Not on Social Media? Reconsider NOW

For those companies who don't know whether or not to be active on social media sites here is the market research study to PROVE you need to be there interacting with your customers!


The Retail Consumer Report surveyed 4,512 social media users as well as monitored multiple social media sites and review sites. The following are the key statistics that every company should know!


1.) 68% of people who complained online (whether it was on FaceBook/Twitter or a review website) had a response from the company
2.) Of those, 18% turned into LOYAL customers of the company they had a complaint about and bought more items from that company


This shows how powerful it is for a company to see a complaint and respond to that complaint. It could change a "hater" into a lover of your product. This is also an element of surprise for the customer.


3.) 61% of customers would be shocked if a company replied to their complaints on the web.


Do we need any more proof on why companies should be online?! 

Are we Still Angry at Groupon?

Today I found a very interesting study about people's feelings towards Groupon now that about two months has past since their infamous commercial on the Super Bowl. Like any huge controversy the public upset has subsided, however Groupon has gotten lucky. Their like-ability wasn't severely damaged. Conversition did a study using text analytics with social media tools and found the following results:


   Picture from conversition.com


This first graph shows how much Groupon came up in tweets or Facebook statuses or other social media tools. The spike is at the Super Bowl. Then gradually people stopped talking about Groupon. The interesting stuff is in the next graph-


  Picture from conversition.com

    In this graph the top line is measuring the positive talk about Groupon and the bottom line is measuring the negative talk about Groupon. So, clearly the social media world was upset with Groupon, voiced it but it seems as if the public has forgotten about the commercial and have moved on. 


   Maybe this is because of recent events in Africa and the Middle East or Groupon simply has a good idea as its business that people love. In any case, Groupon took a huge risk that could have potentially ruined their brand image and reputation, but luckily they were able to surpass it very easily and with little harm done to their company. 
  SO, do you think Groupon got lucky or did they know people would get over it so quickly?! What does that tell us about society today?

Using Social Media for Market Research

As we know or can probably guess, social media has opened the doors to a two way road between marketers and consumers. Marketers can no longer push a message on the consumers without hearing feedback as well as consumers have a much stronger voice in the online world which forces companies to be more proactive and communicate with their customers in this online Community. Below is a video I found that shows social media is an asset to another department of the marketing group: the market research folks-

  As David C Skul of Relativity an internet market firm says in the video- social media is a great way to converse with customers as well as get very detailed demographic information. A profile can tell the market researcher so much information that it helps them narrow down who to talk to, or who is talking about their products in the social media world. 
   A company might think they need to target 14-19 year old males who play video games, however through research on social media sites like FaceBook and Twitter, that company may realize their actual market is 17-24 year old males who are active members of a community. This understanding will allow companies to market to their actual audience and connect with that audience.