Comments on: Online Communities for Market Research: Let’s Not Oversell Them

By: Diane Hessan

Diane Hessan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:49:42 +0000

The difference between panels and communities is not that in one you have more (or less) passionate consumers. You can get passionate consumers for either, and it all depends on your recruiting criteria. The primary difference between panels and communities is that in communities the participants also build relationships with, and are in conversation with, each other.

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:32:04 +0000

Thanks Charles. If it’s any comfort, I for one absolutely recognize that panels and communitiies are 2 entirely different animals. I wonder how often they are confused? Hmmm…..

By: Charles Pearson

Charles Pearson — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:11:07 +0000

Agree with what has been said, especially “Yes, online communities can do these things too—but to say “no other form of research can” is simply untrue.” This is why at EasyInsites we make a clear distinction between CUSTOM PANELS and COMMUNITIES. We are in the business of custom panels, we believe strongly and this is proving out in our business growth that custom panels are the starting point for most companies and it is rare to find one that would not benefit by having their own custom panel with which they can run a wide variety of research without incurring the cost of finding and paying each time for respondents they need for a particular research project. By empaneling consumers and/or customers from existing client databases, websites, etc., they are simply making good use of those who are interested in engaging with that company but who are not the most active and passionate as you will typically find participating in an online community. I am not sure why this distinction is not discussed more often, it seems that there is an all or none mentality in the current industry discussions on this topic even though custom panels are so much more widely useful and affordable and just make good business sense.

By: Julie Wittes Schlack

Julie Wittes Schlack — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:13:39 +0000

As a founder and practitioner at Communispace, let me fervently agree with your final point. Companies should let their business objectives drive their choice of market research and social media tools, not vice versa. But based on our experience of having recruited and run over 350 private MROCs, I disagree with you on a couple of points as well. While you’re certainly right that high-involvement product categories lend themselves more to self-forming, organic communities, we’ve found that by being attentive to “social glue,” engaging in very active facilitation, and demonstrating that our clients are listening, we’ve been able to achieve extraordinarily high engagement (avg. 9 contributions/month) from our community members. And while it’s true that *real-time* follow-up and probing is possible in focus groups or via tools like iModerate, it’s the ahas, the subsequent thoughts, and the opportunity for iterative discussion and refinement that makes the longitudinal nature of MROCs so powerful.

By: Joy Levin

Joy Levin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:47:01 +0000

Thanks for this post. This topic reminds me a little of all sensation regarding social media about a year ago – many marketers were advising companies to jump on the bandwagon, and sometimes, to abandon all other methods, or at least shift a significant portion of marketing budgets into these tools. Online communities need to be viewed as a tool in the whole box of possible tools – one that may be right in certain situations and circumstances, and may complement others but, I really don’t think, can replace. It’s the same as with any other marketing research tool – the box is growing instead of being consolidated into the next cure-all. Additionally, until some more research-based evidenced is borne out and studied on online communities, it really makes sense for companies to approach them with the same degree of caution that they would approach any other tool. Finally, while online communities may not require much up-front costs, they often do require significant investment in terms of manpower to maintain.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:18:58 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by ResearchRocks: My response to Forrester statements on online communities http://bit.ly/8oe6Hq #MR #MROC…