I research pretty much everything I buy. Going to a movie? I check out Rotten Tomatoes to make sure I’m not wasting my money. Trying a new restaurant? I scan through pictures and on Yelp.

If I’m shopping, in person or online? OH BOY, you better believe I scour through the entire world wide web. I read page after page of reviews on blogs and Amazon. I watch reviews on YouTube. I look for what store has the lowest price or the best coupons. OMG Free shipping? Ding Ding Ding. In fact, I’d say there’s a direct correlation between the amount of money I’m about to spend and the amount of time I spend researching.

Courtesy of giphy.com

Sharing my neurotic shopping habits helps illustrates two points about research.

1. Research saves time and money.

Okay, in my case it probably doesn’t save time – I probably should be studying or something – but darned if I haven’t saved a lot of money! In the same way, researching before a social media campaign provides insight into thing like: the organization, products and services, public perception, target audiences, competitors, best practices or current reach. I’m no carpenter, but even I know to measure twice and cut once. No one wants to be fresh out of college finishing up their first PR campaign only to realize, “Oh $#!?,” I thought the baby boomers would’ve loved my Snapchat campaign (My worst nightmare).

Courtesy of iwastesomuchtime.com

2. Research works

They got me. How many of the reviews that I read are written by opinion leaders and influencers? Some smarty pants in an office is deducing that there is a 25-34-year-old, college educated white girl in Virginia who truly needs a Fitbit, a new iPhone and cute clothes for fall. They mine my data and put cute ads on my web browser. They publish all the “leaked” info about the iPhone 7 reveal. They email me Labor Day coupons. Similarly, good research is the first step in developing effective social media strategies.

Overall, good research is an investment for your client. Putting in more time, effort and money and the start of a campaign sets a strong foundation for the planning and implementation stages.