{"id":7649,"date":"2013-09-25T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=7649"},"modified":"2013-09-25T06:00:44","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T13:00:44","slug":"how-to-use-social-media-as-part-of-your-market-research-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-use-social-media-as-part-of-your-market-research-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Social Media as Part of Your Market Research Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago I wrote a post about creating a market research plan<\/a>. \u00a0It’s actually turned out to be one of our most shared and most popular posts, so we decided to dig a little deeper into my recommendations and give them an update.<\/p>\n

In my last article, I talked about why you needed a market research plan<\/a>. \u00a0As part of that, I mentioned that the social media “trend” was not really a trend \u00a0— that it was now “for real” and if you’re ignoring it, then you are missing out on a powerful opportunity to save time, money and effort in not just doing great research that gives you actionable information, but on engaging with your audience in a way that will increase your response rates.\"social_media_marketing\"<\/p>\n

How to get your head around using social media as part of your market research plan<\/h2>\n

Like most things, you have GOT to wrap your head around the context of social media and how to leverage the different channels in order to accomplish what you set out to do. \u00a0If you don’t get this right or straight, all hell will break loose, you will go down the rabbit hole, get lost and never come back. \u00a0OK – so I’m exaggerating – but just a little bit. \u00a0I’m saying this because social media is one of those things you can get lost in, spend a lot of time on and get nothing without really trying. \u00a0You don’t want to do that.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Brainstorm and brain dump:<\/strong> \u00a0BEFORE you open up HootSuite or any other social media platform, take the time to brainstorm and write down what decision you’re trying to make and all the different things that are part of that conversation. \u00a0If you do NOT heed this advice and open up any social media platform such as LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook — you will be bombarded with information, ideas and all kinds of distracting shiny objects and you’ll get overwhelmed. \u00a0In a lot of ways – it’s like NOT looking into the face of Medusa because you’ll be turned into a stone of inaction. \u00a0First brainstorm – then look with purpose.<\/li>\n
  2. Prioritize and choose:<\/strong> Now that you’ve brainstormed a list of thoughts, ideas , objectives and possibilities, start with your objectives (the decision you’re trying to make) and then either choose the top three questions or topics that you’d like to explore — OR — ask yourself which of the items on your list DO NOT contribute to your objective. \u00a0Whatever works best for you.<\/li>\n
  3. Where will you fish?<\/strong>\u00a0 Only now are you ready to focus (FOCUS) on the ONE platform where you think you will get the best feedback, insight and conversation. \u00a0This will vary depending on your objective, your audience, your product or service. \u00a0If you are a B2B business and you’re trying to figure out something concrete – maybe LinkedIn is the best place to go. \u00a0If you’re more in the media marketplace – then perhaps Twitter is best and finally if you are focusing in on something more “personal” in nature — then Facebook. \u00a0These are just broad stroke generalizations, but think about the platform where you have the highest probability of connecting with great feedback and conversation and start there.<\/li>\n
  4. Start the conversation:<\/strong>\u00a0 Your next step is to start the conversation. \u00a0The reason I told you to focus on one platform to start — is so that you can be focused on asking questions, responding to answers, tweaking questions and responding to answers. \u00a0It takes numerous tries to connect with people. \u00a0Your goal in all of this is to move folks from the social media platform to a more personal form of connection such as a phone call or meeting where you can get into a deeper conversation with them.<\/li>\n
  5. Document and process:<\/strong>\u00a0 You’ll want to have a way to document and process all the conversations that you have on social media – you can cut paste, export, tabulate all these conversations by hand. \u00a0I’d also recommend you use a powerful tool like Nimble.com — to manage these relationships. \u00a0It’s a great way to create a “project” or “deal” and then add the different conversations across social media platforms (including email)<\/li>\n
  6. Stop and move on:<\/strong> \u00a0I feel like I have to make this a step in the process because it’s easy to get caught up and stuck in the exploratory phase of all this. \u00a0Give yourself a deadline and then stick to it. \u00a0You might give yourself 30 days to explore social media channels and then at the end of 30 days — put out your first survey. \u00a0No matter what.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There you have it — six easy ways to leverage social media channels as part of your market research plan. \u00a0Now that I’ve laid out the step-by-step process, it isn’t nearly as daunting as you thought it was. \u00a0So what are you waiting for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A few years ago I wrote a post about creating a market research plan. \u00a0It’s actually turned out to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":5063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[263,409],"tags":[284],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Use Social Media as Part of Your Market Research Plan | QuestionPro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few years ago I wrote a post about creating a market research plan. \u00a0It's actually turned out to be one of our most shared and most popular posts, so we\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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