Group 1 | Marketing Research | March 8, 2014

The Effectiveness of Social NetworkingSites in Conducting Market Research

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Consumer research can help to inform critical business decisions to ensure those decisions result in a positive outcome.

But, consumer research can be time intensive, costly, and can yield questionable results as a result of the unnatural conditions under which participants are providing their answers and insight.

Have you ever thought about utilizing social media as a supplement, or outright replacement to more traditional consumer research?

Conducting consumer research via social media affords many benefits versus traditional methods such as recruiting for in-person focus groups. It can be significantly less expensive, you can question your audience at a moment’s notice, you are more likely to get genuine responses, you’llavoid having a single overbearing participant sway the opinion of a larger group, and it’s more flexible and adaptable.

Following are a few ways that you can conduct consumer research via social media:

Engage your community

This is pretty simple, but I find is something many organizations overlook. Why not just ask your social media community a couple of questions to help you make your business decisions?

Particularly if you’ve cultivated a highly engaged audience,I’ll tell you from personal experience that they’ll be eagerto participate in the direction of your business, brand, product or service.

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One word of caution here is that you should try to balance questions you might have with the other highly valuable content you are publishing on an ongoing basis, and not overdo the question asking.

Social listening

Depending on what you are hoping to learn, perhaps you can simply listen in on conversations that are already happeningon the social web about the topic that is of interest to you.

Commit to spending a good deal of time doing this, document what you are hearing, and identify patterns. Then, use this information to identify insights, understand popular opinions, and get a solid understanding of what people are thinking.

Setting up search streams in HootSuite, conducting Boolean searches on free platforms such as Social Mention, scouring blogs and other social media networks, and digging around onyour favourite search engine are just a few ways that you can put your ear to the ground and find valuable informationand insight.

Send out a survey

There are a number of free online survey services that give you some pretty solid features at little to no cost. Survey Monkey for instance, lets you create surveys with 10 questions and 100 responses for free. It’s an easy to use application that you really should take advantage of. Distribute the link to your survey on your blog, or on your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn communities.

Surveys are great because you can ask many questions at a time, and many online survey services will consolidate

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responses and serve them to you in easily digestible forms and tables.

As an alternative to online surveys, consider including a few survey-style questions into the registration process foryour next Facebook promotion. If the reward for your promotion is compelling enough, registrants will be happy totake a moment to answer a few questions you have for them.

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How to Conduct Research Using Social MediaNOVEMBER 30, 2011 BY MITT RAY 4 COMMENTS

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Facebook has over 800 million active users, Twitter has over200 million users and Linkedin has over 100 million users. These three websites are the social media giants, with the highest number of users. A large percentage of your audienceand your competitors are a part of these millions of users. It’s important that you use social media, to find out what your audience is looking for and the latest ideas, your competitors are coming up with.

Keeping updated with social media will help you market your services and products to your audience better and will help you stay ahead of your competition.

Below you will find step by step instructions, which will help you research your audience and your competition using the big three social media – Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.

1. Facebook:-

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One option is the search option. Using the search field you can find out what facebook users are communicating about.

Let’s say you want to find out some information on inbound marketing.

Just type in inbound marketing in the search field and take a look at the results…

Normally you’re shown related groups and pages, but you can filter out and look at public posts, latest friend’s posts or posts in groups by clicking on the filter options, which can be located on the left side of the screen. Using this you can find out more about what your target audience and competitors are discussing on facebook.

Another option offered by facebook is the like option. You can like pages of your competitors and audience (or something similar to them) or subscribe to their posts. Thisway you will get latest updates of what they are up to, whatthey like doing and all the types of ideas they are coming up with, on a regular basis.

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2. Twitter:-

Using the search field you can search for latest tweets users have tweeted. You could type in regular search terms or hashtags and find out the most common tweets.

Another option could be to use a keyword research tool like Social Oomph.

First sign in into your Social Oomph account. If you haven’talready got one, you will need to sign up for one. Signing up is free. After you sign in, add your twitter account and then you can conduct your search.

On your profile choose “Manage My Tweet Keyword Tracking andAlerts,” which is the third option under, “Monitors.”

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You will be directed to the “manage keywords” page. Here youwill need to select the “email me the keyword” option, so that the results are emailed to the email address you provided. You will also need to select the frequency at which you would like them posted to you. You will need to write the keywords you are interested in researching, in thekeywords box. If you plan to research many keywords, make sure you separate them with an “OR.”

After you finish typing in the keywords, click on “Save” andyou will be regularly updated with the latest, keyword results.

3. Linkedin:-

There are two options for you to find the latest informationon Linkedin.

One option is to try out Linkedin Answers.

After selecting the search option as Answers, you can perform a keyword search by typing in the keyword you would like to research in the search field, which can be located, in the top right hand corner of the browser.

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E.g. I performed a search on inbound marketing and these arethe results I found:-

You can use these results to find out the types of questions, that are being answered and the type of answers they are receiving.

Another option is to just visit relevant groups and find outwhat the experts are posting on a regular basis and the questions your potential clients are asking about and the type of answers they want to hear about.

Using the above options on social media, you can conduct a thorough research on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and findout what thousands of users are discussing on social media and use this information to market yourself better.

Market research can be a costly and time-intensive process. However, many businesses have begun to turn to social media as a cost-effective and in-depth tool for gaining insights

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into their customers, market, brand appearance and other important market research aspects. The keys to utilizing social media for market research are to understand the benefits and creating a proper research plan. These six tipsoffer easy to implement ways to utilize social media in yourmarket research methods for improved, measurable results.

1. Track Trends with Social Media for Real-Time Insights

Most social media platforms, such as Twitter or Facebook, offer numerous ways to analyze trends and conduct market research. By simply searching the latest posts and popular terms, you can gain insight into emerging trends and see what customers are talking about in real-time. One example of this is conducting hashtag searches on Twitter. By setting up a few searches with hashtags related to your brand, industry or product, you can receive instant notifications when customers, clients or competitors use keyterms.

2. Learn the Language of Your Audience for Improved Marketing Appeal

The words and factors that you use to track the success of your product or business might not always align with what customers find most important. By analyzing social media exchanges about your product or service, you can learn what factors customers use to determine value as well as the way that they speak about your product, service or brand. By utilizing these factors and terms within your own marketing,you can speak directly to consumers and improve the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. By creating customer-centric definitions of value, quality and other important terms, you can help to create a brand or product image that is unique amongst competitors and speaks directlyto your target market.

