Before SparkToro existed, the process of researching a brand’s audience was a frustrating one. I know, because I helped a lot of friends, especially those pursuing early stage ideas or launching new products. It took forever — usually months, sometimes 6+. The data was always self-reported (which meant it was often wrong). And scale was simply unobtainable. We could survey and interview 50, even 250 targets. But 1,000? 5,000? Forget it.

When this hypothesis-turned-real-life-product came out, I worried whether marketers would “get it.” SparkToro isn’t comparable to other tools. It’s not even in an easily describable space. A lot of marketers consistently do the work the tool helps with, but that doesn’t mean it was a slam-dunk to pitch… not by a long shot. Thankfully, it feels like some folks really are getting it.

But, let’s be real. Not everyone’s as on-the-ball as Katelyn.

We’ve seen confusion on how exactly to use the product, what it can help accomplish, and what makes for a good search vs. a bad one. Today, I’ll try to help with that. Smart use of SparkToro stems from a need to better understand your audience, with real-life, practical tactics attached to those, so I’ll show not only ideas of searches to try, but also how to use the data you get back. Since your first ten searches are free, let’s start with those.

Search 1: Your Brand’s Social Account

How well do you know the people that follow your brand/account on social networks? And how well do you know what else they follow, read, watch, visit, and listen-to? When I ran these searches for my own account, the first few results were no surprise (though the % following column often was), but as I scrolled down, I found more and more interesting, unique, and most importantly — sources worth forming connections with.

Example Search for Follows the Social Account: twitter.com/reallygoodemail

I often start with Twitter (the network I use most) but Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more work, too. The best part is…

You can read the article in its entirety, on the official website of SparkToro

Thanks a lot, Rand… I hope your thoughts, your geniuses can have as much resonance as possible.