How I got 22 beta users on Instagram to take a long feedback survey about my product

I find it particularly hard to get enough qualitative beta users to validate my product or feature ideas. When I was developing my latest product, The Personality Reveal, I didn't know whether people will like it at all. To collect beta user feedback was extremely important at this stage.

The problem
I realized quickly that I wouldn't be able to engage many people on Instagram just by posting in my feed and stories. If I was lucky, they'd visit my website but who wants to spend time answering a several pages long beta survey? Right, nobody!

This is what I did
I had to find a different method. I tackled this by launching into beta very early and tried to acquire as many beta users as I could through direct chat messages on Instagram. I found out that only if you build a personal relationship with someone on Instagram, they'll answer my surveys and provide their feedback.

When I see that people follow my profile or like my photos, I try to engage with them by asking them questions. E.g. where did you hear about my project? Have you done xy before? So I start to build up a conversation. Most importantly, however, I ask them if they have time to leave their feedback in my survey, even before I send anything. If they say yes, it's very likely they will actually give you feedback. Only then I sent them the link to my website and survey.

Hope this was useful! What are your experiences with beta users? Do you manage to get qualitative beta feedback? What are your strategies? Let me know!