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3. Use the Real-Time Aspects of Social Media for Quick Research

Traditional market research methods, such as surveys or study groups, could take months to plan, form and execute. With social media, research can be conducted in a matter of minutes or hours. This makes it possible to use market research to follow increasingly specific aspects of your marketing efforts. From product launches to follow-up marketing, each part of your marketing plan can be analyzed independently for improved results across the entirety of your marketing plan. Instead of spending months developing amarketing research plan, and possibly only gaining outdated information as trends change, you can use social media for market research right now.

4. Use Social Media to Broaden the Scope of Your Market Research

Social media is increasing in popularity with both businesses and consumers across virtually every market demographic in existence. A 2011 report by Nielson on the state of social media claims that approximately 80-percent of people with Internet access utilize social media. This makes it possible to conduct market research with an audience that is many times larger than nearly any other marketing or media source can provide. The casual nature andeasy access of social media also helps to promote user interaction, engagement and participation. This improves thechances of obtaining useful, accurate and honest data from your efforts.

5. Discover Unnoticed Trends and Insights by Engaging Instead of Leading

One of the biggest weaknesses to most marketing research methods is that they are driven by questions. To obtain the

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proper information, you must first know what to ask. At the same time, simply rewording a question can result in drastically different answers. This means that your market research is only as good as your questions. With the broad scope and interactive nature of social media, information isgained through interaction and observation. Instead of leading the discussions, you can simply observe or join in as an equal. This can result in a variety of answers and discoveries that might have remained hidden using other research methods.

6. Harness Social Media Research for Improved Cost Efficiency

In most cases, utilizing social media for market research issimply a matter of investing time. Free tools exist for nearly every social media platform to help gather information and use it to derive useful information. When compared to focus panels, discussion groups, studies and surveys, the cost difference is staggering. Through user engagement and discussion, your social media research also serves as advertising, brand building, network building, lead generation and offers numerous other improvements for your business or brand. When planned and implemented properly, few market research tools offer the cost efficiency and overall benefit of social media research.

From reduced costs and real-time access to information to the ability to uncover hidden trends and improve your marketing approach, social media offers powerful ways to optimize the market research efforts of any business. Best of all, social media research offers numerous ways to interact with your market and build your business. Conducting research is as simple as signing up for a social media service, such as LinkedIn or Twitter, and utilizing their built-in search features. Within minutes, your

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business can start analyzing trends, improving your marketing strategies and work towards achieving your desiredresults.

The secret of social media marketing is out. Not only has itbecome a common form of communication and advertising for many businesses, it is predicted to be as common as email for customer support and other interactions in the coming years. However, many businesses still fail to use social media for one of its most powerful uses—marketing research. These tips and tricks offer effective ways to harvest marketing information from social media.

USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO HONE YOUR VOICE

When it comes to marketing, knowing how to speak with your audience is essential to success. Social media provides instant access to the thoughts and phrasing that your customer base uses. Consider your audience’s definition of value, quality, usefulness and other key terms and compare it to your business’ definitions. From improving your marketing copy or mission statement to improving engagement and interaction, aligning your business’ voice with your market holds big benefits.

BUILD A FOLLOWING, INCREASE EXPOSURE AND COLLECT INFORMATIONTHROUGH CONTESTS

Internet contests and sweepstakes are a great way to capturepersonal information or opinions from a market. With the viral nature of social media, it is easier than ever to increase exposure for your contest or giveaway. This means that with a little effort you can vastly improve the quantity of information that you obtain with any given promotion. Sharing your contests with potential social mediainfluencers in your market is a great way to start.

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SIMPLE REPORTS AND MONITORING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

Most social media platforms offer built-in analytics packages. This means that virtually any interaction on social media has the potential to result in useful information for your business. From the best times to contact customers to split testing and brand monitoring, social media offers powerful tools to augment and support your marketing research efforts.

Many popular social media management tools, such as HootSuite, offer point and click report creation and information collation to make the process even simpler. If you are not analyzing your social media effort and impacts, you are neglecting a massive source of information for your marketing programs.

ENGAGE CUSTOMERS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DIRECT RESPONSES

Whether you are a local small business or exist solely online, social media offers instant access to millions of potential customers or clients. Speaking directly with your target audience can provide candid information, honest answers and greater insight into thoughts, behaviors, preferences and other important aspects. When conducted properly, your market research also doubles as brand building and advertising. All of this is possible with an investment of a few hours of your time.

USING SEARCHES AND LISTS TO ANALYZE TRENDS AND COLLECT INFORMATION

Many social media platforms offer ways to tag posts based oncontent or theme. A great example of this is hashtags. By building lists of common tags on social media networks, you can quickly analyze the popularity of key terms, brands or trends to integrate them into your marketing efforts. In most cases, these lists are also automatically filled with potential customers or clients. You can then use these

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contacts for further social media marketing or research. This is one of the biggest benefits to social media for marketing research.

OBSERVE COMPETITORS AND MARKET INFLUENCERS FOR GREATER SUCCESS

Social media is often a very transparent platform. Posts aretypically public or easily accessed by following or subscribing to a specific feed or service. This makes it easy to check out your competition or keep up with major industry influencers. By integrating their successful methods with your efforts, you can stay ahead of the competition and position yourself as an authority in your market. When it comes to marketing innovation, this is a popular way to find new angles or methods to implement and with which to experiment.

USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR QUICK POLLS

One of the biggest disadvantages to traditional forms of market research is the time required to conduct thorough research. Focus groups and other formal studies might take months to complete. By the time you obtain useful information, it could be irrelevant. Social media makes it possible to obtain useful information, through polls, surveys and interaction, in a matter of hours or days. This allows your business to change marketing techniques quickly in response to changes in business trends.

Social media is one of the most powerful assets any businesscan use to optimize their marketing research routines. From quick polls to in-depth conversations, the access social media offers any business to their market is hard to beat.

Social media monitoring is a complicated industry, populatedwith hundreds of different tools, varying from the dirt cheap to the shockingly expensive.

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The versatility of these tools also means that there are countless uses for them, and keeping track of just which tool you would want and why is understandably a headache formany.

To help you navigate this maze, I’m going to lead you on a journey through some of the key ways employing a monitoring tool can help you and your business.

Social media has proven to be a golden opportunity when it comes to research. No longer do companies have to rely on small sample surveys or focus groups; they now have millionsof consumer comments at their fingertips.

But how to find all those comments? And what to do with themonce you have them?

Firstly, let’s consider why you might be doing market research. You might be:

Looking to understand how visible your brand is in comparison to your competitors.

Looking for a gap in the market – what do consumers want that isn’t being delivered, by you or your competitors?

