If research were a person, it would have cute, wire-framed glasses, wear a bow-tie and cause grave anxiety to anyone he or she met. But today, our friend research is getting a personality makeover. Research wants to be your friend, and we are here to share a few ways to make that happen!

The foundation for any successful campaign is research. However, here’s the thing… Ready for this?

That doesn’t always mean you have to distribute an in-depth survey and code the data to be statistically relevant.

Still standing? Okay, good. We know that kind of data collection takes both time and money, and a lot of organizations don’t have the manpower or the resources to make it happen. Many benefits stem from that type of research and we are advocates for it when necessary; however, it’s our goal to make sure our clients take advantage of what we like to call practical research data.

In the past ten years, the ability to pull data tied to consumer behavior has escalated. Now, we have the luxury of accessing several different analytics packages for web and social media channels. These packages offer direct insight into consumer behavior. How, you ask? Well… keep reading for three quick tips to help you create meaningful content tied to research:

1. WHAT IS YOUR AUDIENCE SAYING?

Likes and shares on Facebook are GREAT, but what is your audience saying? As a quick study, pull post data for three months and quickly scan to see what the comments say. Identify these comments as positive, neutral and negative. By looking at these categorized variables, you will be able to identify a few ways to engage more based on what your audience likes.

2. WHERE IS YOUR AUDIENCE SPENDING ITS TIME?

Google Analytics can quickly tell you the top ten pages viewed on your website. However, we invite you to dive a little deeper by looking at the time spent on those pages. Your “contact us” page may be pulling in the most views, but your “about us” page may have the least amount of bounces and a higher time count. This can offer insight about where to put important information or to bulk up the content that’s already there.

3. WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT RESONATES BEST?

Twitter’s analytics aren’t as robust as they could be; however, you can deduce several takeaways to guide future content creation. Export three to six months worth of content and categorize the content into two segments: information dissemination and conversational. Then, compare the impressions and engagements for each. This is a very quick way to find out what content works best for your audience on Twitter.

See? We told you our friend Research isn’t so bad! Make friends – we are positive it will elevate any campaign you currently have in the pipe!

Samantha McCain
PR & Content Manager