There is much talk about using social media in marketing and sales; but much less about how to use social media to market research.

At an early stage of your business or even before you have started, social media can help you learn more about your target market, to know who the key individuals who should contact you and help you be more effective in your contacts with the market.

Like everything in the business world nothing comes for free and get rewards are directly related to the time and effort you invest.

A particular site can help you build a clearer picture. It is LinkedIn, which is still often seen as a website for people looking for a job. However, if you bother to look a little deeper, you’ll find a wealth of marketing information.

5 Things you can do to Boost your Market Research

• Create a Profile on LinkedIn

When you contact people are going to want to see your profile to get a quick idea of who you are. Are you a real person? Your expertise is relevant?

This page is your instant credibility and must take the time needed to complete properly. Be sure to include a good photo (professional image) yours.

You can read tips on how to complete and optimize your LinkedIn profile.

• LinkedIn has an Advanced Search Option

This means that the search can specify the country, including the city, work position, key words and even the company in which these people work. With this type of search you can quickly identify key people with whom you need to communicate.

• Send a Short Message Submission

Send submission directly to ten people find through search explained in the previous section. Write the correct message is another skill that will leave to try another day. The most successful messages are short and clear.

Before going I take to clarify that InMails are private messages that allow you to contact or be contacted directly by any user of LinkedIn and simultaneously protect the privacy of the recipient. InMails can be purchased individually or as part of a premium account.

In aid LinkedIn can read the difference between InMail and presentations.

The InMails generally respond to the rule of 3 × 3. Three paragraphs with no more than 3 sentence each.

• Contacts is your Starting Point

Now that you are connected with relevant people in your industry is ready to use as a starting point for your market research. Who do these people most connected? Usually their own colleagues, customers and suppliers, and all three are very useful for you contacts.

It is essential to have more than one contact within the company to which you plan to target, since it most likely will have to contact several sections of it before obtaining an order. Everyone knows or at least should know, should point to areas in each company.

• Providers of your Contacts could be your Competition

But they could also be potential customers or marketing channels. This is where you find out who the supply of who and who is working with whom.

A paid subscription LinkedIn cost a small amount of money. I have no personal experience but you almost could ensure that spending a week running here and there talking to the wrong people will cost more money.