What your customers like and dislike about your brand/products.

What a certain type of people (mothers, teenagers, car enthusiasts, etc) think about specific topics/brands/products.

Social media monitoring tools allow you to quickly and easily mine thousands of conversation about your brand for the first time. Those comments can be stored and are searchable, and of course, are publicly available.

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Well, whilst traditional research methods are still valid and valuable, monitoring social media is a cost-effective way of complementing them and even replacing some of them.

Instead of having to send market researchers across the globe, you have global conversation at the click of a button, allowing delivery of both individual responses and rolled up data in one.

Plus, monitoring can have added benefits to traditional research, such as uncovering trends or insights that you hadnot considered or spotted before, as well as backing up findings from traditional research methods (or, in some cases, contradicting them, in which case why can be a revealing insight).

There are various elements of market research that you mightuse monitoring for, and this article will give an overview of them.

Evaluating competitors

Social media means that you can keep tabs on your competitor’s activity and your position within your market much more easily than in the past. Online monitoring can give you powerful insights into both competitors’ online andoffline strategies when it comes to branding, strengths, weaknesses and the perceived value by customers and industrythought leaders.

With monitoring you will be able to see what does and doesn’t work for your competitors, therefore learning from their efforts, whilst also showing you gaps in the market byidentifying what your competitors aren’t doing.

For example, you can uncover:

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How are they interacting with customers and prospects? What kind of marketing campaigns are they running? Where are they getting PR? What is their brand messaging? How much do people talk about them? What are the key

topics? What causes spikes in conversation about them? What do your target customers like about them? How does customer perception of you differ from

perception of them? What products or services are they focusing their

efforts on most? What new products are they developing?

You should monitor competitors on an ongoing basis; social media monitoring allows you to do so with little maintenanceas once you’re set up, data will continue to be added going forward.

Understanding consumers

Consumer research has, in the past, been dominated by focus groups and surveys. These can be effective, but lack the unfiltered, unprompted opinions that social media allows us to access.

Social media monitoring allows you to listen in on conversations consumers are having with their friends, family and followers and gives access to:

Independent, candid opinions. Large samples. Ability to experiment based on what you are finding. A searchable record of conversations. Automatic analysis of the topics, common keywords and

sentiment of conversation.

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Finding your audience

It can be difficult to know where your target audience is hanging out online. For some industries, people discuss products and brands in fine detail on very niche forums. Forothers, fans may be on more general lifestyle forums, or writing a blog. For many, consumers are focusing their time on their favourite social networks.

You can use social media monitoring to search for discussions around a topic or theme, rather a specific brandor product. This is an oft overlooked use of tools. By searching for phrases and keywords within your industry, youcan begin to learn where people go to discuss that topic/industry.

Once you’ve found these communities, you can monitor them for topics that attract the most attention while seeking ways to subtly promote your brand.

Familiarise yourself with the communities and understand howthey like to communicate and form their opinions; this can help you develop your next marketing initiative. What topicsdo they seek advice for?

Are reviews and recommendations important to their decision-making? If you can begin to learn how they interact and whatit is they like about these methods and communities, you canbegin putting in place processes to optimise your marketing.

This is just a brief overview of how social media monitoringcan be used for market research (some more tips here). Monitoring offers an easy entry into analysing competitors, understanding your target customers, and gaining insights from the broader market.

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We recommend starting with the basics first, and using monitoring to find:

Where people talk about you. Which topics come up most frequently in relation to

your brand. Who your main competitors are and your respective

shares of voice.

Once you have a monitoring process in place which keeps you informed of these, you can start to look more deeply at competitors, consumer opinions, and wider trends.

And don’t forget to experiment! One of the great things about social media research is that you have the freedom to try different queries and tactics. You’re not paying focus group members by the hour, and you’re not limited to the number of people who opt into a survey.

As consumers dive deeper in the holiday shopping season, research and analytics firm Blueocean Market Intelligence announces the results of its “2013 Social Media Effectiveness Index (SEI) for Retailers,” a global study assessing the business impact of top retailers’ social mediaefforts. It found retail brands with positive scores across multiple social media dimensions have the greatest potentialfor market leadership and influence over customer experiences.

Blueocean Market Intelligence captured conversations on social networks and online communities, and correlated theirimpact with key business metrics, including advocacy, revenue and brand value. It also measured business-to-consumer interactions in social media, including how top influencers on Twitter and engagement on Facebook drive sitevisitors and purchase behavior.

The following brands comprise the 2013 top 10 SEI Retail:

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1. AutoZone

2. BJ’s Wholesale Club

3. Wal-Mart

4. Costco

5. Walgreen

6. IKEA

7. Bed Bath & Beyond

8. Amazon.com

9. Ralphs

10. Dollar Tree

The complete ranking based on the top 100 retailers (as defined by the National Retail Federation), as well as leading performers across numerous industry categories, is available in the full report and will be refreshed online every month.

“SEI goes far beyond social media usage and engagement. It explores the real business impact of social media. We’ve identified who’s doing it right, and who has room for improvement,” said Senior Vice President Anees Merchant. “Itis apparent that social media effectiveness is less correlated with how many customers are reached or how product information is simply shared on different channels. Top SEI companies are using social media more strategically to disseminate the right mix and amount of information, build thought leadership and develop a strong framework around the customer experience.”

Top SEI companies, Merchant adds, utilize virtual and traditional word-of-mouth marketing, offer digital discounts

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or interactive contests, promote an omnichannel presence (both online and offline) and integrate their social media efforts into their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

The Blueocean Market Intelligence ranking methodology is specifically designed to measure business impact by integrating social media analytics, measurement and monitoring with multichannel analytics. It measures social media effectiveness by tracking each brand’s share of voice,customer engagement rate, customer touch rate, number of brand influencers and advocates, and net sentiment.

SEI Retail is the second edition of the study. The “2012 Social Media Effectiveness Index (SEI)” assessed Fortune 100companies across all industries.

“The first SEI release was very well-received, so we challenged ourselves to take it further and focus specifically on verticals, creating a true industry benchmarking index,” said Merchant.

To download the full 2013 SEI Retail report, including a detailed explanation of the ranking methodology and a compilation of top social media industry performers within specialty categories, visit www.blueoceansei100.com.

About Blueocean Market Intelligence

Blueocean Market Intelligence is a leading next-generation services organization with a deep focus on data analytics, social intelligence and market intelligence. Combining the talent, speed and cost benefits of a flat world, with vast experience in scalable delivery, Blueocean Market Intelligence delivers richer, more actionable insights to multi-nationals across all major industry sectors.

