Introduction Marketing research is a very important concept. It is an element that has been utilized by many organizations in an effort to succeed in their day to day operations. Marketing research can be defined as a systematic process of gathering data that is associated with issues concerning marketing products and services, recording it and finally analyzing it for effective decision making. Marketing research entails a process or function that brings together various components of a market for instance the consumers, the public as well as the customers to the marketer. This is made possible through appropriate information. Information is therefore considered to be a very pivotal tool in the marketing research process since it allows for making of appropriate decisions in an organization with respect to how it ought to carry out its practices in order to satisfy its customers and hence achieve maximum productivity and profitability (McDaniel and Gates 1998). This piece of work gives a discussion of the concept of marketing research with much emphasis being given to social media research. The main focus of this report is an examination of methods of conducting exploratory marketing research specifically using social media. The methods of marketing research that will be discussed in details are; online focus groups and online market research communities. Case examples will also be given to enhance our understanding of the concept of social media marketing research through showing how organizations can utilize social media as market intelligence. Discussion Marketing research is a complex process that involves more than just promotional activities. In the contemporary business world, the need for marketing research has significantly increased with increased level of competition. It is therefore necessary to have a clearly designed marketing plan in order to have a successful organization. It is always necessary to understand the customer’s needs while conducting a marketing plan. This is however only possible through carrying out of effective marketing research, which ensures that all the market attributes are put into consideration in the process of producing products and services. This allows for customer satisfaction, an aspect that is very crucial in the growth and development of any organization. This is because customer satisfaction does not only attract new customers but also help in retaining the existing ones. The public is a very essential element when it comes to the business world. This is because it keeps businesses on the move through providing a source of consumption of the products and services produced by the businesses. For this reason, there is need for business enterprises to be more concerned about the needs and preferences of the customers to ensure that they satisfy them. This allows for formation of a good organization-customer relationship and loyalty, an element that is very crucial for business sustainability. Marketing research is a tool that has enabled various organizations to attain competitive advantage through the understanding of the different characteristics of customers and hence coming up with ways of appropriate means o