The Hidden Dangers of Relying on Social Media for Customer Insights

by | Mar 20, 2017 | Market Research

In today’s digital age, social media platforms like Twitter have transformed how companies interact with their audiences. Notably, CEOs of major companies—such as Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX—are highly active on these platforms, using them not only to share updates but also to engage directly with customers. Twitter, in particular, has become a space where leaders of major brands can gather customer insights, crowdsource ideas, and even open discussions about product development.

But is Twitter (or social media in general) genuinely effective for gathering actionable customer insights? The answer is both yes and no. While it provides unique opportunities for engagement and data collection, it has some notable limitations that make it a flawed tool for comprehensive customer research.

This article explores both the benefits and drawbacks of using social media, like Twitter, for collecting actionable feedback, as well as how CEOs can effectively leverage this tool without relying on it entirely.

 


Crowdsourcing Product Insights on Twitter: A Case Study

TwitterOne of the most prominent examples of a CEO using Twitter to gather product feedback is Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb.

In 2016, Chesky took to Twitter and asked his followers a simple yet impactful question: “If Airbnb could launch anything in 2017, what would it be?”

Chesky spent significant time responding personally to the thousands of ideas and suggestions that poured in.

This type of public engagement has multiple benefits:

  • Customer Trust and Brand Loyalty: When customers see a CEO directly engaging with their feedback, it humanizes the brand and builds trust. It shows that the company’s leadership values their customers’ opinions and is open to considering their ideas.
  • PR and Brand Awareness: A CEO’s active presence on social media platforms like Twitter generates positive public relations and fosters brand awareness. A tweet that sparks a discussion about future product features can lead to increased attention and media coverage.
  • Real-Time Feedback and Fresh Ideas: Twitter provides immediate access to raw, unfiltered feedback. Customers can voice their pain points, wish lists, and expectations directly, allowing companies to identify trends and common requests that might help guide product development.

Chesky’s approach to crowdsourcing on social media showcases the potential of such a method. It encourages open dialogue, generates excitement among customers, and demonstrates that the brand is willing to listen.


The Limitations of Using Social Media for Product Feedback

While the idea of using social platforms like Twitter for customer insights is enticing, it has its limitations. Understanding the risks and drawbacks of this approach is crucial for ensuring that feedback is not only heard but is reliable and actionable.

1. Limited Customer Representation

One of the primary downsides to using social media for product insights is that the feedback received is often not representative of the entire customer base. For example, only a fraction of a company’s customers may be active on Twitter. Even among those who are, many may not see every tweet the company posts, and fewer still may engage with it.

Why This is Problematic
When gathering product insights, it’s crucial to have a diverse and representative pool of customer feedback. The small segment of customers that interact with a CEO on Twitter may not reflect the needs and desires of the broader customer population. As a result, decisions based on this limited feedback risk overlooking the needs of the majority.

What to Do Instead
To mitigate this, companies should collect insights from various sources, including website analytics, in-app surveys, direct customer feedback, email marketing campaigns, and support tickets. By compiling a broader range of data, companies gain a more holistic understanding of their user base and their behaviors.


2. Limited Information and Context

While social media feedback is often candid and unfiltered, it lacks depth and context. On platforms like Twitter, users are limited to short messages (280 characters or less), which means that their feedback is usually brief and sometimes ambiguous. Additionally, users typically do not include much personal data or behavioral information that can help brands understand their purchasing patterns, demographics, or preferences.

Challenges This Creates
A user may tweet that they “love” a new feature or “hate” a certain aspect of a product, but this sentiment lacks context. Without knowing more about the user’s background, purchase history, or product usage patterns, it’s difficult to determine how representative their feedback is of the larger customer base or whether it should be prioritized.

The Solution
For deeper insights, brands should combine social media feedback with data from CRM systems, which provide more comprehensive information about customer behaviors and preferences. Understanding how customers interact with a product, what their pain points are, and what features they use the most gives a clearer picture of their needs.


3. Vulnerability to Idea Theft and Competitor Spying

When a company’s CEO starts a public conversation about potential product features or gaps on social media, it can attract the attention not only of enthusiastic customers but also of competitors. For example, when discussing the potential launch of a new product feature, competitors may take notice and act quickly to fill that gap themselves, especially if they have faster product development cycles.

How Idea Theft Can Happen
Imagine a company CEO tweets about a new feature that customers are requesting, and that feature isn’t yet available in their product. Competitors who follow the same Twitter account could pick up on this demand, pivot quickly, and develop a similar feature to win over dissatisfied users before the original company has a chance to act.

How to Protect Your Ideas
To protect sensitive information, it’s best to focus on public discussions of general feedback, trends, or customer needs, rather than specific ideas or product plans. Additionally, consider using private forums, surveys, or focus groups when gathering more sensitive or strategic feedback.


4. Weak Takeaways and Limited Relationship-Building

While collecting insights from social media may yield useful information, the engagement generated is often thin and difficult to build upon. Running a public survey or soliciting feedback on Twitter can generate an influx of responses, but the nature of social media makes it hard to create ongoing relationships with users.

Why Social Engagement Has Limits
Unlike a controlled feedback process where companies can follow up and ask additional questions or request clarification, social media feedback tends to be one-off. Respondents may not return to continue the conversation or provide further insights after their initial feedback. This limits a company’s ability to build deeper relationships and gain a fuller understanding of their thoughts.

What to Do Instead
In contrast to social media, direct channels like email surveys, in-app feedback requests, or customer interviews allow for back-and-forth dialogue. These formats provide the opportunity to gather richer, more detailed insights and nurture customer relationships through meaningful follow-ups and continuous feedback loops.


Best Practices for Using Social Media as an Insight Tool

Insights

While there are clear limitations to using Twitter and other social platforms for collecting customer insights, they can still play a valuable role in your overall customer intelligence strategy. The key is to treat social media as just one piece of a larger puzzle.

1. Use Social Media for High-Level Trends and Early Signals
Social listening can provide early indicators of customer sentiment and highlight emerging trends or issues. It’s particularly useful for understanding how your brand is perceived publicly and what topics are being discussed around your product or industry.

2. Engage for Relationship-Building, Not Just Feedback
Engaging on social media shouldn’t be solely about gathering product feedback; it should also be about building brand trust and fostering a sense of community. Respond to comments, share behind-the-scenes content, and acknowledge your followers to create a deeper connection with your audience.

3. Supplement with Deeper Research and Data
To avoid basing decisions on incomplete or unrepresentative feedback, supplement social media insights with other research methods. In-depth customer interviews, user testing, web analytics, CRM data, and email surveys provide more context, detailed feedback, and a better understanding of customer needs and behaviors.

4. Monitor Competitor Activity but Keep Your Ideas Private
Social media is a public space where competitors may be watching. While you can monitor your competitors’ activities for market trends and customer needs, be mindful of what you share publicly about your product plans. Save sensitive discussions for private channels.


Conclusion: Using Twitter Wisely for Customer Insights

While social media platforms like Twitter offer a unique opportunity for CEOs to engage with customers and gather feedback, they should not be the sole source of insights for product development or customer strategy. The open nature of social media allows for real-time feedback and strengthens customer relationships but has limitations in terms of data representation, depth, and follow-up capabilities.

By using social media insights in conjunction with more structured and representative feedback methods, companies can gain a fuller, more accurate understanding of customer needs and preferences. In doing so, they can create products and experiences that resonate with a wider audience, driving both loyalty and growth.

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