Blueocean Market Intelligence is part of the Cross-Tab groupof companies (Cross-Tab Marketing Services, Informate Mobile

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Intelligence and Borderless Access Panels) that includes over 650 professionals specializing in data analytics, social intelligence, market intelligence, mobile and emerging markets. To learn more, visit www.blueoceanmi.com.

5 MOST EFFECTIVE WAYS TO USE TWITTER FOR MARKET RESEARCH

Posted byRichard Washington

Jul 9, 2013 2:44:00 PM

Social media is creating better opportunities to engage and share expertise, family photos, and self-aggrandizing quotes (ok, maybe I'm just talking about myself, but you get the point.) Specifically, Twitter has empowered us to drop pint size knowledge in under 140 characters. Its popularity is increasing with each tweet. According to eBiz, Twitter is the 9th most visited website on the Internet. From teenagers to corporations, Twitters' penetration makes it an attractive option to conduct market research.

Beyond the live micro-blogging capabilities, there are golden opportunities to obtain business intelligence from the Twitter communities.

Here are the 5 most effective ways to use Twitter for marketresearch:

1. Person-to-person communication: A market researcher canjump on their mobile app of choice and ask a question to their followers. Within seconds, you can expect to

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receive feedback from people. Twitter removes the barriers that inhibited you from engaging with your market on a personal and low-energy basis.

2. Stream of conscious monitoring: The beauty of Twitter lies in its simplicity and dynamism. This social natural observation allows you to deepen your understanding of consumer values and beliefs in a purely unfiltered way. According to Daze Info, 175 million tweets are sent daily. The data warehouse facilitated by Twitter is an analysts' Shangri La. You can monitor the pulse of your customers and inform yourqualititative analysis towards brand equity.

3. Broadening your market research scope: The world is using social media at a rapidly increasing rate and on the go. According to Socialbankers, 66% of user-generated tweets mentioning brands are done via mobile devices. Your customers are discussing you all the time. It's your job to put yourself in the position to listen.

4. Discover latent consumer insights: It's about what you don't know. An organization's downfall could invariablystem from failing to account for factors that they never knew. The raw communication provided by Twitter gives exclusive access to how a customer really feels about you and even improves your responsiveness to customer issues.

5. Learn your customer's social media language: A major mistake that an organization can make is to expect the customer to learn how to talk to them. Social media is an arena where each network has its own tone and language. It behooves the brand to learn how to relate to the customer in their language to facilitate a positive relationship

6. Some companies may use a direct method, by which asurvey is sent out to existing customers to determinesatisfaction levels and gather feedback. A company mayalso contact consumers and gather information from aspecific demographic, such as an age group, or a

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specific geographic region. Companies may also use a“blind” method, by which a random sample of thepopulation is contacted for opinions online.

7. With the advent of more social media networkingwebsites, some companies are tapping into communitiesto gather important market behavior information. Someof the larger social media networks offer up generaldata about the registered users of these sites tobenefit market research. The information gatheredonline in social media networks can be very valuable tomarketing firms.

8. Using online market research data is one way thatcompanies adapt existing products to meet the needs ofconsumers. It is also one of many ways that companiesdevelop new products and services that consumers relyon. Companies carefully evaluate and use the data thatonline market research campaigns produce to influencethe market via consumers.

9. When it comes to online marketing research, the generalunderstanding is that since the market is mostlyconsumer driven, anything that can be done to influenceconsumers is positive for business. Influencingconsumers stimulates the market. This can result inbetter products, plus higher sales and revenues forcompanies who best use the research data.

10. I continue to be surprised at how many companies keep the Market Research department in some back hall closet collecting dust and reams of paper reports. It happens in all industries, but lately I’ve seen retail companies keep their “Consumer Insight” group focused on traditional insight like mall traffic patterns and planograms. Consumer segmentation models are typically owned in these groups, and often they are leveraged forbehavioral patterns that help with the proverbial 4 Ps – Product, Price, Place and Promotion. That stuff is important to the business, no doubt. But those same companies need to leverage, not ignore, that insight

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available when fusing social media into the marketing mix they already have.

11. Brian Solis has a terrific series starting this week on the changing marketing, advertising and communications, where he adds a 5th P: People. People are the fuel behind social media, which is really just tools and tactics. Here is a quick list of reasons to get Market Research engaged early in order to give social media (People fueled) initiatives the best chances of long term success.

12. 10. Knowing Customer Behaviors13. What internal group knows more about your

customer’s behaviors and acts? The web analytics team knows about what customers do with your own web assets,not about what customers do – in the real world and in online social channels where you don’t own the assets. Do they share opinions? Do they care what kind of car they drive? Are they fickle with the brand of toothpaste they buy? Do they use social platforms and if so, how often and why? While we’re at it, how do ourcustomers use social media vs. the mainstream population?

14. 9. Understanding the Effectiveness of Current and Historical Marketing

15. This applies to branding initiatives too. They (should) know how effective every ad, campaign, point-of-sale item, direct mail, email, tagline, product and other marketing investment has performed. Wouldn’t you want to leverage that insight to avoid a misdirection in using social media?

16. 8. Tried and True Methods to Solicit Customer Feedback

17. Industries are changing rapidly, and the need to conduct focus groups, surveys and gather feedback is too. The more traditional/offline methods still apply, though – and chances are market research departments are already exploring alternatives to get those things accomplished more quickly, more effectively and

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cheaply. Either way, the market research team should beestablished pros at getting feedback from existing and target customers.

18. 7. Understanding the Current and Future Market Conditions

19. Market research is a core part of any business strategy – in this case meaning researching markets. Will there be future demand for products? How is our market share today vs. a year ago, and how will a new program help influence that? It’s this team that businesses leans on to get hard data on what will happen. Talking to customers in these markets in socialchannels increases the need to understand the market overall and correlate initiatives to marketing directives.

20. 6. They Have the Ear of the CMO21. There are many arguments on who should own social

media, but the research arm of the company usually rolls up to the CMO. The CMO is the one managing brand perception, and if you believe social media initiativesimpact branding, marketing or communications, the CMO will want to hear about it. The CMO will also want to know the data.

22. 5. Understanding Customer Needs and Wants23. Customer needs are different than behaviors. Do

your customers have a need for community, convenience, or collaboration? A customer who is ill needs and wantsa safe, effective means to get relief – understanding that need will lead to understanding that customer’s motivation. Social media tools provides customers new ways to hear about, research and talk about their needs. Market research teams can share that insight andinform the folks “doing the talking” on what content makes sense to share and discuss.

