5 Ways Social Media Listening Benefits Market Research

In a world with a constant flow of information, there needs to be a way to navigate through the  noise to extract what is relevant to your brand. This is where market research comes in; it functions as a guideline to make sense of all the information by asking the right questions to define your target audience  and understand them. 

Traditionally, market research involved surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups. Social media is now a key component in marketing research; it contains the biggest crowd with a lot to say about their brand experiences that could drive your marketing strategy. Social listening is the process of monitoring digital conversations and interactions on social media to evaluate the brand perception and customer feedback.

Businesses make informed decisions based on data collected that reveals the consumers’ needs, likes, dislikes, and preferences. This is essential information for any company especially as it is about to launch a new product or service; consumer behavior will be an indication how the audience will react.  In this article, we look into the five ways a social media listening tool will provide more accurate information in market research that can help you make more effective data-driven business decisions.

1. Get to know the  reputation of your brand

Social media is known to be ‘the largest focus group’. This is the platform to find out how popular your brand is or how people feel about it.  Social media is a platform meant for sharing, so there is no better place to find out what customers really think about your brand. You can understand the reason behind the sentiment whether positive or negative by analyzing conversations. Using social listening tools will help you get real time insights by tracking brand mentions. Accurate up to date information will allow you to see opportunities before they are missed. Unlike traditional marketing research methods, the time factor is not a limitation since you are notified in real time.

2. Create an audience persona 

For any business, it is important to be aware of what are the interests of their target audience. There needs to be a  very clear picture of what they look like in terms of demographics or habits. By using the tool, you can segment your audience into categories based on certain keywords, language, location, or even influencer score. This is how you can create content that resonates well with your target audience.

3. Evaluate competitors 

A unique characteristic about social media listening is that it can also help you find out all what you need to know about your competitors.  No brand can afford to only focus on itself because in reality every brand exists in an industry with competitors. Hence, it is important to pay attention to what the audiences are  saying about other brands. Monitoring other brands’ social media presence can give you an idea of their strengths and weaknesses; moreover, you will understand your brand position against them. Using this data can help identify trending topics based on conversations within your industry. This can help you tap into emerging opportunities to connect with your audience.

4. Plan for future campaigns 

Looking into data about the trending campaigns in your industry, this can help you develop an effective plan for future campaigns. You will be able to create campaigns that match the interests of your audience because you have a set idea of what they like. Rather than throwing ideas around, it is always better to strategically plan by focusing your efforts on what people would like to guarantee positive results. Monitoring previous campaigns always provides valuable lessons on what to do and what to avoid. 

5. Activate your brand 

While social media listening is key for brands to make more effective data driven decisions. It is not enough to fully understand consumer behavior. Even in the digital age, consumers are still looking for brands that create personalized experiences, engage with them, and share their values. They want relationships with brands and they want to align with companies that they can relate to. Connecting closely and more directly with your target audience through brand activation provides a better chance for consumers to become loyal advocates for your brand. It is a natural conversation that involves a give and take dynamic. Consumers feel a level of connection and investment; it also allows brands to gather critical tailored feedback for a specific product, new packaging, or campaign. With Crowd Analyzer, activation can be done through the following techniques:

• Crowd Activate for market research: Using the activate feature integrated in our Crowd Analyzer social listening platform gives brands more control over what type of information they will receive from their target audience. It is very similar to creating a virtual focus group using an online questionnaire, where you get to determine what the questions will look like. Using  machine learning and TaskSpotting’s massive crowd across the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the tool will gather all the responses for you in one place saving tons of time and effort. Allowing you to tailor your own survey based on your needs in addition to choosing the right sample needed for your research.
• TaskSpotting: Brands use this platform to focus on the power of word of mouth through user generated content. It empowers the consumer to say their honest opinion about their experience with a certain product.  TaskSpotting is an opportunity for growth by selecting a group of nano-influencers to use your product sample to interact with your brand while creating an effective social media buzz around it, thus impacting sales and online reviews.
  

If you want to explore further market research tactics and solutions for your brand, connect with our team of research experts for a demo.