Yesterday I wrote a post about how reporters could use SurveyMonkey to get a better sense of their readers or expert sources.

What readers of this blog didn’t know was that I was actively using this method with the beat bloggers themselves.

I sent out a simple three question survey to the 12 beat bloggers. It was not meant to get any statistical data, only to engage them with the idea of creating surveys and at the very least, let them see it in action.

The biggest response right now was to the tune of: "I’m crunched because of the end of the year." Totally reasonable.

But one of the beat bloggers posed a good question: "Exactly how does this create a networked effect?"

To which I answer: Alone SurveyMonkey doesn’t create a networked effect at all. But in conjunction with other tools, anything is possible. So let’s go through a mock example. Remember, this is not a prescription for SurveyMonkey – it’s just a description of one way to think outside the box with it.

Let’s imagine I already have a Google Group of 25 sources related to my beat. First – I ask them all to send me, in private, one question that they would like to have the group answer. Let’s pretend I get 10 responses and only seven of the proposed questions are good.

I already have seven questions which I know are of interest to experts in my beat. Then I add another 3-5 questions and I send my survey to the entire group.

Now imagine 20 of my 25 sources respond. That might not be statistically significant, but if the questions are asked right, I’ll also have some anecdotal answers. When the dust settles, I reveal the results to the entire group, keeping anyone anonymous if that was deemed absolutely necessary.

At that point, I’ve only polled my expert sources. If I asked the right questions about a timely news event – I could get a blog post out of it. And that is just the start. Next, I could take that same survey (partly constructed by my expert sources) and open it up to the larger audience. Now in addition to great anecdotal material from my expert sources, I could accumulate statistically significant evidence from my larger reader base, who also feels like part of the larger social network (albeit, loosely).