24. 4. They Have the Best Contextual Insight25. Bruce Temkin , former Forrester Research analyst on

customer experience, wrote a post a few months ago about how market research needs less statistical

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analysis and more contextual analysis. He shared this formula:

26.27. “Actionable insight” is one of my all-time

favorite terms, and if market research can provide that, they need to be in the mix and weighing in an anynew initiative.

28. 3. “We’ve got data!”29. New businesses are being formed to help fuse

social media into more traditional business intelligence disciplines. Market research has a P&L that includes funds to buy that data, and the skills tosift through it to make meaningful hypotheses about it.

30. 2. Understanding the Competitive Landscape31. When deciding to build a strategy for social

media, it’s clearly important to know what your competitors are doing. The market research team is typically the best equipped, since they a) know who your competitors really are, and b) likely keeps tabs on them already for other campaigns, pricing, promotions and events.

32. 1. Insight is Critical Before Starting Anything New

33. Simply put, many types of social media (as emerging technology) are rapidly moving past the Troughof Disillusionment and into the Slope of Enlightenment.More and more case studies of successes in social channels are popping up. Social media may still be new – and perhaps some approaches will be new to even the biggest organizations. When Pepsi put big budget dollars to social media, I think many people in the industry finally woke up. I guarantee that Pepsi didn’tmake this decision without their market research team in the mix.

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34. Social media tactics touch many other parts of theorganization too, but having Market research up front in the design and decision process will help make initiatives more effective. What did I miss?

What is Online Research?

Online research is the administering of a research survey via the internet or in email form. A rapidly growing form ofmarketing and opinion research that is newly-evolving and becoming more and more popular as new technologies make it faster and easier to get consumer opinions.

What are the characteristics of online research?The use of internet research has grown massively over the last few years due to the increasing popularity and expansion of the internet for both business and personal use. Online research can be both qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative internet research can be performed as a web-survey where the respondents reply to questionnaire-based emails. This means that with the click of a mouse, the results are back in the inbox of the researcher ready for analysis. Qualitative research can be carried out in a variety of methods including setting up group forums on the internet, or by setting up group discussions using web-cams, thus mimicking the conventional group-discussion format. Qualitative research is also being conducted using blogs, and/or an instant message type systemto communicate with respondents, to name a few.

What are the benefits of using online research?

Online survey studies usually have a faster turnaround than most traditional surveys—meaning information can be collected, tabulated, and disseminated at a faster rate than most traditional surveys.

Online surveys are the least expensive format of research—reduced cost comes from needing less staff, tabulation software, etc.

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Complicated research can be conducted online with “helpmenus” that can assist respondents through the survey. Also visual aids can be included as part of the process

Online surveys are more respondent friendly—meaning they are more convenient for respondents, who can participate in the survey on their own time, complex questions are easier to handle, preserves respondent anonymity (individuals are more likely to answer questions honestly—particularly good for highly sensitive topics), for quantitative studies, the chancefor interviewer error is eliminated

Online surveys is an easier recruiting method: most panels include respondents who have opted-in and are willing to receive e-mail invites to participate in online surveys

Online surveys provide a broad range of geographical coverage

Facts and FiguresAccording to a 2005 study conducted jointly by Cambiar and GMI:

90% of major corporations will be doing online researchthis year (2007)

61% of small corporations will be doing online researchthis year

86% of research companies will be doing online researchthis year

The global online research market will equal $3.8 billion this year

According to the latest ESOMAR global industry trends survey, the number of online research studies increased 80% in 2005. Online research now accounts for 20% of the total data collection expenditure worldwide.

Online InterviewingOnline interviewing continues to evolve as perhaps the most dynamic form of data collection. Technological evolution,

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meanwhile, is rapidly expanding broadband access to the home, enabling more sophisticated online testing techniques supported by multimedia presentation and increased interactivity. The improvements in speed and usability allowfor much more complex programming of questionnaires, incorporating fuzzy logic, skip patterns, and testing techniques that can go far beyond traditional monadic testing (i.e., testing one concept at a time) to include paired comparisons (testing two or more products sequentially or simultaneously), repeated pairs (differencesin preferences of paired concepts) and triangulated comparisons (to determine uniqueness of a concept when compared to two other concepts, similar to one another but unlike the concept under investigation).

Online interviewing also offers numerous options for gettingpotential respondents to the questionnaire, including e-mailcontact, pop-ups, direct links from other sites, and even off-line approaches such as mailings and telephone contacts.

Favored for its ability to collect large amounts of data quickly, online interviewing may not necessarily be faster than other methods because it can take some time to get the right number of the right kind of respondents to participate. Nevertheless, savings on such mundane details as printing and postage often balance the overall cost/benefit ratio in the long run.

Online Panels—Qualitative Research link Because they consist of existing, prescreened groups who arehomogeneous on a range of characteristics, online panels canaccelerate the screening process for an online marketing research study. And because they persist over time, extendedstudies can be conducted. Panel members are, by definition, predisposed toward completing questionnaires thoroughly and honestly, providing quality data. They tend to have significantly more knowledge about the topics that form the basis of their panels than the general population and offer a ready-made pool of likely respondents.

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Some advantages include:

Quality/reliability of information: perceived anonymity afforded by an online discussion increases respondent’s willingness to be more frank in discussions. Furthermore, respondents who may by nature be intimidated or reserved in face-to-face group are much more likely to speak up when they are not directly in contact with other respondents. Online panels allows respondents to take their time in considering their responses to questions, and to other respondents’ comments. This differs from in-person focus groups, in which the conversation can move on before some respondents have had the opportunity to express their views,and in which dominant members of the group can more easily influence their colleagues.

Better spread of respondents: Online panels provide the ability to assemble respondents in different geographical locations. This means that there is a new opportunity to bring respondents with a similar interest together in markets with a sparsely spread audience.

Convenience to respondents: Respondents can dip in and out of an online conversation at their convenience, returning toissues of interest as extra comments are added. In face to face focus groups, clearly all respondents must be gathered in the same place at the same time and for the same length of time.

Online research is the administering of a research survey via the internet or in email form. A rapidly growing form ofmarketing and opinion research that is newly-evolving and becoming more and more popular as new technologies make it faster and easier to get consumer opinions.

What are the characteristics of online research?The use of internet research has grown massively over the last few years due to the increasing popularity and expansion of the internet for both business and personal

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use. Online research can be both qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative internet research can be performed as a web-survey where the respondents reply to questionnaire-based emails. This means that with the click of a mouse, the results are back in the inbox of the researcher ready for analysis. Qualitative research can be carried out in a variety of methods including setting up group forums on the internet, or by setting up group discussions using web-cams, thus mimicking the conventional group-discussion format. Qualitative research is also being conducted using blogs, and/or an instant message type systemto communicate with respondents, to name a few.

