Survey Research

Survey is one of the important ways of research in public relations. Survey's allow you to get an idea of what a large  population of people think by asking a small sample of people. There are two different types of surveys questionnaire and  interviews. Questionnaires are used more often than interviews because the are less expensive, less biased and easier to get people to participate since you can send them through mail and email or ask them over the phone. 

There are different types of questionnaires there is mail in surveys, they are relatively inexpensive to administer. You can send the exact same instrument to a wide number of people. They allow the respondent to fill it out at their own convenience. The next type is group administered questionnaires where the questionnaire is given in a group setting to make it more convenience for the people giving the questionnaire. The third type is household drop-off where the the questionnaire is dropped off at the person's house and example is when people go door to door dropping off the U.S. Census. 

There are two different types of interviews there is the personal interview where they are given in  one on one setting. The other type is telephone interviews where people are contacted over the phone where is an instant gathering of information.