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"This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.\nOne of the best uses of social media for business is being able to monitor your brand.  Services like Twitter search and Facebook search make it easy to see each time someone mentions your company, while third-party applications like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop allow you to get real-time updates pushed to your desktop and instantly reply.  \nBut what if you want to proactively get feedback about your business, new product ideas, marketing campaigns, or other issues relating to your company?  You could simply publish out a question to your connections on a social network of choice, but there are far more methodical ways to gather feedback \u2013 some free and others low-cost \u2013 that can be a valuable aid in your decision making.\nAdd a Survey to Your Website or Blog\nFeedback forms have long been a part of websites.  But now, there are ways to create them and obtain organized feedback without any programming knowledge.  WuFoo is a service that lets you create virtually any type of form \u2013 from open-ended questions, to polls with radio buttons, to multiple choice \u2013 and then embed it on your website or blog with cut and paste code.\n\n\n\n\nThen, through your WuFoo account, you can get real-time reports on the results, as well as add or update poll questions on the fly.  The service offers a free edition that includes up to 3 different forms and 100 responses, plus subscription plans for users that need more forms or more responses.  \nAdd a Poll to Your Facebook Page\nIf your brand has a Facebook Page, adding applications to it is one way to both keep them engaged and gather feedback.  Involver offers a Facebook polling application that will not only ask your Facebook fans a question, but also let them share their vote with friends, which can help attract additional fans to your page.\nPoll Your Twitter Followers\nIf you\u2019ve already set up a feedback form on your website through an app like WuFoo you could simply share a link to it with your Twitter followers.  However, there are some feedback apps designed specifically for Twitter that are worth checking out.  \nPollDaddy, which offers a polling solution for blogs much like WuFoo, has an app built specifically for Twitter too.  Set up your question, login with your Twitter username and password, and PollDaddy will automatically tweet your question to followers.  \nTwtPoll offers similar functionality, and has a built-in option that allows poll respondents to retweet your poll question and in turn give your poll a wider audience. \n\n\n\n\nPost a YouTube Video\nWant feedback that captures more emotion than a text response?  Post a YouTube video.  Doing so is now as easy as recording from your webcam and uploading \u2013 all directly from the YouTube site.  YouTube now allows for \u201Cvideo responses,\u201D so users who see your video can post a response in the same way they\u2019d post a text comment.  \nLinkedIn Answers\nAs a network targeted at professionals, LinkedIn is an excellent place to get feedback for your business.  Its LinkedIn Answers product is actually specifically designed for this purpose, letting you pose a question to your connections and get feedback.  On the flip side, answering questions from other users is a great way to build new relationships on the site.\n\n\n\n\nGather Feedback Responsibly\nWhile the social web makes gathering feedback and conducting market research exceptionally efficient and low-cost, it\u2019s important to remember that you\u2019re also potentially broadcasting your next move to competitors.  Thus, social media based feedback programs should be designed such that they give you the information you need without telegraphing your strategy. \nMore small business resources from Mashable:\n- 6 Tips for Customizing Your Small Business Blog- 5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business- Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them- 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business- HOW TO: Use Twitter Hashtags for Business\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, rtimages"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/09/28/social-media-feedback/>