The title of this post is a bit of a misnomer after all blogging is social media. However I was inspired to write this series of blog posts by the KLCK Bloggers network in response to a presentation I gave at the last meeting.
Researching your ideas for blogs or gauging the opinion of others can be a long process. Social media makes it easier. Asking your social media communities for opinion and suggestions is a fantastic way to get new insights on what you are doing. But what tools can you use?
Facebook Questions
The recently launched Facebook Questions tool always gets a great response. The beauty of this tool is that you can ask the question on your own page but as people respond their friends see the question and are encouraged to respond giving it a larger reach than simply your own community and freinds. There is also an option for respondents to add their own answers, suggesting answers you may not have thought of before.
Ask Twitter
Simply putting a question out on Twitter can provoke responses. My recent call out for Facebook landing page examples returned lots of suggestions, some of which made it into my Bloggertone post.
Linkedin Answers
Linkedin is a huge mine of information and the Linkedin Answers tools allows you to get suggestions and answers from Linkedin users around the world even if you are not connected to them directly or through a group. You will find Linkedin Answers by clicking ‘More’ on your Linkedin home page and selecting ‘Answers’ from the drop down menu. Answers are categorised by topic.
Linkedin Groups
Linkedin groups are a fantastic resource to ask you question or monitor trends within your industries. Again it gives you the opportunity to gather opinion from people outside your networks.
Quora
There’s been a lot of buzz around Quora this year. It’s simply a questions and answers network but it’s very well used and has become a fantastic space to find out anything about everything. Although mostly techie at the moment it is growing. It can be used both to answer your own questions
Internet forums
Whatever industry you are in there will be a forum or message board for you. Searching these out, joining them and becoming an active member can be a great resource for information.
What other social media do you use for research? Do you have any tips and tricks to share? If so let me know by leaving a comment below.
