, wea''ve seen Facebook generate over 500 results on its own. Be careful not to over do it; you'll run out of contacts fast if you take advantage of these channels more often than once a week.
Amazon Mechanical Turk
When you need a massive number of results, this is the place to go. Any time of day, there are thousands of potential test takers available through MT. We needed 10,000+ results for a website study we did recently, and MT was able to provide them at a cost of about $.01 each. Ita''s important that you create a way to validate that the MT workers have actually taken your test so that you're not paying the wrong people.
Home Page Notifications
When you've got a solid amount of traffic to your home page, putting your test front and center can be an extremely effective way to get fast results. We tried this out on a test we were doing recently for one of our clients, and got over 600 results in only a few days. Earlier this year, we showcased one way this strategy was used to help the University of Tennessee redesign their med school website.
Email Blasts
This is another common strategy that we've talked to customers about. Like the social networking channels, email gives you a chance to talk to the people who already love you. If you've got a large list to reach out to, your odds of getting the results you need are pretty good. Be careful; no one loves a spammer.
In addition to these methods, we're sure there are many other ways to get good traffic to your Verify tests. If you've got any to share, or if you'd like some tips about how to use these methods effectively, shoot us an email at [email protected]