As social media continues to evolve, we are seeing a shift in marketing techniques from traditional methods, to interactive techniques.  Focus groups are a perfect example of this trend.  In the past, focus groups were conducted by companies through gathering together a very targeted group of people (in person, at a physical location) to discuss a brand or product, and then the feedback was then analyzed and passed back along to the company.  These focus groups usually took weeks to plan, if not longer, and one of the hardest parts was getting all of the participants together in the same room, at the same time.

Now, with the emergence of social media, more and more companies are turning to social networking tools to create online focus groups, including Walt Disney, Coca Cola, and Proctor & Gamble.  Social networks, such as Myspace and Facebook, allow companies to target specific segments of their target market, through demographic profiling.

Another benefit to using social networks to develop focus groups, is that by engaging your potential customers, you are not only gaining valuable insight from them, but you are forming a relationship with them, which increases customer loyalty, customer lifetime value, and decreases attrition.  Customers are screaming out for engagement from the companies they purchase products and services from.  They want to tell companies what they want and need, they just need to be asked!

Tags: business social networking, online focus groups, Social Media Marketing

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 5:33 am and is filed under RSS Marketing Strategies, Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.