Each business might employ a different strategy but here is what we suggest:
STEP 1: Find a few conversations on the web about your type of business, product or service. In this step the business owner is trying to find out what people are talking about and what sort of questions to ask his customers.
Example: Joe's roadside A-Plus Motel in Walla Walla, Washington searches for "Motels in Walla Walla" and looks through the results to find forums, blogs, review sites, etc about hotels in his neck of the woods"
STEP 2: Write up a list of questions questions that mirror what people are saying in step 1.
Example: Good Ole' Joe learns that people are primarily interested in 5 different topics: cleanliness, cost, nearby restaurants, pool hours, check in/out times. Joe's survey might look something like this:
Question 1: If you were telling someone about your last stay with us, what would you want to tell them about the cleanliness of your room?
Question 2: How much did you pay when you stayed with us last? Do you feel like you got your money's worth?
Question 3: Did you happen to grab a bite to eat when you were here last? If yes, where?
Question 4: Did you get a chance to take a dip in the pool? How busy was it when you took your plunge?
Question 5: When you last stayed with us did you get an early or late check out?
Question 6: Thanks again for your input, one last question, if you someone said they were looking at hotels in our area what would you say to them?
STEP 3: Contact 3-5 customers who you think are fans of your business or product and ask if they would be willing to answer a short survey and get their opinions heard.
Example: Joe knew exactly who to contact because he had a very loyal repeat customer base who would be willing to talk with him. Joe sent an email to three of the five customers and called the remaining two since they did not have email. Joe's conversations went off with no hitches.
STEP 4: Type in the responses to the survey in Opinion Amp and send the verification email to make sure your customer and you are on the same page.
Example: Joe chose to take type into Opinion Amp directly rather than use a note pad and type later. He sent the emails to his customers and they all agreed that he took down their opinions correctly.
STEP 5: Gather conversations into Opinion Amp
Example: Joe searched the web using four search engines (google, yahoo, duckduckgo, bing) and found 100 conversations that he thought closely fit his survey. He copied and pasted the each link into its own record in his Opinion Amp linkspace.
STEP 6: Setup the accounts on the blogs, forums, review sites (as needed)
Example: 12 of Joe's links required him to setup accounts, which he did and recorded the login information into his Opinion Amp link space next to the right link.
STEP 7: Post your your customer's opinions into the conversations
Example: Joe transferred the text of his customers opinions into the linkspace and posted his customer's opinion to each website directly.
STEP 8: Monitor the conversations either manually or with the Opinion Amp tracking add-on
Example: Joe chose to get the tracking add-on and logged in every couple days to see if any response flags were next to his conversations. Two days later he had a response! Joe clicked on the conversation link and read that someone was traveling to Walla Walla for their daughter's wedding and wanted to know if their was a conference space in Joe's A-Plus Motel.
STEP 9: If you get a response to your post then review your survey questions and reply with your customer's opinion, the business owner or if you do not have a suitable response, circle back around to your customer and get one!
Example: In the case of the person asking about the availability of the conference room Joe replied directly as the owner of the hotel and said that they had a large conference room that would suit their needs.
STEP 10: RINSE AND REPEAT!
Example: Joe and Opinion Amp lived happily ever after.