How Social Media is Effectively Changing Our Lives

Its The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

I hope you had a great Halloween yesterday and you did not fill up on too much of the kids’ candy.  As I sit here watching a Halloween classic, “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (made in 1966), and reading through tweets and online news articles, articles about Hurricane Sandy (#Frankenstorm) and the latest political discussions, I am realizing how divergent the two really are.

Also, I am in realization that there are literally, millions of people without electricity right now.  However, even with this inconvenience, they are completely up to date on their weather, electricity status, and all that is important to them because of their smart phones and social media.

What The Olympics Can Teach Us About Business

I am sure many of you have had a week of Olympic excitement.  I know over the past seven days, I have enjoyed watching the Opening Ceremonies, experiencing for the first time sports that I did not even know existed, and witnessing some great finishes for the United States to win Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

Mobile Research Impacting The Market Research World

Recently there has been a lot of articles, blogs, and discussions about mobile market research.  This may be due to the fact that the Market Research in the Mobile World (MRMW) conference, which was organized by The Merlien Institute, was last week.

I do very little in mobile research due to a number of reasons.  A lot of it is because it involves “big data” and analytics and there are lots of companies that do a great job at that side of the business.  It is also becoming a more important part of the business decision making process.

Using Social Media in Homebuilding

It is commonly known that in real estate, especially homebuilding, the use of social media is the generally not the rule. Those using it well are even more rare. I personally several real estate agents using Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Some are better than others. The better ones that I know integrate their social media to topics beyond the homes that have on the market, the newest new home neighborhood phase release, and themselves.

But what about Pintrest? I recently came across a blog about the upcoming new home developments in Austin, Texas (home to my favorite musician of all time, Stevie Ray Vaughn). While looking around their blog, I was the “Follow me on Pintrest” link. The curiosity got the better of me. What I found was one way builders real estate agents can expand their presence on social media. Here they have posted pictures of homes and communities.

The whole idea of social media is not just to just self promote. The main purpose is to be able to engage with your audience. Granted, a portion of social media’s purpose is self promotion. But if that is all you, there is a limited engagement factor. Don’t believe me? Take a look at #3 on this infographic about Twitter engagement.

How have you used social media to expand your business?

–J. Nolfo helps companies understand their market and customers though a variety of market research strategies. He has over ten years of experience of market research for strategic planning purposes. He is the Director of Research at Rhino Market Research. He shares his thoughts about market research and business concepts with his blog “Pensare…Understanding Market Research in Business“. If you would like to discuss this blog or how J. can help you understand your market and customer needs, email him at jnolfo@rhinomarketresearch.com.