Social media as market research

Social media as market research Learning Questions What are some of the ways that business can use social media for market research? What do businesses have to be careful with when collecting market research? What advantages does market research from social media have over other methods of collecting market research?

Social media as market research Learning Questions Market research - The process of gathering information about the market and customers’ needs and wants in order to help inform business decision, including product design and marketing Sample - A portion of the population asked for their opinions in order to draw conclusions about the behaviour of the whole population Data - Information, particularly statistics, that can be collected and analysed Biased - Unbalanced or inclined to agree with a particular judgement or ideas rather than presenting the evidence fairly Demographic - Relating to the population, such as average age, average income and so on

Social media as market research Learning Questions For example: You want to sell an English-language rugby computer game to teenagers. You are looking for the answers to the questions ∙What should the game be like? ∙What price should I charge? ∙Where should I sell the game? ∙What kind of words should I use in the advertising for the game? You decide you will look at potential customers’ social media profiles to try to find answers. Think about the kind of people you want to look at the social media profile of. Ages 12-20 Living in UK, USA, Australia, Ireland, South Africa You do not want it to advertise to 70 year olds who list their interests as knitting and Dominoes, or a 35 year olds who are more interested in Tennis. The more you narrow it down to your potential customers the more business leads. You are ‘targeting’ the demographics. Facebook reads all the interests and likes people on facebook express an interest in and targets them for your advert

Social media as market research ∙ Understanding the market – knowing what interests your customers and potential customers, as well as finding out what they think about your competitors. ∙ Identifying trends – knowing what customers and potential customers are talking about at the moment. ∙ Improving products and marketing – knowing how customers and potential customers talk to each other about your products and use this language in your marketing. ∙ Saving time – social media can provide research in minutes instead of months. ∙ Increased sample size – the majority of people who use the internet use social media, this means that social media can provide larger samples than other sources of data. Reviews of products Comments left on other users’ posts ‘Likes’ people have left Trends of what is being tweeted Comments on businesses’ facebook/twitter

Let’s say you make a video advert for new t-shirts What two things does this information tell you about people who engaged with your advert? The group which ‘liked’ the advert the most are women aged 35-44 More women liked the advert than men How could you this information to make choices about the marketing mix? (4 Ps)

CHALLENGE TIER EASY HARD GOD Use 1 key words Use 2 key words Use 3 key words Market research Data Sample Biased Outline one factor Best Publications should consider when carrying out market research using social media. Best publications could ensure that the people they are examining from social media are from a representative sample, 1 so that the data is collected is not biased 1 Best publications may collect information on what potential customers enjoy from their social media accounts, 1 And use it to see what sort of things are popular 1 Observation 1

Surveys can be posted on social media 1 Surveys can be posted on social media and can allow potential customers to express their preferences 1 1 which the business can process to identify trends Explain 3 marks Will only appear in section A Always start with ‘Explain one…’ Six Explain questions in each paper 1 mark awarded for identification of an advantage/disadvantage/ benefit/drawback/method/reason/possible conflict/impact A further 2 marks awarded for explanation – 1 mark for each strand. Note: A list of points with no development will only score 1 mark

Types of followers of social media can be identified 1 Types of followers of social media can be identified which allow the business to identify the profile of customers 1 and can use this information to design products to meet customers’ needs 1 Explain 3 marks Will only appear in section A Always start with ‘Explain one…’ Six Explain questions in each paper 1 mark awarded for identification of an advantage/disadvantage/ benefit/drawback/method/reason/possible conflict/impact A further 2 marks awarded for explanation – 1 mark for each strand. Note: A list of points with no development will only score 1 mark

Social media as market research Learning Questions What are some of the ways that business can use social media for market research? What do businesses have to be careful with when collecting market research? What advantages does market research from social media have over other methods of collecting market research?