he market research domain, over the years has made enormous progress and social media has opened new doors for businesses to gain social, consumer & market data.
According to Statista- UK has 45 million active users (66%) on social media in 2020.
Benefits of social media market research
- Gives businesses the ability to obtain immediate feedback from customers on their experiences and beliefs on product/services
- Get information about product improvements
- Find more information about a target audience that is most likely to prefer specific products/services
- Save on costs, as market research can be done on social media without having to spend money on research panels.
Whether it’s market research for a product, a launch, consumer behavior insights, determining buyer personas (who your customer is) or getting feedback on the customer service you provide, there is an array of methods you can use social media , depending on the features each platform provides, such as:
Use Facebook & Instagram insights for quantitative & qualitative Data
Quantitative data is in the form of concrete numbers, such as:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Mentions
- Reach
- Followers
- Subscribers (Youtube)
These can be used to evaluate and measure how customers are reacting to company posts as well as help businesses better improve the way they approach users digitally!
Qualitative data represents sentiments as well as assists businesses in finding out how users perceive and interpret social content.
For example: If your business on social media got 2000 mentions about your product (quantitative), out of which 1500 mentions were of a positive nature (qualitative).
Facebook, Twitter Polls & Instagram Question Stickers
It is a fact that on a platform such as Facebook, posts that ask questions are the ones that receive the most likes. A major benefit of this type of post is it doesn’t take much effort or time to create one, get feedback and analyze the data.
Twitter polls on the other hand, have a time limit set by the creator as to when they end. Once this duration is over, the poll disappears and the most selected option is shown publicly.
The Instagram story feature is a form of ephemeral content that disappears within 24 hours, just like a WhatsApp status messages.
With all of the above, users can not only choose the option they most prefer but also see results in real-time. Moreover, the FOMO effect of these features works by motivating and grabbing the attention of users due to its short lifespan.
Benefit: Gain deep insights into what the preferences of their audience are.
Social Listening
Social listening is surfing social media (including competitors’ social media) in order to monitor conversations customers are having.
Benefit: This market research method can assist businesses in figuring out the way users behave, and the thoughts they have about a product or service.
In February 2020 77% of users actively engaged with or contributed to social media.
Why does your business need to opt for market research services?
If you feel your business shouldn’t bother undertaking market research on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you are missing out on a great public resource that is cost-effective, immediate, and popular.
Around 96% of internet users visit a social media platform every month.
Professional market research services can help take your business to new heights by bringing to light the reasons, opinions and motivations consumers have to purchase or not purchase a product, and help you improve substantially as a business as well as gain more customers and increase return on investment (ROI)
SG Analytics is a leading market research company in the UK, providing bespoke market research services that help its clients make data-driven decisions.
