Online Marketing Research

Social media seems to be taking over the world of marketing. A lot of discussion has focused on how to set up a Twitter account, and how to use it to listen and engage with customers. Many people are beginning to call social media the new medium for market research and surveys. But I would have to disagree. While it's an excellent idea to listen to what people are saying about their needs, your industry or your products, other qualitative and quantitative research methods are still essential. Social media shouldn't replace online communities, focus groups, etc. They still have their place in the rapidly changing world of online market research.

What really keeps me up at night is the idea of people distributing their surveys through social media. For some surveys, this could be an okay approach. The problem with it is the data. If you just get responses through these channels, there's no way your survey results will be representative of your target market, unless your target market is your Twitter followers. If your target population happens to be your Twitter followers, then your survey will be representative because you're inviting everyone (a.k.a. conducting a census survey), but how likely is it that you only want the opinions from that small group?

If you do decide that a non-probability sample is a requirement for your online survey project, try to find additional channels to solicit feedback responses through in addition to social media.