Lessons Learned: How to research your business

by Serena Ehrlich, SVP Social Media on December 6, 2009

Editor’s note: This is part 2 in the series of Lessons Learned: Easy tips on how to create and grow a social media program. This series includes a discussion on the following topics:

Create a Social Media Policy
Research your business
Set goals
Write an Editorial Calendar
Create content
Start the program
Grow your social media program and overall web presence
Handling mistakes and attacks

Lessons Learned: How to Research Your Business

Before you initiate any outbound social media efforts, you must do initial research to both determine where your target audience is online as well as what they are discussing in regards to your business and industry.

One of the most helpful elements of social media is the ease of obtaining information. There are a slew of sources for research. Here are a few ways to determine where your audiences may be online as well as what they are saying about you:

Measure: Look at your Google Analytics to see which social networks appear in your referring traffic figures as well as what terms are being used to find you online (use these terms to help determine messaging)
Find your audience online:
- Ask your employees where they play online
- Ask your sales force where their clients interact online
- Create a small survey and ask those on your email marketing list. Tip: add a cash/gift incentive to ensure higher # of respondents
Find out what people are saying about you online:
- Search popular network sites like Twitter and Facebook and see how many results appear. Don’t forget to check the social networks relevant to your industry as well (Yelp, TripAdvisor, CruiseCritic etc)
- Search sites like www.peoplebrowsr.com, www.socialmention.com as well as a Google comprehensive (web and blog search) for your company name and see what sites appear the most.