A Little Bird Told Me…Twitter and Market Research

While many businesses have used Twitter as a way to promote their products and gather feedback from customers, another more subtle application of Twitter exists and is widely used by business nation-wide. Twitter Lists, a simple way to follow a group of people possessing similar characteristics. Twitter Lists can allow a business to create a list of leading industry voices, competitors, and those who follow the competitors to gain insight on what is happening in the industry.

Twitter can also be used to understand the psychology of your competitors. Jennifer Van Grove from Mashable makes clear the best way to do market research using Twitter, “create a list of your biggest brand advocates and loudest brand naysayers and hang on their every word — even if that means reading up on their weekend activities.” A simple unassuming Tweet from a company CEO can have profound implications especially when taken in the context of what is happening at the company and in the related industry. If you were to carefully follow a competitor long enough, you would begin to understand his word choice, emphasis, tone, and what is truly important to him. Twitter Lists would allow you to understand the mind and personality of your competitor.