Your best social media research could be right under your nose. Have you asked your fans for ideas yet? Check out Bulbstorm CEO, Bart Steiner’s, 5 reasons why fan ideas are the key to social media engagement. A segment of his presentation is posted below.

1. More engagement than you could ever imagine. Ideas are key for engagement. People are more likely to engage with brands that value their opinions and LISTEN to what they have to say. For instance, the challenge we are currently running with Intel asks fans to submit ideas for the “Home Phone of the Future.” In just one month, the promotion yielded more than 3,800 ideas and more than 250,000 brand interactions. Enter the challenge at www.facebook.com/intelideas
2. Valuable content. If you’re looking to create a new product, your fans should be the first people you turn to for ideas. They know what they need or want WAY before you do. In fact, a recent challenge with Tornados generated 1,460 flavor submissions—three of which will be on shelves in the near future.
3. Offline integration. Social media is at its strongest when it’s integrated with other marketing channels. When your Facebook fan page is a user-generated-content-garnering machine you’ll have plenty to talk about off the page. Take the Skin it to Win it Challenge. It took a couple fans all the way to Daytona and saw coverage on plenty of NASCAR blogs and even the front page of NASCAR.com!
4. From fan to ambassador. According to a recent post by social media blogger, Brian Solis, 51% of people who “like” a fan page said they would be more likely to buy since connecting online. And that’s JUST clicking the “like” button. Think of the impact you can make on a fan if you demonstrate that you value his or her opinion.
5. Virality. Ideas are naturally viral. There’s a reason why the word “share” is often seen right in front of it. Ask your fans for ideas and you’ve got yourself a built-in viral marketing campaign because your fans will ask their friends to vote on their idea…and then their friends will likely share ideas too! And remember, the friends of your fans are more likely to like your brand.

We think fan ideas are a company’s biggest social media asset. What have you learned from your fans recently?