What are the benefits of using online research?

Online survey studies usually have a faster turnaround than most traditional surveys—meaning information can be collected, tabulated, and disseminated at a faster rate than most traditional surveys.

Online surveys are the least expensive format of research—reduced cost comes from needing less staff, tabulation software, etc.

Complicated research can be conducted online with “helpmenus” that can assist respondents through the survey. Also visual aids can be included as part of the process

Online surveys are more respondent friendly—meaning they are more convenient for respondents, who can participate in the survey on their own time, complex questions are easier to handle, preserves respondent anonymity (individuals are more likely to answer questions honestly—particularly good for highly sensitive topics), for quantitative studies, the chancefor interviewer error is eliminated

Online surveys is an easier recruiting method: most panels include respondents who have opted-in and are willing to receive e-mail invites to participate in online surveys

Online surveys provide a broad range of geographical coverage

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Facts and FiguresAccording to a 2005 study conducted jointly by Cambiar and GMI:

90% of major corporations will be doing online researchthis year (2007)

61% of small corporations will be doing online researchthis year

86% of research companies will be doing online researchthis year

The global online research market will equal $3.8 billion this year

According to the latest ESOMAR global industry trends survey, the number of online research studies increased 80% in 2005. Online research now accounts for 20% of the total data collection expenditure worldwide.

Online InterviewingOnline interviewing continues to evolve as perhaps the most dynamic form of data collection. Technological evolution, meanwhile, is rapidly expanding broadband access to the home, enabling more sophisticated online testing techniques supported by multimedia presentation and increased interactivity. The improvements in speed and usability allowfor much more complex programming of questionnaires, incorporating fuzzy logic, skip patterns, and testing techniques that can go far beyond traditional monadic testing (i.e., testing one concept at a time) to include paired comparisons (testing two or more products sequentially or simultaneously), repeated pairs (differencesin preferences of paired concepts) and triangulated comparisons (to determine uniqueness of a concept when compared to two other concepts, similar to one another but unlike the concept under investigation).

Online interviewing also offers numerous options for gettingpotential respondents to the questionnaire, including e-mail

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contact, pop-ups, direct links from other sites, and even off-line approaches such as mailings and telephone contacts.

Favored for its ability to collect large amounts of data quickly, online interviewing may not necessarily be faster than other methods because it can take some time to get the right number of the right kind of respondents to participate. Nevertheless, savings on such mundane details as printing and postage often balance the overall cost/benefit ratio in the long run.

Online Panels—Qualitative Research link Because they consist of existing, prescreened groups who arehomogeneous on a range of characteristics, online panels canaccelerate the screening process for an online marketing research study. And because they persist over time, extendedstudies can be conducted. Panel members are, by definition, predisposed toward completing questionnaires thoroughly and honestly, providing quality data. They tend to have significantly more knowledge about the topics that form the basis of their panels than the general population and offer a ready-made pool of likely respondents.

Did you know?Both qualitative and quantitative research can be conducted online. There are several approaches used to conduct online qualitative research, including positing questions on message or bulletin boards and conducting online "chat" groups. For quantitative research (where a large number of respondents is often necessary), or for longer or more complex surveys, a traditional online survey approach is more suitable.

Analysts cite online focus groups as a particularly excitingdevelopment for small business owners with limited resources. Business Week noted that traditional focus group research can take several months and a great deal of expense(as much as $100,000) to complete. But growing numbers of marketing research firms offer online focus group research

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services for less than $5,000 a session, the results of which can be studied and tabulated within a matter of weeks.Still, not all business ventures are equally suited to pursue this electronic alternative.

"If your customers aren't tech-savvy, or if your product relies heavily on touch and tast, you may be wiser to foot the bill for a traditional group," counseled Business Week. "But if all you require is a quick glimpse into your customers' minds, an online group could be the way to go.

What are some Challenges to the Marketing Research Industry?

What is research abuse?Research abuse is the mistreatment of the research process or using it wrongly. Often times the research process is "abused" through ignorance, confusing marketing and opinion research with telemarketing or lumping it into the same category. Legitimate marketing research requires the cooperation of the general population, and of registered voters in our country. Typical abuses are:

Selling under the guise of research often referred to as "SUGGing"

Fundraising under the guise of research is often referred to as "FRUGGing"

SUGGINGThe use of a marketing research survey as a guise to sell tothe public. The misuse of the survey process compromises legitimate marketing and opinion research surveys conducted by professionals. It also causes distrust among the public and affects the reliability of all public opinion research. The government has legislation outlawing telemarketing callsselling under the guise of research.

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FRUGGINGThe use of an opinion poll to conduct fundraising defines frugging. Frugging has raised the distrust of the public to a point where they refuse to cooperate with researchers trying to obtain the opinions of any number of issues, including political campaign, and government: federal, stateand local research. In a country inundated with telemarketing and direct mail fundraising it is more and more difficult for marketing and opinion researchers to get accurate data. Marketing and opinion researchers promise no selling, no request for contributions and confidentiality ofpersonal information to respondents in return for their cooperation. Legitimate marketing and opinion researchers are only trying to obtain neutral and unbiased data. Fundraising under the guise of research obviously rejects this principle.

What are the differences between marketing survey/research and telemarketers?Selling, in any form, is different than survey research. Whether conducted by telephone, by mail, by fax or via the internet, sales-related activities are not survey research. The purpose of a sales call, email, fax or mail solicitationis to encourage members of the public to purchase a good or service. Conversely, the purpose of research (in any form - via telephone, mail, in-person interview, door-to-door, mallor focus group) is to gather information and opinions from members of the public to measure public opinions of productsand services or social and political issues. Sales or solicitation is not acceptable or permitted in legitimate and professionally conducted survey research. In fact, if a survey research company attempts to sell anything while conducting survey research, they would be in violation of applicable research industry Codes and Standards, and if conducted via telephone would violate federal law (the Telemarketing Sales Rule).

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Respondent Cooperation and the Profession

Survey respondents are the lifeblood of the research industry. Research participants influence the type of products developed, the quality of customer service they receive and in some cases public and government policy. Through consumer involvement, survey research has made Americans’ lives easier and more enjoyable.

Researchers are truly concerned about maintaining goodwill with the public. Our priority includes maintaining respondent confidentiality, accurately reporting your opinions, and respecting respondents’ privacy, your time, and your right to decline.

