Twitter as a market research tool

Dominik Loncar, CYBF Entrepreneur-in-Residence, dloncar@cybf.ca

I recently attended an Entrepeer Experience event (where CYBF entrepreneurs, mentors and staff   enjoy face-to-face networking) and I met someone who said that he uses Twitter as a way of finding out who to connect with (he has an app that helps him with that).

It occurred to me that Twitter could also be used as a useful market research tool – to see what was happening in a particular industry by gauging discussion on a topic or sector. This could be helpful in writing a business plan, understanding marketing approaches or looking at opportunities/threats.

Obviously Twitter will have its limits because it’s only as good as the people who participate, but it can gauge the “pulse” and engagement of an industry.

I came across the article 20 Top Twitter Monitoring and Analytics Tools with suggested apps and tools that can help you gauge what is happening on Twitter. Take a look and see if one of them is worth the time and if you know of a better tool please recommend one.

A word of caution: chose one and stick with it for a while to really see if it’s useful for you.