It is hard to overestimate the importance of market research for affiliate marketers. Whether you are a merchant, or an affiliate, you cannot afford not to keep your finger on the pulse of the market. Francis Bacon’s famous maxim “knowledge is power” says it all, but merely realizing this fact is not enough. You gotta know where to get the knowledge.
Besides things like RSS subscriptions to important blogs and Google Alerts, I find Twitter’s concise 140-characters-a-message format extremely helpful in keeping an eye on the market.
So, I suggest every affiliate marketer (or anyone involved in online marketing, for that matter!) adds the following 10 Twitter accounts to his/her follow list:
- eMarketer — Digital intelligence for marketers & advertisers on social media, mobile, media, advertising, retail, consumer products, and more.
- Forrester Research — Independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.
- Google Retail Team — Uses their Twitter account to provide the latest industry news and data.
- Pew Internet — The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.
- BigResearch — Consumer intelligence firm providing solution-based insights of consumer behavior.
- Focus — Online resource where professionals can freely access the research and expert advice they need to make better business decisions.
- American Marketing Association — Official Twitter account of AMA, a professional association for individuals and organizations involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing.
If I have missed your favorite one(s) (for market monitoring and research), please post those Twitter handler(s) below.
This is a pleasant surprise, Geno. When I just read the title, I thought this will be the list of affiliate marketing bloggers on twitter (who are great but that would be “just another list”). Your list is just what I really need
Thanks for this, I’ll definitely add the ones I don’t already have to my list.
Funny, I just posted my followfriday blog post which highlights 6 Internet Marketer Types that I think people should follow on Twitter as well, lol.
Ann, Bronson, glad you liked the list. I follow all of these on a daily basis, and learn a lot from them.
Thank you for this list, i was already following 4 out of the 7 but didn’t have them on a list. I created a list for these so I can read their information on a daily basis: http://twitter.com/bettyhakes/online-research – FYI
My pleasure, Betty.