Are You Using the Best Ever Social Media Analytics Tool?

A simple online survey.
There are so  social media analytic tools to measure social media and other emerging technologies, that we’ve created a new genre of Shiny Objective Syndrome — Data Puking disorder.   We’ve become addicted to generating pretty charts and graphs, while taking any opportunity to play with any new (and especially free) social media measurement tool that we  read about on blogs.
We’re so enchanted by data, that we’ve lost sight of what decisions we’re trying or results to document.     It isn’t hard to see why we forget about one of the best ever social media measurement tools:  surveys!
If we are setting SMART objectives or trying to measure them, we may need to do a little audience research first.  Surveys can help get data to form a baseline, benchmark,  or inform strategy.  Surveys can also provide useful data to track progress along the way.
I stumbled across this online survey from the Birmingham Museum asking its Twitter followers what content they prefer and whose voice from the institution they’d like to hear.    I love this question – one that every organization that is trying to encourage more internal participation from staff should ask on a survey:
If we could get more BMAG staff involved in tweeting, who would you like to see tweet and answer your questions via twitter?
Curators
Exhibitions team
Learning team
Conservators
Collections Management team
Photographer
Front of House team
Museum Management
Fundraising team
Digital
None
Some nonprofits have surveyed their audiences on Facebook or Twitter in less structured ways to get feedback on content and engagement ideas.    I’ve done so on my own Facebook Page.   Jo Johnson from the London Symphony uses survey data to help track conversions from conversations on Facebook to ticket purchases at the box office.
How have you used surveys as part of your measurement strategy?