To ensure that more respondent cooperation is always maintained and improved, Marketing Research Association actively endorses the Your Opinion Counts® (YOC) program, aninitiative dedicated to ensuring the public voice by supporting the mutually beneficial relationship between the public and opinion research.

YOC is composed solely of legitimate survey and focus group research organizations and their clients. These organizations have pledged to maintain a high standard of respect for the public while conducting research that will impact products, services and government programs and policy--for the betterment of American society.

About “Your Opinion Counts” ®

The “Your Opinion Counts” program is a community of legitimate research organizations that have pledged to uphold industry standards as well as the “Respondent Bill ofRights.”

Anytime a respondent is contacted and hear the words “Your-Opinion-Counts” or see the YOC Seal, they will be assured that they have been selected to participate in a survey by an organization that will maintain their rights as a

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respondent, and will only use the information that you provide to them in order to improve products, services, or programs.

The “Your Opinion Counts” program is maintained by MRA, a nonprofit survey research association.

Researchers' Commitment to Maintaining Respondent Confidentiality Information obtained through survey research is provided to clients in aggregate without being individually identifiable. Researchers should never divulge your identityor individual answers unless you specifically give the researcher permission to do so.

Researchers' Commitment to Accurately Reporting Your Opinions Most research companies are members of one or more professional associations established for the research industry. These associations have developed Codes of Ethics,Standards and Best Practices to insure that the data collected are accurate and representative. Very specific scientific procedures and processes are used to collect the highest quality data with the least amount of intrusion on the consumer. Researcher's clients also depend on accurate data to make the best possible decisions on the products, services and policies that affect you.

Researcher's Commitment to Privacy The goal of the research industry is to strike a balance between the need for information to improve people's lives and protecting the privacy of the people who participate in research. Hence, interviewers should always identify themselves and state the reason for their call at the beginning of each survey. Research interviewers should be courteous and respect your time by calling back at a more convenient time if necessary. They should answer questions as completely as possible and politely honor a respondent’s

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decision not to participate in a particular research study if they choose so.

Respondent Bill of Rights Your participation in a legitimate public opinion research survey is very important to us, and we value the informationyou provide. Therefore, our relationship will be one of respect and consideration, based on the following practices:

Your privacy and the privacy of your answers will be respected and maintained.

Your name, address, phone number, personal information,or individual responses won't be disclosed to anyone outside the research project without your permission.

You will always be told the name of the person contacting you, the research organization's name and nature of the survey. You will not be sold anything, orasked for money, under the guise of research.

You will be contacted at reasonable times, but if the time is inconvenient, you may ask to be contacted at a more convenient time.

Your decision to participate in a study, answer specific questions, or discontinue your participation will be respected without question.

You will be informed in advance if an interview is to be recorded and of the intended use of the recording.

You are assured that the highest standards of professional conduct will be upheld in the collection and reporting of information you provide.

A number of the qualitative research solutions discussed in earlier sections have been strongly influenced by the popularity of social media. In particular, some qualitative research tools and platforms now offer the ability to create interfaces orenvironments that convey a look or feel similar to Facebook, Twitter or other popular social media, in addition to more “neutral” or custom branded environments.

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Social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, Twitter, fan groups, peer advice forums, etc. have become a popular resource for secondary research, priorto investing in primary qualitative research. Researchers often find social media to be a helpful starting point for identifying trends and understandinghow consumers express ideas.

As social media evolve, a variety of “listening” methods, such as text analytics and discourse analysis,are being used to glean insights and inspiration. Qualitative researchers are often tapped to apply theiranalytical and interpretive skills to these efforts.

Information shared through social media can be quite rich, since the people who contribute to it are often highly engaged, interested, and in some cases “influencers.” However, social media content may be skewed by people with very strong opinions. It can alsobe quite challenging to determine whether users of specific social media represent your targets, since social media can involve hundreds or even millions of participants and little is known about them beyond whatthey communicate via the social media they use. In contrast, primary qualitative research tends to involvesmaller numbers of participants, recruited to fit precise specifications based on your research objectives.

It can be tempting to try to engage users of “natural” social media in market research activities — either within the social media they use, or by recruiting theminto research conducted elsewhere. Some qualitative researchers have had good results recruiting business people from LinkedIn or other social media that cater to people with professional interests. However we recommend that recruiting via social media be done withcaution, since many people consider Facebook or other social media to be very personal spaces. It is also important to be aware that it can be difficult or

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impossible to authenticate people from sources like Craig’s list or “get paid to do research” sites.

If you are considering “stepping in” to social media toconduct research, we recommend that you first review the guidance that major market research associations offer concerning best practices for researchers workingin a world of rapidly-changing privacy regulation.

With so much focus on social media marketing, few businessestake the time to conduct consumer research via social media to give themselves a competitive edge. Social media offers one of the most cost effective ways to see how your businessmatches up against the competition as well as to stay in tune with what your target audience wants and needs. For those wanting to use social media as a powerful marketing research tool, here are some steps to form an effecting marketing research plan:

1. Set goals. For the best results, you need to clearly outline what you hope to gain from the research and focus on those aspects to reach your goals.

2. Select you social media platform(s) to test. Determine which social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest) that your target audience is most likely to be active on.

3. Begin conducting your research. There are some great social media marketing tools available to help you better conduct your research. For example, TweetDeck is a free tool from Twitter that allows you to track both Twitter and Facebook for hashtags, user searches, and real-time notifications. Another tool called Tweriod provides you with the times that your followers are mostactive on Twitter.

4. Analyze your results and repeat. Trends, opinions, and hot topics among your target audience are constantly changing on social media platforms, and regularly repeating this research can help you to stay in tune

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with what is going on and important to your customer base.

One of the biggest benefits to using social media to conductmarket research is that you can actively engage with what your customers are saying. By jumping into online conversations, you can gain some insightful findings and perhaps learn some information that you would not have been able to find out otherwise

More and more brands are using social media as a communications and advertising channel. However, companies may overlook the fact that these platforms can also be used as a great data source for marketing research. We’ve broughtyou some tips on how to effectively conduct research throughsocial media.

Listen to your Audience

The way in which you communicate and advertise your businessor product may not always align with what customers find most important. By observing and analyzing how your fans arespeaking about your product or service, you can determine which factors are most important within your own strategies,and make adjustments accordingly. You can also engage your customers on social media, creating a dialogue about your product, in order to find out how best to cater to their needs. By understanding how your audience views your product, you can create customer-centric campaigns that willbolster a brand philosophy that your audience will support.

