Is Social Media Market Research the New Black?
5 new ways to leverage social media for customer
research
By Michelle
Rider
Early in my career, I worked as a brand
manager for Calvin Klein Cosmetics, which was owned by Unilever. I was
responsible for launching new products and growing market share for Eternity
fragrance and body products.
Eternity was one of the top 10 fragrances for women and was
sold exclusively through department store retailers such as Nordstrom, Macy's,
Saks and Barney's. The department store channel was a bit unsophisticated in
terms of its ability to secure deep, or current, consumer market trend
information. Real-time marketing
research just did not exist. In order to get my hands on research, I often
found myself reviewing last season's focus group information or the BDI/CDI
Reports
(Brand/ Category Development Index). I
would use the market information received on the BDI/CDI reports to decide my
print and TV advertising spend but this really did not tell me much about the
consumer.
I loved the challenge of utilizing limited data to develop insights and trends to support Calvin
Klein's marketing plans. However, as
fulfilling as this work was, I look back now and often wonder how much more
effective my team could have been if we had a Facebook or social media page.
Even today I am not seeing much evidence that specialty retailers and marketers
are leveraging Social Media Research the way they could be.
So I was thinking, should social media market research be the new
black? Well if I put this in the
context of my Calvin Klein days, research now shows that 19%
of beauty buyers who made purchases based on blog
posts say they stumbled upon the content via web search. I would say social media
research is unavoidable. According to an article written in Forbes
Magazine, Social Media is moving the consumer
from sharing to purchasing at rapid speed.
Vision Critical conducted a
report of 6,000 social media users and found the following:
·
About 40% of social
media users have purchased an item after sharing or “favoriting” it on social
media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
·
Facebook is the network
most likely to drive customers to purchase.
·
Social media drives not
only online purchasing, but in-store purchasing as well – and at about equal
rates.
Here
are 5 ways to leverage social media for
customer research
·
Facebook:
Facebook offers a behind the scenes look at the way
consumers conduct their personal lives. With this tool, companies can now see
which products their consumers are buying. Businesses can also view what offers
their consumers are taking advantage of and create offers that will appeal to
their consumers directly. According to the social media giant, over 1 billion
people use Facebook to connect. Facebook has also conducted research
that shows only 38% of online advertising reaches its intended audience. By
using Facebook, you can raise this percentage to over 89%.
·
Twitter:
By studying how people “Tweet”, companies can learn very specific things about
the way their customers and potential customers communicate, when they
communicate and what they are passionate about. By monitoring “hashtag”
comments, businesses can rapidly learn the latest trends that are taking place
in their market. Businesses market through Twitter by word of mouth. By using
marketing tools
provided by Twitter, companies are able to “Drive business growth and sales 140
characters at a time.”
Facebook and
Twitter can both be helpful when you want to look at behaviors and the attitude
of the consumer market that you are considering tapping into. It is an easy way
to see if your product or service might be a fit for a target without engaging
in long, drawn-out research.
·
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is attractive more for your professional
consumers. The site is intended for people to network amongst their various
fields and many special interest groups are active on LinkedIn. By using tools
provided by the site, companies are able to share content with their
professional customers and can really showcase the company’s brand. Businesses
can also spread their reach by working
with LinkedIn to help drive traffic to the company’s website.
·
Blogs
and Webpages: Blogs and webpages both work to
introduce your company to your consumers. They allow you a medium to completely
personalize the information that your consumers view about your company and
products. There are also many tools that businesses can use to track
which blogs and websites that their consumers are visiting. By using this data,
you can custom tune your website and blog to the needs and desires of your
consumers.
·
Pinterest:
Pinterest is just now beginning to gain traction
with the social media industry. With this tool, businesses have the ability to
see how their consumers respond on a more personal level. Here, you can view
the consumer’s favorite foods, vacation spots, and which shoes they are likely
to buy in the spring. By using Pinterest to promote
their “Pins”, businesses are able to find a treasure trove of information about their consumers.
It is almost
impossible not to consider developing a market research plan that includes
Social Media. Never before has there been this much information available for
businesses regarding their consumers. With this in mind, I would say Social Media is the new Market Research
Black. Jump on in.
Hyperlinks
19% of beauty buyers in “Is marketing research through social media the
new black?” section:
http://www.brafton.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/WhyContentForSEO_FINAL_2.png
The word research in the Facebook
bullet: https://www.facebook.com/business?keyword=facebook+advertising&extra_2=fb4b&creative=36922364109&extra_1=5118d384-431f-42f2-a686-635810f78c29&gclid=CKPRyuPRg74CFYdFMgodJhoA-g
The word tools in the Twitter
bullet:
https://ads.twitter.com/login?redirect_after_login=https%3A%2F%2Fads.twitter.com%2F
The word working in the LinkedIn
bullet:
http://business.linkedin.com/content/marketing-solutions/global/en_us/index/c/14/2/social-media-advertising-solutions.html?src=ext-googad&trk=sem_lms_gaw_sfsv_su_linkedin_ads&gclid=CJTA4pbVg74CFckWMgodozMAdg
The word track in the
blogs/websites bullet:
http://billbolmeier.com/blog-traffic-tracking-tools/
The word promote in the Pinterest
bullet:
http://business.pinterest.com/promoting-pins/