3 Ways To Use Social Media For Market Research
2-minute read
In order to optimise your current content and social media strategies, it’s crucial that you have a solid understanding of your audience and customers, and collecting data is an important part of this process.
Social media can be an excellent tool for collecting data about your customers. It can help determine whether customers’ needs are being met and if the correct audience is being targeted.
There are three key research approaches fit for social media:
Social media can be an excellent tool for collecting data about your customers. It can help determine whether customers’ needs are being met and if the correct audience is being targeted.
There are three key research approaches fit for social media:
1. Content analysis
Analysing the performance of social media content is the first step in social media market research. Engagements such as likes, comments, shares, reacts, retweets and saves are easy-to-measure metrics to start with when analysing content. This type of data is extremely useful as it can indicate whether customers are interested in a product or brand. When engagement is high, it’s likely because your audience is interested in the content being produced. From this it can be determined that the correct audience is being targeted.
As content can naturally ebb and flow, it’s important to continually monitor its performance. Keep track of what performs well and what doesn’t, in order to keep publishing quality content that will engage your audience.
As content can naturally ebb and flow, it’s important to continually monitor its performance. Keep track of what performs well and what doesn’t, in order to keep publishing quality content that will engage your audience.
2. Social listening
Monitoring feedback from your customers about your brand or competitors is another way to gather useful customer data. Consumers willingly share their opinions on social media all the time. Tracking consumer feedback can be an excellent way to identify any shortcomings in your product or service offering. It can also be useful for finding gaps in the market which your brand can fill. Additionally, listening to customer feedback can help assess where your strongest market is when developing new products.
Social listening can be done in several ways. Monitoring the comments on your paid and organic social media content for customer opinions and feedback is the first and most straightforward way. Searching for hashtags and keywords related to your product, company, industry, or competitors is another way you can observe consumer opinions. Lastly, there are useful tools offered by companies such as Mention, Brandwatch and Meltwater to track conversations about your brand.
Social listening can be done in several ways. Monitoring the comments on your paid and organic social media content for customer opinions and feedback is the first and most straightforward way. Searching for hashtags and keywords related to your product, company, industry, or competitors is another way you can observe consumer opinions. Lastly, there are useful tools offered by companies such as Mention, Brandwatch and Meltwater to track conversations about your brand.
3. Polls and Questions
Asking questions on social media drives real-time conversation around your brand, which can result in useful customer data. This type of data can provide deep insight into what interests your customers, what they are looking for, as well as how you can make your business better.
Questions can be formatted in a post with a call to action (e.g. ‘comment below’, ‘love react for option A’, ‘wow react for option B’ etc.) or as a poll. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn all offer the ability to create polls. It’s important to note asking questions directly on social media may not always elicit many responses. This largely depends on the size of your audience and usually only works for brands with large followings. For brands with a smaller audience, running contests and offering prizes can help incentivise your customers to provide their valuable feedback.
Questions can be formatted in a post with a call to action (e.g. ‘comment below’, ‘love react for option A’, ‘wow react for option B’ etc.) or as a poll. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn all offer the ability to create polls. It’s important to note asking questions directly on social media may not always elicit many responses. This largely depends on the size of your audience and usually only works for brands with large followings. For brands with a smaller audience, running contests and offering prizes can help incentivise your customers to provide their valuable feedback.
So, how will you be using social media to collect valuable data about your audience?
If you’d like some assistance creating a tailored and effective content marketing or social media strategy, the team at Content Republic would love to help.
If you’d like some assistance creating a tailored and effective content marketing or social media strategy, the team at Content Republic would love to help.
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