Are Market Research Tools an Alternative for Social Media Haters?

Social Media has been around for a number of years now, yet many CEOs just don’t see the point. Most of them leave the social media activities to the marketing folks in their organization.

In a post on DIYMarketers, we explore the idea the some of today’s newest, coolest market research methods can actually be a great alternative for CEOs who hate all the hassle of social media, but want all the results.

Here is a summary of the alternatives:

If you hate the idea of losing control of your message, then create your own customer community. You can create a customer or user panel with whom you are in regular conversation. Ask the panel questions, via survey, they will give you answers.
Still question the ROI of social media? Create a crowdsourcing space on your site where your customers can tell you their ideas for improvements and new products and you can respond. Create a real-live brain trust and conversation that gets your customer involved in creating a product they will love and talk about.
Sick of people’s stupid updates? Run surveys and polls on a mobile platform like SurveySwipe. You can blast out a question to their existing community or upload a list of your own. You’ll get feedback in less than 2 hours!

I was one of the first people in line to criticize CEOs who weren’t taking advantage of the power of social media. But as I got to really listening to their complaints — I really GOT IT.

The alternatives I’ve described here use the social media platforms, technologies and elements of fun and then target them toward ROI rich, time saving and customer engaging results.