I was recently asked by a prospective client the value of the market research that you can get from social media, and I think it’s a legitimate question to ask. How much weight does a social media opinion have, especially in comparison to a traditional market study of a 1,000 person sample?
There is obviously great potential within social media to be a legitimate market research tool, but overall, I think it’s still in its infancy. People are talking about what they like and dislike, but ultimately there isn’t a sizable enough population talking about the same thing to warrant market research as we know it to disappear.
What we can start to do is understand how social media can help companies innovate or move their products in new directions. Consumers are contributing their opinions on various topics across multiple social media channels on a 24 hour cycle, and many of these opinions hold really great pieces of information to help a company better understand their customers’ wants and needs. There is nothing more valuable than honest feedback, and I think this is what you really get through social media from a market research perspective.
However, it is important to take everything with a grain of salt. I would never expect an organization to make a fundamental change based on feedback through social media channels, but it can help provoke thoughts and discussions that lead to new ideas about promotion, new business development or product enhancements.
Ultimately, there will be a real shift in the way market research is done, but for the time being, social media can be used to discover new areas of growth or to reveal weaknesses in your business that were not on the forefront.