Are Market Research Tools an Alternative for Social Media Haters?

Social Media has been around for a number of  years now, yet many CEOs just don’t see the point.  Most of them leave the social media activities to the marketing folks in their organization.

In a post on DIYMarketers, we explore the idea the some of today’s newest, coolest market research methods can actually be a great alternative for CEOs who hate all the hassle of social media, but want all the results.

Here is a summary of the alternatives:

  • If you hate the idea of losing control of your message, then create your own customer community.  You can create a customer or user panel with whom you are in regular conversation.  Ask the panel questions, via survey, they will give you answers.
  • Still question the ROI of social media?  Create a crowdsourcing space on your site where your customers can tell you their ideas for improvements and new products and you can respond.  Create a real-live brain trust and conversation that gets your customer involved in creating a product they will love and talk about.
  • Sick of people’s stupid updates?  Run surveys and polls on a mobile platform like SurveySwipe.  You can blast out a question to their existing community or upload a list of your own. You’ll get feedback in less than 2 hours!
I was one of the first people in line to criticize CEOs who weren’t taking advantage of the power of social media.  But as I got to really listening to their complaints — I really GOT IT.
The alternatives I’ve described here use the social media platforms, technologies and elements of fun and then target them toward ROI rich, time saving and customer engaging results.
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Can You Crowdsource Social Good?

Why not end the work week on an up-beat note?

Mashable has an article this morning entitled, “Can Crowdsourcing Make Any Dream Come True?” In it, they explore the idea of crowdsourcing social good with a look at the site Wish Upon a Hero.

The site allows anybody to post a “wish,” the content of which can range from good deeds like helping families affected by the tornado in Joplin, Missouri to – this one’s real – help with paying to have a tattoo removed. The community then decides who’s wishes are most deserving of being granted. Over 78,000 have been fulfilled so far.

We’ve talked often in the past about the value of crowdsourcing, and the knowledge that can come from the wisdom of a crowd. Does it apply here as well? Can the crowd identify the most appropriate uses of resources for matters of social good? Will they weed out those just looking to make a buck? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this interesting use of the crowdsourcing approach.

Have a great weekend!

Looking Ahead: What’s Out

Way back when (all the way back to about two months ago), we did a series of posts looking back at the past year in market research, and more importantly, looking ahead to what’s likely to change. Our favorite post among the series highlighted a project by Kathryn Korostoff of Research Rockstar, wherein she applied one of the past year’s market research trends – crowdsourcing – to the task of identifying predictions for market research in the year ahead (a very “meta” project, indeed).

Well, the final results are in.
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Mobile Polling of the State of the Union

Tomorrow night, President Barack Obama will deliver his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. Every major political event, but especially a presidential address, is always soon followed by a slew of polling information conducted by media outlets, analyst firms, and so on. We’ll hear news stories that tell us how the President performed, based on the opinion of sampling of a few hundred people.

We all know market research, and those polls can certainly be an accurate representation of public sentiment. But we also know that larger samples equal better data. That’s why I’m following the SurveyAnalytics State of the Union project. This project is a joint effort of SurveyAnalytics, SurveySwipe (a new mobile device research platform), Cooper Strategies, and UMass Amherst.
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Using Twitter for Market Research

Microsoft fans and geeks alike know (and sometimes even love) blogger Robert Scoble and his blog, Scobleizer. I follow him with a passing interest on Twitter, but was struck by two recent tweets which I think hint at an opportunity for market researchers. Here are those tweets:

From: @Scobleizer
Sent: Dec 14, 2010 1:11p

How to tell whether I am right about a new startup: watch Twitter. With Flipboard hundreds agreed immediately. With Voice DJ? Nope.

From: @Scobleizer
Sent: Dec 23, 2010 3:09a

The best way to tell if a startup is gonna make it is to watch a group of Twitterers, here’s why. @Admore … #Cinch: http://bit.ly/eaKmht

What Scoble is saying is pretty clear – it’s another way market research is, in effect, being crowd sourced.  Scoble is talking about new startups here, but I’ve found a similar trend with my clients who are hosting events.  I can tell from the first tweet if the event is going to be a success.
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Looking Ahead: Alternative Modes of Collection

We told you last week about the Market Research Trends IdeaScale instance set up by Kathryn Korostoff of Research Rockstar. The site provides a crowdsourcing approach to identifying trends in market research over the coming year. Later, we took a look at one of the trends posted for discussion – the “insourcing” of market research, wherein more and more organizations are conducting their own research using self-service tools rather than engaging market research firms. Today, let’s look at the leading prediction on the site: that alternative and multi-modal approaches to data collection will finally see real traction in 2011.
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Looking Ahead: Insourcing Market Research in 2011

Yesterday, we posted about market research predictions for 2011, and how Research Rockstar is collecting predictions via an IdeaScale crowdsourcing instance. There are now 33 active ideas on the site, spanning the market research industry with varying levels of focus, and even controversy. Probably one of the less controversial predictions – but one that is also more likely to come true – is that in-house research will expand dramatically in 2011.

My question to you is this: Does this expansion represent an exciting empowerment that opens market research to the masses, or the end of market research as we’ve come to know it?
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Looking Ahead: Crowdsourcing Predictions in Market Research for 2011

It’s that time of year again – when we look back on the biggest events of the past year, and ahead, with thoughts and predictions of what’s to come. It’s often an interesting discussion, but it can get a little tired. And how do you compare predictions? Which are based on expert knowledge and experience, and which are just pie in the sky? Kathryn Korostoff of Research Rockstar is taking a unique approach to predicting the year ahead in market research that may help us address those issues, by applying the latest in market research techniques, to market researchers.
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The Social Enterprise: Barely at Operational

I recently attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, CA, an industry event focused around what people are deeming “the social enterprise,” and I noticed an interesting transition afoot; namely the transition that takes place when a business idea goes from conceptual to operational. Put simply, this transition occurs when a business idea or model makes the leap from being sold as a vision of what could be, to being sold as a process which businesses are incorporating into their methods of conducting business.

Eventually, for these ideas to gain real currency, they have to be institutionalized. In other words, they have to become part of the air that enterprises breathe.

From conceptual to operational to institutional.  That is the evolutionary chain of an idea.

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Applied Crowdsourcing with Dr. Leslie Fine of Crowdcast (VIDEO)

This week at Enterprise 2.0, we had a chance to catch up with Dr. Leslie Fine, Chief Scientist of Crowdcast. Crowdcast is essentially an internally-focused market research tool that leverages a crowdsourcing approach to gain insight into the collective intelligence of your employees. In other words, employees can vote on questions posed by others in the organization. (“When will we be ready to ship our product?”, “Will we hit our sales goal?”, etc.)

Leslie was kind enough to walk us through a demo of Crowdcast. Check it out.
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