How to Use Your Following as a Focus Group
Encouraging feedback is so important to growing your business, and social media gives you the ability to find out what your potential customers are looking for in real time. Here are 5 ways to use your following as a focus group to ensure your next launch is exactly what they’re looking for.
Use Polling Features
Facebook and Instagram both offer you the ability to poll your audience in an easy and efficient way. We recommend utilizing these features to encourage your following to give you feedback. On Facebook there is the poll feature, and on Instagram the engagement stickers are your best friend. Use them to ask your audience what time of day they prefer for content, what colour shirt they would buy in your next launch, or what kind of content they like seeing on social media.
Ask Questions in Your Captions
You don’t know until you ask right? Encourage your audience to share their thoughts by asking them what you want to know in your captions!
Pro Tip: Reply to every comment! This continues the conversation and encourages them to continue engaging.
Surveys!
Okay, we know. Surveys sound lame and time consuming. But the truth is they can be instrumental to your success. Ask your past customers or existing newsletter subscribers to fill out a quick survey and let you know what they are looking for. Whether it is research for a future launch, or feedback on an existing product their answers will guide your decisions.
Pro Tip: Incentivize completing the survey with a bonus for their time. Whether it is 10% off their next purchase or a free education resource, this will help your audience see the value in filling out the survey.
Utilize Influencers
Working with influencers is not only a way to increase your reach, but also to gather valuable feedback from potential customers. Since the influencers you work with should represent one of your target demographics, their opinion can often be representative of what many of your potential customers are saying. Further, once you have partnered with an influencer it is important to monitor the comments on their posts to see what their following is saying about you. This will give you insight into any excitement or hesitation to your business or product.
Monitor User Generated Content
Jeff Bezos famously said “Your brand is what others say about you when you’re not in the room.”. This is often when honest and unfiltered feedback is available. So how can we apply this to social media? Finding out what individuals are saying about you on their own feeds. Monitor content you’re being tagged in and any hashtags that relate to your brand to see what people are posting about you!
Pro Tip: Comment on the content individuals are making about you. This not only lets them know you monitor content you’re tagged in, but shows them you are receptive to feedback and care about their opinions!