Guidelines for Using Social Media for Market Research
The vast majority of businesses are aware of how crucial market research is to staying competitive and developing a stronger brand. Market research, however, may frequently be a costly and time-consuming endeavour.
Focus groups are great to utilise as a starting point for developing a new product or campaign, but they are less helpful for getting user feedback once the product has launched. Additionally, yearly surveys provide little insight into the trends or hot topics that are currently relevant to consumers. You need to incorporate social media market research into your strategy to stay on top of the most recent trends and have a more precise pulse on your audience.
These days, social media is pervasive among people. Before using the washroom, your audience gets up and spends several minutes on their phones. Your consumers and potential customers might read their friends' tweets and Facebook timelines before going to bed. Online users openly share their opinions and unfilteredly air out their grievances.
So, take advantage of the social media statistics and online reviews. For qualitative and quantitative market research, gather opinions. Instead of capturing consumers through paid survey sites in India, the US, or elsewhere, engage them directly or keep tabs on them using the vast amounts of social media data.
Now that social media platforms have been developed and technology has advanced, businesses can use more effective and affordable techniques for conducting market research. Social media may help organisations gain understanding of their target market, client preferences, and other crucial aspects of market research.
What is social media market research?
Gathering historical and current data from social media channels in order to better understand the target market for your company is known as social media market research. Even though you can carry out market research directly on social media, tools let you gather and analyze data from all of your brand's social media accounts in a single, centralized location.
Market study on social media also includes:
Affordable - Compared to surveys and focus groups, which may cost thousands of dollars depending on the size and complexity of your research panel, social media is far less expensive.
Quick - Traditional market research techniques can be time-consuming, but social media is constantly updated in real-time, and you can use current social data for quick findings.
Comprehensive - With more than 3.6 billion social users projected by 2020, there is no shortage of data on social media, and technologies like social listening make it simple to examine trends and conversations affecting your whole sector, not just your company.
7 market research insights you can get from social media
1. See how customers use your products or services
Customers aren't afraid to reveal how they utilise particular products and are eager to post their opinions on social media. Customers won't think twice to tag or mention your brand when they have a question for you. To find out how customers actually utilise your products and services, search for your brand and the name of your product on social media sites like Twitter or Instagram.
2. Learn what customers dislike about your brand
Any social media platform comes with the assurance that someone will always have something negative to say about your company, your goods, or your services. In the aforementioned illustration, a specific characteristic that compels viewers to skip a movie or TV show's closing credits is shared. Even though they can be difficult to process, unfavorable reviews can actually help brands find opportunities to strengthen their offerings.
3. Discover what customers like about your brand
People are just as eager to criticise a company for the things they find lacking as they are to appreciate the companies they adore. For instance, travellers might have a preferred airline and be willing to discuss why they prefer to fly with that airline over others. For brands, this is also a chance to find out more about what draws buyers to your rivals' products. Consider reassessing your own customer service efforts to look for potential areas for improvement if you observe that customers are always complimenting the competition's excellent customer service on social media.
4. Learn what future consumers will demand from your brand
Social media is a popular platform for consumers to discuss what they hope to see from brands in the future.
5. Examine the trends that the customer is interested in
Trends have a significant impact on a brand's social strategy and how it interacts with its audience, despite the fact that they might be unpredictable. By participating in the appropriate trending topic at the appropriate time on social media, engagement with customers and brand exposure may both be boosted. For instance, well-known corporations are utilising this trend in their most recent advertising campaigns as nostalgia marketing becomes more and more popular with consumers.
6. Learn personally about your customers
The beauty of social media is that it encourages conversations in which businesses and customers may engage in both directions, giving businesses an opportunity to get to know their customers on a more personal level. Facebook groups, for instance, offer users a platform to interact, commemorate achievements, and talk about difficulties.
7. Identify the social media content that your audience responds to
In order to stand out among the millions, if not billions, of posts that are published on social media every day, brands must be strategic about the material they share. Analyse your current content to see whether topics or content types support your performance objectives. Consider spending more on video production if spreading awareness is your main objective since video in-feed postings receive more impressions than text updates. Or, if you want to start a discussion, see what topics have received a lot of engagement (like comments and shares) on other posts. Asking your audience directly about the subjects or types of social media content they want to see from your brand in the future can never hurt.
The most effective marketing initiatives demonstrate that a brand understands its target market. Brands stand to boost their bottom line and create consumers for life when they show they understand their customers' requirements and wants.
Brands now get quick, trustworthy insights that help them better understand what motivates their audience thanks to social media marketing research. Data from social media enables organizations to make better decisions that advance their business objectives, from seeing new possibilities to enhancing consumer connections.
Because of your inexperience, don't worry if you avoid market research or limit your engagement. The tiresome task can be completed for you by Z.com. We have experience working with businesses of all sizes and across a wide range of industries. To begin your market research journey, kindly contact our specialists here.
