When it comes to customer research, there is no better place to start than social media. With the advent of so many to choose from, this guide will help you pick the best. At least from our own experience.
Customer research is not easy. For our blog post today, we shall divide the task into two parts. First, we shall find out what questions customers or prospectives ask. In order to better serve their needs, a business needs to understand how they can assist them. Finally, a business needs to understand what content the customers or prospectives are sharing, to help tailor their strategy to that.
What Questions Are They Asking?
Assumptions in predicting the needs of your customers may lead to dire consequences. So, don’t shy away from doing the work. Social media is the perfect place for customers to air their questions. And seeing these questions can help identify a market gap, support existing customers and generate a content strategy that appeals to both.
For a product to become successful, it needs to solve an issue. If you can solve a person’s problems, they are more willing to come back or refer you to another. When you keep this up, trust is built and from that, success follows. Below are some sites that offer excellent research options:
1: Twitter
First is the Twitter Explore page, the perfect place to start looking for customer questions. As easy as searching for the topic and adding a “?” in the search. Twitter popularized the hashtag, and this makes it the perfect place to search for popular topics. All appearances of the phrase in question are provided for you. With all the different tabs, from top tweets to accounts.
From this page, you can answer Twitter users’ questions with your industry expertise. When answering, be helpful, not self-promotional. Also, this page provides an opportunity to find prospective customers. Through pitching your product range, whenever you find a people whose problems can be solved by your products.
2: Quora
Arguably the best site for quality Q&A on the web right now. With support for various topics, from film to tech to fashion. Quora is your one-stop shop for information. As easy as searching for your desired question in the top search bar. For each of your searches, Quora searches for similarly phrased questions. Allowing you to extensively search for whatever you needed and even go above and beyond.
As simple as clicking on the topic, which takes you to the topic page. From there, you’ll be provided with all of the questions on a given subject. The beauty of Quora is that you have the ability to contribute your own answers. Or simply spectate, by reading other users input. Also, Quora allows you to follow the various topics you are interested in. Availing new content to your feed whenever it is updated.
What Content Are They Sharing?
First and foremost, your social media content strategy should be driven by the overlap between your expertise and your customers’ needs and interests. By learning such patterns, you can better adapt the content to suit their needs. This doesn’t mean blatantly copying content, but do take inspiration from the triumphs of others.
Are people sharing how-to blog posts, funny memes or instructional videos? Is the most shared content authoritative or friendly and conversational?
With this research, you’ll learn what your audience is most interested in sharing and understand the type of content you need to create.
In Conclusion
Finally, pay close attention to the most shared content that is similar to yours. Are images widely shared? Are fans actively engaging? From this, pick the solution that best works for you. Then adapt it into your own strategy and continuously refine and update.
Through social media monitoring, you can learn a lot about your customers. Take the time to actually see what they want to better serve their needs. Earning you more money, I mean, it is a win-win situation right there.
Let this post encourage a dialogue down in the Comments section below. All thoughts are welcome.
Until next time, goodbye from the Mark & Ryse team.
