What Role Does Social Media Play In Market Research?

What is Social Media Market Research?

Social media market research is the practice of gathering historical and real-time data from social media channels to better understand your brand’s target market. While it’s possible to conduct market research natively on social platforms, tools like Sprout Social enable you to collect and analyze information from all of your brand’s social accounts in one centralized platform.

Social media can play an important role in understanding a brand’s audience. A large amount of users engage in social networking — Facebook alone has 1.2 billion monthly active users. Social media can be used to investigate your target audience and create an appropriate research plan.

Most companies are aware of how invaluable market research is to remain competitive and build a stronger brand. However, conducting market research can often be an expensive and time-consuming affair. With the evolution of technology and the introduction of social media platforms, companies can now leverage more efficient and cost-effective methods for market research. Social media can give brands insight into their brand image, customer preferences, target market, and other important facets of market research.

Market research insights you can get from social media

1. See how customers use your products or services

When customers want you to know something, they won’t hesitate to tag or mention your brands. Search for your brand and the name of your product on social platforms. Like Twitter or Instagram to learn how customers actually use your goods and services.

2. Learn what customers dislike about your brand

You probably don’t need to search too hard to find what people dislike about your brands or your products. Beyond searching for branded keywords and phrases, consider checking your social inbox for direct messages that contain constructive criticism. This is also a great opportunity for social teams to solicit feedback from sales or customer service teams who hear directly from customers about their likes and dislikes.

3. Discover what customers like about your brand

In fact, there are several ways you can find positive feedback about your brands. You can search for branded keywords and phrases organically on social; you can also peruse the reviews section on platforms like Facebook, TripAdvisor and Google. In addition to monitoring the conversation around your brand, you should also keep a pulse on what consumers are saying about your competitors.

4. Gain insight into what customers expect from your brand in the future

Consumers frequently take to social to share what they want to see from brands in the future. A brick-and-mortar retailer might receive a request for a future store location while a coffee company might see comments asking for a specific roast or drink to come back on the menu.

5. See what trends customers are interested in

As volatile as they may be, trends have a significant impact on a brand’s social strategy. And how they connect with their audience. Jumping on the right trending topic at the right time on social can be a jolt to brand awareness and customer engagement. To quickly see what’s trending, check out the explore tab on platforms like Twitter and YouTube or use a tool like Google Trends to see what topics are gaining traction.