Jun

Using Facebook Groups For Marketing Research

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Facebook, Groups, marketing, Research, Using

Using Facebook Groups For Marketing Research

Many businesses have developed strategies for promoting their business through Facebook. But another way that they can use Facebook is to conduct research to better understand their target market. The most obvious way to begin would be to observe discussions in Facebook groups that closely match the topic they are researching. Facebook groups are similar to forum discussions in that there are millions of them covering just about every topic imaginable, making them an ideal source of information for niche market research.

Facebook groups can be a much more reliable source for market data than forums or blog posts. One of the problems with using forums is that the information provided in them is difficult to validate. It can often be hard to determine who is actually responding. In terms of credibility, anonymity on the Internet can be a double-edged sword. Respondents have no incentive to lie but no incentive to tell the truth either. When individuals participate in Facebook groups, they know their name is going to be attached to their posts. This may encourage them to grandstand a little, but overall they will try to participate in discussions honestly and maturely.

The other advantage that market researchers have using Facebook over forums is that they can establish the demographics of the individuals participating in the discussion much more easily. Some of the respondents have public profiles, which means that researchers can easily access all of the data they would most likely need to assess correlations or observe patterns between demographics and consumer behavior. Even if the participants do not have public profiles, market researchers can still extrapolate demographical data in other ways. First of all, they can look at the participants profile pictures to make approximations of their age, gender and race. Market researchers can also look at the networks in which the participants belong to identify geographical locations, colleges or universities they belong to and determine their approximate age based on date of graduation. Even though Facebook has recently made changes to its privacy policies, many members still display this information. Finally, since Facebook is a more expressive community than most forums, participants are probably going to be more descriptive about their demographical information in their posts.

Facebook also can be advantageous for marketing research for more practical reasons as well. Even with carefully selected keywords, it is tedious to go through all of the forums on a given topic with a simple google search. This market research would involve going through each forum individually and eliminating any from consideration that is not relevant, does not have the right number of participants or does not provide quality discussions for market research purposes. It is much easier to search for Facebook groups and screen them based on their relevance and the number of members in the group.

Unfortunately, there are some limitations to using Facebook groups for market research. Despite the number of people that use Facebook both socially and for professional networking, it is still a single platform out of millions on the Internet. Some niches are so small that they do not yield enough Facebook data to satisfy most market research objectives. This is especially true when identifying a controversial or embarrassing topic that people are not going to want to discuss publicly. Market researchers must also consider the fact that most of their research subjects are going to be of younger demographics, although this is slowly changing.

Nevertheless, Facebook groups remain a stellar starting point for most market research programs. As long as adequate data is available, they should be considered a strong source of information.