Get Your Head in the Clouds

Why Your Next Market Research Study Should Include Social Media Mining

Ten years ago, how would you have responded if a market researcher asked you the following…

“Would it be helpful if I listened in on hundreds of thousands (even millions) of conversations about your product, summarized the key findings, and used them to improve your research design and final recommendations?”

Let’s save some time. I know your answer. It’s an emphatic “Yes!!”

Fast forward to 2011. Most companies agree that social media has a lot of undirected potential to explore. This sort of online, anytime, ethnographic insight is available to anyone who has access to the internet. However, now a big concern is how companies can develop measurable ways of focusing this wealth of information into fact driven, actionable insights. With a little technology, research rigor and innovative thinking, it can be integrated into any type of market research initiative you may have.

So, have you made social media mining a mandatory part of your market research?

If not, let’s talk about how to make it happen before 2012 is upon you.

Getting Social with Your Next Market Research Study

Even major types of market research like segmentation, customer satisfaction,  and awareness and usage (A&U) can find a fresh perspective through using social media mining. Finding and using new spaces where people communicate is definitely to your advantage as a part of capitalizing on user generated data.  Not quite sure what’s next? Let’s go through an example of the remarkable impact social media mining can have! Consider a concept test (product test, copy test, etc.) example to illustrate how you can incorporate social media mining into your research.  We’ll say that we’re planning to execute a two-phase design: qualitative research in phase one (via an online community) and quantitative research in phase two (via a web-based survey).

1) Step One: Pre-Qualitative Scan
During the pre-qualitative scan, the researcher uses a social media mining tool. For instance, FGIResearch uses our own proprietary tool, and there are many others on the market with varying levels of price and sophistication.  Identifying key themes related to the product concept is the main function of this tool—if the concept already exists in the marketplace, the scan will include the client’s brand as well as competitors’ brands. If it’s an entirely new concept, the scan will focus more on customers’ pains/needs that are potentially solved by the new concept. This scan will usually focus on key phrases such as “I hate,” “I love,” “I wish,” “my favorite brand is,” “if they would only add/change,” “I would rate it a five star if,” and so on.  The customer/client relationship has never before been so easy to track.

2) Step Two: Post-Qualitative Scan
During the post-qualitative scan, the researcher uses a social media mining tool to further explore key findings from the online community. While the number of respondents in a qualitative study is limited, social media can break through that restriction and really shine. By re-scanning the web after the online community, the researcher can confirm or deny significant findings.  Using a social media mining tool can be invaluable in creating deeper and broader insights through keying on thoughts and phrases from the qualitative research.  In some cases, a few dominant participants in the qualitative research may not be representative of the larger population. In other cases, their opinions may be universally confirmed. Trawling social media yields representative results that bolster or even improve on qualitative research, making your concept test the focal point of well integrated research that’s ready to be put into action.

3) Step Three: Post-Quantitative Scan (Optional)
Sitting in an airplane that never takes off the ground is pointless.  Get some lift through going further and exploring findings from the online surveys during the post-quantitative scan.  As many researchers will tell you, the quantitative research does not always match the qualitative findings. If concept A is the clear winner from the online survey results, is there something more that can be learned from a social media scan? There’s a good chance that a very surprising finding that could use more context in order to fully understand what’s behind the data. In other cases, the quantitative research may generate new questions that are better or more efficiently answered with a social media scan.

Now…Get Your Head in the Clouds

This approach is one of many FGI uses to create the perfect blend of research options.  The best part is that incorporating social media mining can be your main method of research for a specific project, or simply an added support.  We employ different types of research depending on study designs and clients. Regardless, the key point is this: it’s time to get your head in the clouds. It’s time to take advantage of the priceless data that resides in social media opinions. Get started today and watch your market research insights…and your decisions and results that follow…head towards the sky.