listeningSocial Media Research: How Seriously Do You Listen to Consumers Online?
By Marguerite McNeal Once upon a time, marketing researchers relied on the principal that to uncover consumers’ insights, they had to ask a question. “The consumer landscape itself is changing and that’s something we need to understand as both marketers and market researchers,” says Sourabh Sharma, social media research expert at SKIM, a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based market research and consulting agency. “Consumers very positively have more options of how to express themselves.” Current and candid brand sentiment exists on Facebook posts, Twitter feeds and blog posts. Companies are becoming more data-driven and brand-obsessed. How can marketing researchers harness this realtime data to gather deeply emotional insights from consumer chatter online and turn it into actionable business strategies? Sharma says researchers must go beyond social media monitoring, which accounts for the volume of conversation about a brand, and become more active listeners. With listening, “you’re not only asked to seek your brand, but perhaps associations with it or associations with your category, to scope out not just what a conversation looks like and where it spikes, but to see whether they’re positive and when they’re positive,” Sharma says. Some researchers approach social media with trepidation, dismissing it as frivolous compared to classical research methods. A recent Forrester report stated that while nearly two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies have Twitter accounts and 58% of them have Facebook pages, “most firms undervalue the data generated in these channels.” Sharma says social media research should be used to complement traditional sources like surveys and focus groups. “It can be used to supplement a classical research study, or to generate concepts, benefits, drivers, triggers, all of which