Social media research (SMR) is the buzz term on forward-thinking company’s lips.
When it comes to revolutions, social media is a big one. It took, and continues to take, the world by storm and once it had caught on, the way people could communicate and express themselves was transformed. Everyone with access to a computer or a mobile phone was given the ability to broadcast his or her views to an audience of unprecedented size. This has had all sorts of implications for industries that include, for example, journalism, government and publishing.
Because of this hype, the use of social media for research is something that’s generated an enormous buzz of its own in the past few years. Everybody is talking about it, some with excitement, some with doubt, and some sighing with technophobic apprehension. Is a revolution underway? The answer is a resounding ‘not yet’. Why? Simply because social media research is not something that many people are doing yet. Everyone has heard about it, everyone is excited about it, but few people are using it. Fewer still have realised the sheer number of ways in which it can be used. It is, however, something that poses enormous implications for the future of market research and something that is without a doubt poised to be the Next Big Thing.
Why is SMR so valuable and when should it be used?
SMR is a significant opportunity for insight and development, which can prove extremely rewarding for businesses provided it is mined, audited, or listened to in the right way. It gives companies the ability to rapidly gather qualitative data from far wider geographies than traditional methodologies could offer, from a broader range of people and at a greatly reduced cost.
You can only research what’s already out there and already being discussed. So, SMR is no good for products that aren’t yet in the public domain, products in the development phase, or generally for things that people can’t or aren’t talking about.
An ideal time to carry out SMR is at the front end of the product innovation funnel when you can listen to consumer opinion and generate trend analysis, competitor analysis, get an understanding of pain points, unmet needs and begin to innovate from an informed perspective. Another excellent place to use it is at the evaluation stage of products and services, so you can learn what people think, and how you can improve them. In short, SMR is a great way to feed information into a project to settle on an effective starting point for innovation, or as a trigger to identify a need for further research.
How can businesses make the most out of SMR?
There’s a lot more to social media research than simply seeing how many people are talking about your brand. It can be used at a number of stages in the research lifecycle and for a wide range of different purposes. It can also be incorporated into research projects alongside traditional research.
Your priority however, should be setting specific research objectives. Be clear what it is you’re trying to find out and then use social media listening, if appropriate, to reach those objectives. Don’t conduct a project solely to ‘try out’ social media and its perceived benefits as a novel tool. You could use it to expand the scope of your results, to focus on specific regions or markets, or for any number of other purposes.
8 steps to SMR heaven
If you have an idea of the types of projects you could conduct and an overview of the process you (or your agency) will go through, but you’ve yet to embark on SMR of any kind, here are a few suggested first steps:
1. Dip your toe. You don’t need to tackle every method of social media listening head on for your first go. Start off with a modest project and straightforward aims. Try picking an issue your business is grappling with and decide whether social media might offer some useful insight. If a particular product is struggling, or you want ideas on how to better target a certain segment, try using social media to find out pain points and to gather ideas on what people want.
2. Get your business objective firmly in mind. What is it you need to know? Make the study a focused task with set questions to answer.
3. Don’t spend too much! Small listening projects can be excellent value for money, and it’s easier to get sign off and demonstrate ROI. As an estimate, around £7¬,000-£10,000 would be right for a first project. (Remember we’re not talking about social media ‘trackers’ here)
4. Partner with an agency. They can help select the right tools, they know which search terms are sensible, and they have both qualitative and quantitative specialists to get the most from social media listening.
5. Consider whether you have any social media assets you can get value from in the first instance. How about your brand’s Facebook page or Twitter feed?
6. Be mindful of the ethics. Laws and guidelines on social media research are still developing, but there are definite codes of conduct in place. These primarily concern consent to use information, to be monitored, privacy and the kinds of sites you can monitor. On the whole, it’s broadly accepted that scraping information in the public domain is OK. As soon as you come to walled gardens, or any sites that require a login however, it’s considered an unethical breach of privacy.
7. The same principles of traditional research apply to SMR. So consider sample representativeness and size, and think clearly about the topic and what biases might affect respondents. Are you likely to only get polarising views or just the middle ground?
8. Get the maximum value from SMR and don’t just rely on the tools, and don’t just focus on the metrics or your brand name. Think at a category or a trend level.
Nikki Carlisle, FreshMinds Research