#tweetsmart

Chapter 4. Twitter Market Research

Tweet this Project

Your Twitter audience can offer you far more than just sales and community. If you put aside your sales goals and profit and loss statements for a moment, you should begin to see the not-so-obvious benefits that come from having a collection of thousands, or tens of thousands, of instantly contactable people at your disposal—each of whom is familiar with your company.

You work every day to make great products or provide great services. It’s a struggle—I know!—and you have to make decisions every day that will impact your customers. Often, the right answer is not obvious—would folks prefer a red option or a green? Chocolate or strawberry? This title or that title?

Many companies spend millions of dollars polling, polling, polling the general public hoping to find an answer that will recoup the millions of dollars they’ve spent in asking the questions. It’s a risky proposition. However, while large companies will always find reasons to spend millions of dollars on market research, you don’t have to. You have a targeted and engaged Twitter audience packed with your ideal customers. Therefore, when you’re faced with making a tough decision that will affect your customers (and your sales), you have the luxury of being able to plain-ol’ ask them for their preference.

This is the purest form of customer engagement. Invite your followers into your decision-making process. This strategy will accomplish several things.

1. You Will Get an Answer ...