Market research forms the backbone of any start-up as it helps in developing a product/service that the end users require. However, not every business entrepreneur can afford to invest in this vital tool before starting their business. Well, social media is the perfect source of market research – that can act as a representative sample for small businesses.
Social media is all about being ourselves and small business entrepreneurs can leverage the opportunity as all the opinions and beliefs expressed individually or within a community are unbiased and uninterrupted by a formal study or other people’s opinion in the circle.
So, what are the primary methods of Social Media Market Research? As one of the best marketing communication agencies in Delhi NCR, we have listed the approaches below that fit social media, and your needs:
Market Research Methods on Social Media
- Qualitative Content Analysis: The combination of data on number of Likes, Thumbs Up, reactions, comments, shares, saves, and engagement rate will suggest the attractiveness of the idea, message or thought.
- Social Listening: Gather relevant feedback from your customers passively or monitor their opinions about your brand or competitors.
- Polls/Questions: Ask your potential customer base directly questions related to your product/service/brand in social media feeds, encouraging users to share authentic, real and helpful thoughts and ideas.
Which Social Media Platforms are best to Use for Market Research?
Ideally, the brands/budding entrepreneurs must choose the platform with the strongest following for research. However, The State of Social report suggests that most brands use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram:
How to leverage Facebook for market research?
97% of B2B and B2C companies use Facebook’s four main ways to conduct qualitative research:
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Polls: This is one of the easiest ways to conduct research on Facebook, as this gets most participation and the answers are authentic, top-of-mind and from the subconscious thinking – hence beneficial for brands.
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Contests: This way you can engage your potential audience not just to create content for you but also help you find the answer to several questions as in – what people currently think about your brand and more.
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Call-to-action posts: Ask users to engage with your content, and use their most authentic answers to form as a base to your market research.
- Brand Mentions: Keeping track of brand mentions—passively gathered feedback—is possible with social media monitoring tools like Mention, Meltwater, HootSuite, etc.
Use Twitter for market research
Twitter is an efficient source of market research and offers 2 ways to collect qualitative data:
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Social Listening: Monitor what users are talking about your brand using brand hashtags, or urge people to answer questions using branded hashtags.
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Polls: Time-limited polls by Twitter shows results publically. The polls can be promoted to gather relevant information from the audience far before your followers.
Use Instagram for market research
With over 1 Billion users globally, Instagram is another best platform to collect market data by using the following methods:
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Question stickers, Quiz and polls: As the top digital agency, we have found that all these methods are most common and attract maximum attention from potential audience.
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Polls-
Question Sticker-
Quiz-
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Emoji slider-
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Brand mentions:
Conclusion
Social media is the most convenient space to engage with the targeted audience to get answers for your brand, product or service. If used creatively and with support from influencers with your TG (as suggested by top influencer marketing agency), the results can work wonders – as all the answers come from the most innocent and unaltered space. Market research is important, and it is best to leverage the opportunity social media provides you with.
If you are looking for social media optimization services in Delhi NCR, reach out to The Marcom Avenue for the best services in the region, and across the country.
