Our last post generated some interesting comments within the NewMR group on Linkedin and thank you Leonard Murphy for sharing it with this community. This has made us develop our thinking further on this topic!
We believe that we are without question entering an age where the techniques that we have usefully employed for many years are now being challenged and that as researchers, we need to adapt to this phase of evolution. The evolution is not just the emergence of new tools but of new social behaviours.Social media has gained the popularity that it has not because it was supported by a high budget and cleverly constructed marketing campaign, but because it meets the emerging values, beliefs, needs and behaviours of society.
The point we are keen to put forward for discussion is that we now need to start thinking of less in terms of our ‘role’ as researchers and more in terms of the part that gathering insight plays in the overall system – one that involves Marketing, PR, Advertising, and of course most importantly Consumers. After all, the consumers are the experts in their experience – not us!
This requires both researchers and marketers to develop new skills and new ways of thinking. We now need to move on from just focusing on consumers and to start focusing on what the consumers are focusing on - which they are willingly revealing to us through social media. This is consumer information on their agenda not ours and as such is telling us what they would like to talk with us about. And gives us the opportunity to facilitate the conversations that they would like to have with our clients.
This is a more collaborative relationship where we are not doing it to the consumer but doing it with the consumer. Not only listening but also taking part in guided conversations that may also involve marketers and others. You make a great point here Sue, when you say that we are just starting to experiment with how to stimulate these conversations without under or over controlling them and the purpose of the workshop is indeed about how to start developing these skills and how to establish best practice in this field.
This is how we can help clients to not only gather insight from social media but also take part in the conversations by talking with consumers in an appropriate way and positioning social media as a respected learning platform.
There will of course continue to be role for what we recognise as more conventional research techniques as a way of diving deeper into topics raised in online conversations. But here again we need to recognise that consumers are becoming more used to being in control and having the opportunity to report on their experiences and views in their own space and time. An example of a response to this is the emergence of asynchronous online video based research such as that offered by Quavu where consumers are provided with pocketcams and a number of assignments (questions to respond to tasks to carry out) that enables them to give feedback in their natural habitat in their own time.
We really look forward to continuing and developing this discussion and to the opportunity to learn from others in this fascinating area.
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