Clients speak with me all the time about all the things that they do to understand customers. They use focus groups, surveys, Net Promoter Score, brand trackers, and probably the Long Island Medium. But no matter what you do, you still need to use social media listening. Why?
Because it answers questions that you don’t ask.
Here’s an example I heard recently. A customer was complaining on Twitter that she always buys the same brand of fancy shampoo and conditioner, but when she is in the shower without her glasses, she can’t tell the shampoo from the conditioner, because the writing on the label is too small.
Now, when would you ever ask anyone that question?
You can’t find something like this out unless you follow your customer into the shower. (What you do on your own time is up to you, but I think following someone into the shower as a survey method is unprofessional.)
Some people still believe that social data is not accurate enough to use for market research, but it actually can be if you work with the right company. [Full disclosure: I am a senior strategist for Converseon, so you can guess who I think the right company is.] With a high enough level of accuracy, you can not only pick out single tweets like this one for insights, but you can use sentiment analysis to find high-volume complaints that let you really get an earful from your customer–all without consulting the Long Island Medium.
What are you waiting for?