Monitor Your Competitors Closely

It is important to keep an eye on how your competitors’ social media efforts – our Analytics PRO provides you with in-depth statistics on both you and your competitors’ socialperformance. Once you have determined which competitors you will monitor, follow their Pages and feeds to observe how they engage their audience, what types of posts they create

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and when they decide to post, what offers they may provide, and any other marketing activities they carry out. By monitoring their Pages, you can learn how to target your audience more effectively or generate new ideas on how to communicate your brand to social media users.

Track Trends Through Social Media

You can track trends through various social media platforms by determining the most current popular posts or topics. After identifying these popular posts, you can gain insightsinto trending topics in real-time. You may want to consider incorporating these hot topics into your social media efforts in order to raise brand awareness and build a biggeraudience.

Twitter allows you to find trending topics by monitoring hashtags or mentions. You can create hashtag searches that are relevant to your product and receive notifications once a Tweeter uses these terms in their posts.

Uncover Important Topics that Might Otherwise be Missed

When gaining insight into what your audience is most interested in, it is important to tread lightly when formulating questions. In order to receive unbiased and relevant information, you must know what to ask. Using certain phrasing and key words are vital components in creating these questions. In other words, your market research is only as valuable as the questions you pose to social media users. In some cases, it may be better not to lead the discussion, but join as an equal. In other instances, you may ask the question, then let your audience run with it and simply observe where the conversation is headed. Their answers may include terms and topics that could be missed instituting other methods of communication.

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BrandLove: A New Form of Customer Research

Another way to benchmark your brand is to determine it popularity, and it’s as easy as posting a link on your Facebook site. BrandLove is the new social way to conduct customer research. It collects data from people who rate brands on a scale of 1–10 depending on how likely they wouldrecommend the brand to their friends. Users can access the BrandLove application through Facebook or an iOS app. BrandLove is unlike any traditional market research survey in that users are not influenced by leading questions and brands surveyed are provided with true indications of user sentiment. You can read more about it here or contact a representative today for more information.

We know that most brands are active on social media, and understand the importance of using various platforms for your marketing campaigns. But social media allows you to take a step forward and conduct research in order to improveyour strategies. As always, we’ve got the tools to provide you with the most precise data about you and your competitors’ social performance.

1. Find out which of your promotions/offers are shareable2. Analyze sentiment of blog posts3. Find the competition4. Learn what that competition is doing5. Determine brand awareness6. Track keyword mentions around your products/services7. Determine customer satisfaction or loyalty8. Understand market demographics to determine your best

target audience9. Determine your brand ambassadors10. Uncover your industry influencers11. Get feedback on new packaging or pricing12. Determine how saturated your market may be13. Find relevant hashtags

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14. Find relevant Twitter chats15. Determine the best social media channel(s) for

future launches16. Test ads on Facebook before they launch17. Create surveys and polls18. Let users vote on different design options or TV

ads19. DM (Direct Message) a customer on Twitter to ask a

question20. Start a discussion on LinkedIn to source feedback21. Determine key phrases to add to your SEO strategy22. Join a relevant forum and conduct a quick focus

group23. Determine consumer ratings with review sites like

Epinions or Yelp24. Use Pinterest to find out what consumers are

pinning from your website

25. Use Google Analytics to uncover the top keywords used to find your website

26. Find out which social media channel sends you the most web traffic

27. Optimize your campaign based on what's working or not working

28. Segment and test different ads on Facebook29. Create a Pinterest board of different images and

see what gets repinned the most30. Find customer stories about your product/service

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Online Social Networking TemplateExit this survey

1. Which of the following social networking websites do you currently have an account with? (Check all that apply)

Which of the following social networking websites do you currently have an account with? (Check all that apply) Tagged

Myspace

Bebo

Facebook

Google+

Twitter

Other (please specify)

2. In a typical week, how likely are you to use social networking websites?

In a typical week, how likely are you to use social networking websites? Extremely likely

Very likely

Moderately likely

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Slightly likely

Not at all likely

3. In a typical week, which of the following social networking websites do you use most often?

In a typical week, which of the following social networking websites do you use most often? Facebook

Google+

Bebo

Myspace

Tagged

Twitter

Other (please specify)

4. In a typical week, about how much time do you spend usingsocial networking websites?

In a typical week, abouthow much time do youspend usingsocial networking

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websites? Hours

Minutes

5. About how many "friends" do you currently have on social networking websites?

About how many "friends" do you currently have on social networking websites?

6. About how many of your "friends" on social networking websites have you met in person?

About how many of your "friends" on social networking websites have you met in person? All of them

Most of them

About half of them

A few of them

None of them

7. If you could use only one of the following social networking services, which would you use?

If you could use only one of the following social networking services, which would you use? Myspace

Facebook

Tagged

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Bebo

Google+

Twitter

Online Professional Networking TemplateExit this survey

1. Do you currently have an account with a professional networking website, or not?

Do you currently have an account with a professional networking website, or not? Yes, I do

No, I do not

2. Which of the following professional networking websites do you currently have an account with? (Check all that apply)

Which of the following professional networking websites do you currently have an account with? (Check all that apply) Viadeo

LinkedIn

XING

Other (please specify)

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/w EW DgL+raDpA

3. In a typical day which of the following professional networking websites do you use most often?

In a typical day which of the following professional networking websites do you use most often? LinkedIn

Viadeo

XING

Other (please specify)

4. In a typical day, how likely are you to use professional networking websites?

In a typical day, how likely are you to use professional networking websites? Extremely likely

Quite likely

Moderately likely

Slightly likely

Not at all likely

5. In a typical day, about how much time do you spend using professional networking websites?

In a typical

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day, about how much time do youspend usingprofessional networking websites? Hours

Minutes

6. When you're on professional networking websites, about how much of your time do you spend posting things about yourself?

When you're on professional networking websites, about how much of your time do you spend posting things about yourself? All of it

Most of it

About half of it

Some of it

None of it

7. When you're on professional networking websites, about how much of your time do you spend looking at what your connections have posted?

When you're on professional networking websites, about how much of your time do you spend looking at what your

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connections have posted? All of it

Most of it

About half of it

Some of it

None of it

8. About how many connections do you currently have on professional networking websites?

About how many connections do you currently have on professional networking websites?

9. About how many of your connections on professional networking websites have you met in person?

About how many of your connections on professional networking websites have you met in person? All of them

Most of them

About half of them

A few of them

None of them

10. On a typical day, about how many hours do you spend posting content to a photo sharing website?

On a typical day, about how many hours do you spend

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posting content to a photo sharing website? 0-1

2-3

4-5

6-7

More than 7

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