Updated October 2026. October 2026: cost line set to the 2026 quotation model; the do-it-yourself claim narrowed; no new response rate.
Surveys moved online as internet access spread, and because a form can sit in an email or on a page. In 2012 we wrote, from our own informal observation, that it was easier to find people on Facebook or Twitter than in a park. That was an impression, not a count. We have not put a new platform figure in its place.
A phone puts mail and social feeds in front of people at once. Researchers use that path, and some of them press hard for answers. If you collect online, keep the gains and the losses separate.
What you gain
You can set the form up yourself. The software is simpler than it was in 2012. The work that remains is who gets the link, and whether those people can answer the questions.
It costs less than face-to-face collection, and it skips a large data-entry job. On our 2026 quotation model, an all-island panel interview is about J$470-700 per respondent. Face-to-face is about J$1,800-2,500 per respondent. These are indicative figures. The face-to-face range is our estimate. The panel is not a probability sample. The panel site is myVoice.
The link can go by email, sit on a page, or travel in a social feed. That reaches people you would not meet in a park.
The person chooses the time and the place.
What you give up
Response is often low. People have other things on the screen. An incentive helps. Offer something worth the time, such as entry in a draw for a phone or a shop voucher, and say so at the start.
The people who answer an open link are whoever saw it. You do not control that list. If you wanted Jamaican adults in a set age band, other people will still come in, above all when a prize is attached. Use an open post when you want comments from whoever sees it. Do not publish those percentages as estimates for Jamaica, or for a parish. When the group is defined, start from a list and send the link to the people on it.
Answers can arrive late, because the person chooses the time. A late file holds up the rest of the project. If you hold email addresses, send a reminder, and call where the study allows it. On an open feed, move the draw deadline earlier for people who answer sooner.
Updated October 2026
- The cost claim now uses the 2026 quotation model: about J$470-700 per respondent on the all-island panel, and about J$1,800-2,500 face-to-face, the second range our estimate. The panel is not a probability sample. Link: myVoice.
- "You can do it yourself. It is really simple" was narrowed. The form is easier to set up than in 2012. Who answers is the remaining problem.
- The Facebook and Twitter line is kept as the 2012 impression the post already called informal. No new platform statistic was added.
- The example prize is a phone or a shop voucher, in place of a named handset. No response rate was added. The first image,
survey-online.jpg, returned no archived file from the 8 February 2023 snapshot, so the image field is empty.