There’s an article by Jay Baer that’s getting quite a bit of circulation – in large part because it references some new statistics on social media usage and because it’s titled: “Is Twitter Massively Overrated”, a question sure to provoke and ruffle. Seeing social media statistics make their rounds with fervor is not a rarity. Statistics are impactful because they sound a heck of a lot more impressive than making a statement without them, they make us feel validated in our choices and they help to make sense of information that is hard to understand. Unfortunately though, research can also be misused. Just yesterday, I came across a few event professionals sharing Jay’s article and surmising from it that Twitter is not the powerful tool it’s heralded to be.
It can be dangerous to use external research to support decisions for a niche business because the research respondents likely don’t reflect your target market. Let’s say you’re planning an event for New York-based CFOs who work in the consumer packaged goods industry. Unless the respondents of a survey you are referencing are your market, the results are not reflective of your target’s usage and behaviors.
It can be time consuming to do your own research, but the results will be much more valuable to your business. If you have access to your market, ask them questions. And, if you don’t, you can use social listening tools like socialmention.com to do online market research.
We live in a time where statistics are shared at record speeds (not to mention sensationalized and misconstrued). It’s more important now than ever to understand how they truly impact your business.