  Social media captures examples of people's behaviors, actions, beliefs, and
sentiments. As a result, it can be a valuable source of information and
inspiration for HCI research and design. Social media technologies can improve,
inform, and strengthen insights to better understand and represent user
populations. To understand the position of social media research and analysis
in the design process, this paper seeks to highlight shortcomings of using
traditional research methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups) that ignore or
don't adequately reflect relevant social media, and this paper speculates about
the importance and benefits of leveraging social media for establishing context
in supplement with these methods. We present examples that guide our thinking
and introduce discussion around concerns related to using social media data.
