Social media as a source of market information

Nowadays information plays an important role in the development of companies. Information constitutes the main source of building competitive advantage allowing to make a good business decision, which leads to a company's success on the market. Conducting marketing research makes it possible to obtain valuable information, but unfortunately this method is usually associated with the necessity of bearing high costs and in many cases research itself is conducted in an incorrect way and delivers incorrect information.We live in the age of information society, which is associated with the rapid development of the Internet and tools using the Internet allowing various forms of communication. One of such tools are social media platforms, which are usually regarded as a place for building contact networks and communication with other users. It is worth pointing out here that thanks to their popularity social media have become a place which is more and more often noticed by companies. Almost every well-known brand has its profile in the social media, allowing the users of social media portals direct contact with products, or services offered by a particular brand. Persistent popularity of social media means that they are becoming a rich source of information, both about the users - current and potential clients, but also about rivals - companies with a similar profile of activity, actively operating in social networks.The starting point for further deliberations are issues associated with the functioning of social media as a place allowing to obtain market information, which in light of the concept of market intelligence constitutes an alternative to traditional marketing research.