As more social media platforms pop up across the web, it’s become easier to reach out to customers and start listening – really listening – to what they want, need and desire.  You might still invest hundreds, even thousands of dollars in complex market research campaigns to learn about your customers, but today’s social media applications can give you some fresh insights about what your target market is looking for, thinking about, and most importantly, talking about. 

Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, here are some simple ways to get the inside scoop from your customers using social media:

1. Set up a blog.  A blog that provides updates on product releases, the latest news about the industry, or anything else that your company is involved can help attract newfound interest to your brand or business.  Blogs that provide useful, educational information for your target market can help your company get noticed in the blogosphere and stimulate conversations about products, ideas or just the state of the industry.

2.  Join Twitter.  Twitter is being adopted by millions of people each day, and your target market may already be posting something about your business or brand.  Use tools such as TweetDeck to monitor your tweets, and become an active user of the application to attract a following and learn more about your customers.

3. Publish videos.  Sites such as YouTube and Veoh.com make it easy to publish your videos and tutorials in a matter of minutes.  Review comments and ratings regularly to learn what your customers and target market are thinking about your services.  You can also promote these videos to bloggers in your industry, and keep track of comments in their posts.

4. Launch a contest.  Unique and fun contests are a great way to increase traffic to your website or blog and attract new prospects to your business.  If you post the contestant your blog, encourage other bloggers to do the same and allow contestants to post their replies.  Opening up even a small section of your website to the community can stimulate interest and initiate dozens of conversations.

5. Set up a social network.  If you’re a niche business, consider using social application such as Ning to attract a highly targeted community.  These social networking groups thrive on conversations, updates and blog posts from other members.  Acting as a community leader or moderator and providing useful content and ideas to the network can stimulate very valuable conversations and keep members interested on an ongoing basis.

6. Set up a dedicated comments or ideas box.  Starbucks is enjoying ongoing success with its ‘My Starbucks Idea’ campaign that integrates Vertical Response applications with its site.  This allows customers to submit ideas, discuss and vote on various suggestions so that Starbucks HQ can make better product and service decisions.  You can set up something similar with Vertical Response, or simply set up a public comment or ideas discussion forum on your site.  The goal is to stimulate live conversations with your customers and allow others to provide feedback.