A Group Link is a unique record with a link to the survey that can be shared. A Group Link allows multiple surveys to be completed from the one link. Clicking on the link allows a person to register in a project either anonymously or with their personal details. As people register they become participants in the project and they are added to the list of participants in the project.
Group Links have multiple uses, including:
- Posting or embeding surveys on websites or Intranets
- Posting surveys to Social Media
- Sharing surveys on autoresponders (like Mailchimp & Aweber)
- Creating links for Influencers to share with their networks
- Give links to people to share or distribute surveys personally
Survey reports can also be filtered to include or exclude selected groups. This can be useful when analyzing the survey results.
The Groups Window
The Groups menu lists all the satellites in the project. Here, satellites may be added, edited and deleted. Satellite links can also be emailed and links can be generated. Satellites may also be shared to social media.
Adding or Editing Group Links
To create a Satellite, go to the Satellites menu in the project's Mission Control and select "+ Add Satellite" or "Import CSV" button in the top menu. From there, satellites can be added individually, imported from a CSV or selected from Contacts or Participant Lists.
Click the Edit button or the Delete button alongside a satellite to make changes to, or delete, individual satellites. To delete multiple satellites, select the check boxes next to the satellites to be deleted, then click the "Selected" button at the top of the screen and click Delete. A Confirm Delete warning message will appear with a list of the satellites to be deleted and the options of confirm Delete of Leave.
Required, Optional or No Registration Options
If you wish to ask the users who click the Satellite link for their details, you may wish to enable a Required or Optional registration. This will display a screen before the survey, asking them for the relevant details.
If registration is set to Required or Optional, an email will be sent to the user, confirming their registration for the survey, along with a link that will allow them to return to the survey if they do not complete it in one sitting. You may turn off this automatic mail, for example if your survey is short and does not take a long time to fill out, or you want to minimise the number of mails sent to the user.
Quick Satellite Add
The Quick Add feature can be used to quickly add a Satellite directly into a project. Enter the satellite name, email address (if applicable) or other details then click Save and the satellite will be added to the project participants. Only the name is required, the other fields are optional.
Add from Contacts
Click the Contacts tab and select contacts or satellite contacts to add to the project. This allows you to quickly convert your Contact entries into Satellites.
Add from a Participant List
Click the Participants Lists tab and select the Participant List to add all members of the Participant List to the project.
Import Satellites from a CSV file
Multiple satellites can also be imported directly into projects. When satellites are imported directly into projects they are not added to Contacts in the Dashboard. Select the "Import CSV" button in the top menu. The process for importing satellites is essentially the same as Importing Contacts.
The required data for importing project satellites is a Name. An Email Address is optional. So, for example, create columns in the CSV for Name and Email Address. Other optional data fields include Tags.
When importing satellites into Projects duplicate records are allowed and will be created in the project.
A message will appear to confirm successful import and to advise the results of the import.
Add surveys to websites (embed or with a link and button or image)
Select the link button alongside the satellite and a popup will appear with the link. Copy the link and then use it to embed the survey into a website with an iframe. Or use the link with a button or image to link participants to the survey.
Share on Social Media
To share satellites to social media accounts, select the "Social" button from the Satellite list and choose the desired social media.
View and share links manually
Survey links can be viewed for individual satellites or groups of satellites. To view links for multiple satellites, go to the Satellites menu, select the satellites and then click on the "Selected" button at the top and choose links. A list will appear with the names and survey links of the selected satellites. A survey link for an individual satellite can be viewed by clicking on the survey link button alongside the satellite.
Satellite links can be emailed or shared.
To send Satellites to someone via email, go to the Satellites menu and select the "Mail" button at the top of the page. To send email to selected satellites, select the check box next to the satellites and then choose Mail/Selected. There is also an email icon alongside each satellite to send emails to individual satellite email addresses.
Note: Satellites do not require an email address, so in those cases the satellite survey link will need to be distributed manually. Examples of when satellites without email addresses may be used include on websites, social media pages or verbally providing the link.
The email window has two tabs - Recipients and Mail Settings.
Recipients
The Recipients window displays the satellites to be sent emails and their email addresses.
Mail Settings
In Mail Settings select the Mail template to use. The Mail subject and message may be edited without affecting the Mail Template. Alternatively, create the email directly into the subject and message settings without using a Mail Template.
It is important to add relevant "Tokens" to the email. In particular, it is imperative to add a "Survey Button" token. This token will insert a button with a the link to the survey. Without this token the survey participants will not be able to access the survey.
A field is available to enter a "Mail log Comment". This comment will be recorded and can be viewed in the Mail History log for the satellite.
Deleting Group Links
When deleting satellites a warning message appears with a list of satellites to be deleted and asking if you are sure you want to delete them.
Deleting satellites does not delete the participants who have registered from the satellite or their responses. Those participants will continue to appear in the project list of participants and can be removed from there in need.
After deleting a satellite, the link will no longer allow people to register and complete the survey.
Optional URL Parameters for shareable Group Links and deploying via autoresponders
A Group Link allow anyone who clicks on it to take your survey. You can also include a registration screen to ask people to register with their name & email (as without this, they will be listed in the respondents list as an Anonymous User).
To further expand the functionality of Group links, they support 3 optional URL parameters. This makes them easy to use in mass mail outs from your favourite mail system or autoresponder (e.g. Mailchimp, Aweber), or embedding them in your web sites that include user authentication, where you don't want to ask your users to register for the survey (as they have already logged into your site).
There are 3 parameters that you can pass to the Satellite;
- first_name
- last_name
If you want to use this feature, the only mandatory parameter is email, the others are optional.
Examples
Let's look at some examples. As you have seen by now, a typical Satellite link looks like this;
survey.sparkchart.com/abc123s/
If you don't have the registration option enabled, anyone who clicks the link will be added to your survey as an Anonymous User. Now let's look at the URL parameters;
survey.sparkchart.com/abc123s/?email=john@example.com
Anyone clicking that link will be registered into your survey with the listed email address, and this will be shown in your Participants list. Now for another example;
survey.sparkchart.com/abc123s/?email=john@example.com&first_name=John&last_name=Smith
After clicking this link, John Smith will be in your participants list.
You may ask - what happens if I have a registration screen on my Satellite and I use this option? Simple - the registration screen will be pre-filled with those values, so the participant can verify them before starting the survey.
Usage
In case you have not used URL parameters before, the process is very simple. The format of the parameters and values is;
?email=john@example.com&first_name=John&last_name=Smith
Note that before the first parameter, you must use a ? symbol, and after that, each parameter is joined using a & symbol. The order of the parameters does not matter.
Once you have worked out your parameter list, simply add it to the end of your Satellite link.
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