Your social networks, fans and followers offer an unlimited source of marketing insights which your business can turn into real business outcomes. Do you know how to tap into this social marketing treasure trove? Below, you’ll find a few tips to get you on the right patch to using social media to discover sales and marketing information for your business.
Create Viral Blog Content
Want to discover blog topics and online marketing content your customers and prospects really want to read about and share? Use a Facebook post – this could be a shared article – that offers content similar to what you wish to create, and if your social audience reacts with high engagement (shares, likes and comments), then you are on to something. Take it a step further by reviewing comments for any questions or additional insights into topics related to your subject matter which could narrow down your blog marketing content further.
Sales Insights from LinkedIn Groups
Are you looking for sales and marketing data for your B2B business? Use LinkedIn Groups to discover what problems you can solve for your prospects and mine for marketing information you can use to create online content. Participating in Linkedin Groups – listening,helping and asking questions – will allow your business to gain valuable insights which it can then use in offline prospecting, sales calls and marketing materials.
Social Analytics and Demographics
Does your business make it a point to tailor your marketing and sales campaigns to specific demographics? Social media offers very useful – and free – demographic data via social network analytics to discover what target audiences are engaging with your brand. A particularly effective way to gain real business outcomes from social marketing insights is to spend time digging around in Facebook Ads marketing data where you can even discover the offline and online demographic spending habits of your target market.
Keywords from Twitter Search
Trying to determine which keywords your customers and prospects are using online – keywords you can use when putting together a social marketing or content marketing campaign. One tried and true but often overlooked way to do this is by using the advanced search options Twitter offers. Assemble your list of keywords, type them into Twitter search, and you’ll see discussions going on in real-time based on those keywords and topics.
Innovate with Social Media
Would you like to save money when it comes to your business’s services and product innovation? Test your ideas with the people who will eventually be buying your products and services – your social network fans and followers. Using tools like Google hangouts, private Facebook groups or Twitter chats and inviting your brand advocates will give you marketing insights into what your customers want at the fraction of a cost of traditional offline product testing.
Please, share your strategies for using social networks to discover marketing insights in our comments.
