Share and share alike
Editor's note: Kelly Hancock handles communications for the Qualitative Research Consultants Association.
It’s no secret that social media is rapidly changing our society. It’s affecting interpersonal relationships, purchasing decisions, business initiatives, one-on-one and mass communication and more. The role of social media in the modern world has made it increasingly important for qualitative researchers to understand new methods of communication and adapt their research approaches accordingly to capture the deepest insights.
While some researchers are integrating social media methodologies into their research projects, even those who don’t are experiencing – and sometimes leveraging – the power of social media in their daily work.
Publicly share
In this virtual world, people are highly accessible and willing to publicly share the happenings of their lives. Hundreds of millions of people around the globe post details about themselves daily, enhancing opportunities for market researchers to learn about a specific category, brand or product.
The amount of qualitative data available to researchers increases with every share, pin, post and tweet. As a growing number of social media users expose more about themselves, qualitative researchers have a growing opportunity to gain better perspective into people’s lives. “People are online and socializing, which means that it’s very easy to reach them there,” says Ricardo López, president of Hispanic Research and a member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA). “Research becomes easier when things are accessible. I utilize social media to find target markets, study what people are saying and proceed with analysis.”
This connectedness broadens horizons for qualitative researchers, who find that people are online more and engaging more. “Mobile devices expand the possibilities of when and where you can interact with consumers,” says Liz Van Patten, principal of Consumer Advisory Panels/Van Patten Research and a QRCA board member. “Social media and mobile devices all intersect, which creates opportunities for research methodologies to become more sophisticated.”
Growing sense of openness
Social media has welcomed – encouraged, even – users to share the most basic information about daily life. (Think of all those posts you’ve read about what your friend had for dinner or the photos you’ve seen of kids just being kids.) As consumers are afforded a public voice through social media, there’s a growing sense of openness and a willingness to share. Some qualitative researchers have seen this trend translate into more openness and honesty in focus groups and online settings. “My general observation is that people are exposing themselves so much more than they ever used to,” says Diane Harris, principal of D.M. Harris Associates and a QRCA member. “People are more willing to talk and show the core of who they are.”
Abby Leafe, principal of New Leafe Research and a QRCA member, explained how the use of social media affected her research on digital dating violence. “As part of a project that had several components, I created a Facebook account that was somewhat personalized and friended the participants before conducting research. They saw me there like all their other friends. Being Facebook friends with the participants added a layer of friendliness and intimacy to the research. It got them to open up more,” Leafe says.
She’s also noticed a change in traditional market research, noting that people seem to be more forthcoming with their thoughts and opinions. “Social media has encouraged people to share more on Facebook and Twitter. The increasing use of photos and videos speaks to a greater degree of comfort. It is affecting our techniques as researchers,” she says.
Van Patten agrees that research techniques and results have been affected by social media. She finds that her insights are more in-depth because of social media’s presence. “When research respondents are asked to upload still photos or videos while they’re using a category of products, the photos and videos generally portray the user in a natural setting,” Van Patten says. “The home setting gives more breadth of understanding to what we’re exploring in the research. We can see more about their family setting and how the product actually fits in.”
Spurred an evolution
The digital age has spurred an evolution in the ways our society communicates. Consumers have come to expect an e-mail over a written letter and a text message over a phone call. These everyday changes are shifting into the business world – and the qualitative research field.
López said that he recently conducted research about people who drink a particular brand of coffee. He asked participants to take and submit a photo of the coffee in their kitchen. Every respondent submitted a photo from his/her mobile device. “Everyone was able to conveniently take the photo with their phone and send it to us through text or e-mail,” he says.
Many researchers indicate that people seem more comfortable participating in qualitative research if they are able to communicate in ways that feel natural to them. Additionally, researchers indicate that they find many people saying things online about brands and products that they normally would not say in person. “Consumers will increasingly expect to interact with researchers in the ways they’re interacting with others online. It behooves us to stay on top of it,” Leafe says. “Social media touches on every single thing that we do. Accurate research reflects that it’s not a question of who uses it – it’s more about how.”
The flipside, says López, is that, in addition to the benefits, mobile devices have become a distraction in face-to-face communication. “The first thing is trying to get them to shut down their phones and stop texting while I’m talking,” he jokes.
More educated
Consumers are becoming more familiar with and educated about technology, brands and products in the digital age. This increased knowledge of online tools is shrinking the gap between researchers and research respondents.
Van Patten finds that the training and explaining processes of her online research are becoming less critical, due to the growing familiarity participants have with technology. “When I moderate online bulletin boards, I have to explain less to people. Everyone is online now. Research platforms have gotten more sophisticated, but so have many consumers,” she says.
In fact, consumers have come to accept online tools as standard forms of communication. In some instances, research respondents are going so far as to demand the conveniences of online platforms before agreeing to participate. “Recently, I am finding that respondents are savvy enough to say that they will do an online project but they need to be able to do it from their smartphone or iPad,” says Van Patten.
Consumers have expanded their knowledge on more than just online tools. The Internet and social media have changed the way many people view products and brands. It has become easier and more likely that consumers will form opinions about products and brands before they have even used them.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have become common places for brand discussion among consumers. Online communities and message boards also hold significant importance with regard to consumer discussion and education. “Researchers are encountering increasingly educated consumers exclusively because of the digital age,” Leafe says. “It is rare to come to a group when people haven’t researched the topic to a degree. Things you wouldn’t even think they needed to research – like breakfast cereal.”
“People are definitely more informed on topics because they can educate themselves,” López adds. “They will educate themselves before they come to a focus group or on their phone while they’re in the waiting room. They want to portray themselves as smart but it affects research. As a researcher, you have to be up to speed and aware of how people are doing things today. We’re not just asking questions. We’re in the business of understanding people and behavior.”
Tapping online resources
Some researchers have begun tapping into their online resources in very innovative and noteworthy ways to enhance the recruitment processes. As social media users often reveal significant – and sometimes insignificant – details about their lives, opportunities are created to identify groups of people based on characteristics that often are not tracked in any other way.
Harris is using Pinterest to aggregate information to find consumers and learn about the culture associated with certain brands and products. She searches Pinterest for pins about a client’s product and category and then digs deeper into the pinners’ social media accounts. By looking at other pins from these users, Harris can learn more about the people interested in the brand and products. “I can view profiles to learn about the culture of my client’s brand and the types of people I should target for research. I can also try to reach out to some of the users via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn about participating in formal research,” she says.
Van Patten also has taken to social media to recruit knowledgeable consumers. “During a research project on hair loss for men and women, we were having difficulty finding participants through recruiting databases,” she says. “We decided to place some ads and target communities and message boards that dealt with the issue. Shortly after, we were able to fill two bulletin boards and conduct successful research by defining the narrow target audience.”
Look through the window
The opportunity to reach educated consumers will continue to expand through social media. The ability to look through the window to truly see those people and communicate with them effectively also will expand and create great opportunity for qualitative researchers to understand consumers and what drives them.