Social media is riddled with biases, from clashing views on hot topics to communities that agree on everything. Does this mean marketers need to take what they find on social media with a grain of salt? One place where you perhaps might want to think twice before gathering consumer reviews and opinions is your owned social media channels. There will be times when it will work and times it will more harm than good.
Confirmation Bias, Bandwagon Effect & Groupthink
These three biases often go hand in hand. Confirmation bias is our tendency to look for cues that validate our beliefs or opinions. Groupthink could be interpreted as the plural form of confirmation bias, but the goal is to achieve group consensus. Similarly, the bandwagon effect wants to achieve consensus, but it includes those who might have slightly different views but will defer for the sake of consensus. Smaller and more niche online communities are particularly prone to groupthink and bandwagon effect.
The Filter Bubble
Author Eli Pariser defines a Filter Bubble as a personal universe of information generated by algorithms trying to guess our interests. The same holds true for most social media experiences. As social media platforms pivot from showing us content based on our connections to content based on our interests, these further reinforce the filter bubble. This adds to the current polarization and hyper-sensitivity that many topics bring into the public discourse. Be aware of this consumer mindset as you probe social media for brand opinions and consumer views.
Where to find consumer feedback on social media?
If your goal is to gather feedback and opinions from your loyal consumers, then, by all means, head on to your social media channels. If you want to gather the sentiment about your brand or a particular topic, use social listening software like Talkwalker to gather data from open social media channels such as Twitter and non-owned sources like blogs and review sites. Even though social listening software comes at a high price, as an alternative many platforms allow you to perform a search and scrape the most recent posts, and social listening will often yield the most honest opinions. I strongly recommend searching for your brand on Reddit, which often goes into deeper and more insightful conversations.
Always remember how different biases come into play in different social media channels. Remember to be open to different ideas and seek to get out of the filter bubble and into areas where you might feel uncomfortable.
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