You may think that market research is something you have to buy, like an expert-researched, highly detailed, 20-page report that’ll cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars. Maybe for large companies with money to burn; but certainly not for startups or small businesses with little or no budget. Market research is information that is absolutely vital to the success of your business, so how do you get hold of that information if you don’t have the money to spend on long reports and focus groups?
Guess what? Using social media sites, you can conduct your own market research – for FREE. Not only that, you’ll be able to monitor actual conversations as they’re happening – something a 20-page report won’t do.
Here are 5 ways you can use social media and networking sites for market research:
StumbleUpon
Search for any topic on StumbleUpon, and you’re presented with not only a list of sites about that topic, but a sampling of SU users who like that topic. Click on any of those users to find out key demographics, such as ages, genders, and locations, as well as their other topics of interest.
Here's a StumbleUpon topic page about coffee:
LinkedIn is an especially useful B2B market research tool, since it allows you to communicate directly with and gauge response from people from all industries, levels, and locations. By using LinkedIn Answers, you can ask questions about your products and services and target it to a specific set of users through proper categorization.
You can also use the search functionality to look for people on LinkedIn using job title, company, industry, and even personal interest keywords. If you’re looking for demographics for specific companies, LinkedIn serves them up for you on a silver platter by presenting a full profile page for nearly every company listed on their site. These profiles include company vital stats, as well as other really useful stats such as common job titles, top schools attended, average age, and gender percentages.
Since Twitter is all about having conversations, you have the opportunity to listen in on those conversations to find out what’s being said about your market space, products, services, or industry. By using a Twitter tool like Summize (which Twitter has newly acquired), you can glean powerful market intelligence in near-real time by searching for any topic.
Here's a search on the keyword "iPhone" using Summize:
Twitter is a micro-blogging service, and there are others out there like Plurk and Pownce. Check out this post on how to use and manage them effectively.
Forums
Before Twitter, possibly even before chat – there were forums. Web 1.0’s version of social media. They’re still very much alive and thriving in practically every niche out there. Just search for any topic plus the word "forums" on Google, and you’ll find a treasure trove of boards where your audience is talking about your products or services.
Here's the first page of results for search engine marketing forums:
More and more social networking and media sites are popping up for a variety of niche subjects, such as small business, web development and design, pets, women’s topics, cars…the list keeps growing. Become involved with these sites, and you’ll gain valuable knowledge about your target audience and their particular interests.
