Social Media: A Free Tool for Marketing Research.
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First off, social media is outpacing all other online activities so much so that if you condensed all U.S. internet time into one hour, 13 minutes and 36 seconds are spent solely on social networks and blogs. Within all of this social media activity, studies show that 8 in 10 internet users are online looking for health information, making it the third most popular online activity. In addition, a little over half of consumers search online for information before making a purchase decision and this is something that happens every day. What people tend to find most valuable is real conversations detailing experiences with the product or service. And what is even more striking is that people trust these conversations more than the messages from a manufacturer or product website.
So without question, conversations are happening every minute. In addition to product websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media are shaping thoughts about brands and products. With all of the traffic and conversations online, I firmly believe that at the very least all companies need to be paying attention.
Taking some time to dig into the conversations can provide valuable information to companies. These conversations can get you acquainted with your target audiences and let you know a lot about your product off the shelf. By listening to how consumers talk about products you can learn what language they use which can inform companies on how to speak back to them. You can learn consumers’ frustrations or excitement around experiences with your products and if they are bad, try to address them. You can also use these conversations like a focus group. For example, if you just launched a product you can find out the kinks and bugs pretty quickly and address them in the 2.0 version. And what I find most eye-opening is that there is a huge opportunity for companies to manage the expectations of their buyers. This is evident by listening to the conversations online—seeing what people are asking questions about or looking for more information on. The voice of the consumer is at your fingertips and free of charge.
So, to all companies, I urge you to spend some time monitoring social networks and blogs to really get to know your target audience and what concerns they have. While it’s true it can be hard to respond to every conversation or comment on these forums, you can use this information to guide marketing and educational efforts.
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