In previous blog posts, we've talked about how it is important to have a shared purpose or background for members in a research community.  The stronger that shared purpose is, the more vibrant the community will (likely) be.  For example, a research community of iPhone users is likely to be a really vibrant group...  However, even if you don't sell a "sexy" product like the iPhone that people naturally talk about, you can still build a successful online research community...  You just have to be a little "creative" in the way you define your shared background.

One relatively easy way of defining the shared background for just about any industry is to invite a targeted group of customers to a branded community and position them as trusted advisors to the company.  The shared background in this case is merely the fact that they are all customers, which is usually sufficient for establishing an ongoing research community.  While they may come from all walks of life and may represent any number of target segments, they at least know why they are there and what they share in common with other members. 

Of course, this post is for anyone looking to create an ongoing market research online community.  If you're using a MROC on a very short-term basis (e.g., a few weeks or months), then finding a shared purpose is far less critical to the success of the initiative.

At some point during a pitch there is always the inevitable question - how much does it cost?  When designing an approach to a market research online community (MROC), a few key variables play the greatest role in deciding the ultimate price of the initiative, including:

• Community Size - As you can imagine, the more members in your community, the higher the price, as the costs for incentives, recruiting and overall community management scale with the number of members.  Building smaller research communities can help keep your costs down, while offering a number of advantages over larger communities.
  
• Length of Time - Running a MROC over many months (or years) is going to be more expensive, although the average monthly cost tends to decrease over time due to certain economies that result as the community progresses.
• Activity Level - Some research communities are highly active (e.g., daily research-related activities), while others tend to be moderately active (e.g., weekly or bi-weekly research activities).  As you can imagine, the costs for incentives, community management, moderation and reporting will scale accordingly.
• Sample Source - Recruiting from client-provided sample will result in significant savings over purchased sample, as will using an online recruiting method over phone-based recruiting. 
  
• Frequency and Type of Reporting - Last, but definitely not least, are the reporting requirements for a MROC.  Weekly memo community reports can be less expensive than a comprehensive summary report, although they may lack some detail. 
  

As you can imagine, the actual amounts for each of these categories will vary by the vendor, objectives of the community, etc...  However, I hope this provides you with a starting point for the variables to consider when outlining a MROC approach for your organization.

--Matt

eMarketer recently posted an article citing findings from a study about why people go online.  To check out the article, click on the link below:

Why people go online

The reason I'm posting this is because it has implications for anyone running a market research online community (or really any online community for that matter...).  The way a moderator or community manager structures activities should try to appease as many of these motivations for going online as possible.  Here are some examples as it relates to MROCs:

• 92% go online to "connect with others" - The community environment is a natural place for this to happen...  Consider creating a specific part of your discussion forums for a "water cooler," where members can connect with each other on any topics they want to talk about.  
• 96% go online for education - To appeal to this motivation, try pulling in RSS feeds or posting relevant content from blogs/twitter that will help the audience learn more about the given topic. 
  
• 82% go online to "be entertained" - While MROCs tend to have a focus on a given research objective, there is no reason why you can't make the experience entertaining for participants.  For example, start a discussion asking people to post their favorite YouTube videos.  That will get members talking and keep them entertained, far beyond the research activities.

Of course, these are just a few of the ways to appeal to the motivations for people going online while moderating an online community.  There are ways to appeal to almost all of the motivations on the list using online communities if you're willing to be a little creative...  

- Matt 

It seems like a lot of researchers and clients want to know how "research design" is different in a community than it is with point in time methods (like surveys, focus groups, and online focus groups). The answer can be slightly abstract. Community design is a bit more organic, adaptable, theme-based, and versatile, using a variety of tools at your disposal. In my opinion, it is not about using the same battery of questions, just posted in an online setting. It is about thinking differently about how you address topics and giving people new ways of expressing their opinions online.

Traditional Research Design

The easiest way to demonstrate this is with an example, so let's say you wanted to understand how teens use mobile phones. In a traditional or online bulletin board type focus group your question battery may be like this:

1. When was the last time you used your mobile phone? What did you do?
2. If you left home without your mobile phone, what would you miss most?
3. Tell me about how you use the phone feature on your mobile phone... what do you like about it? What don't you like?
4. Tell me how you use text... what are some of the challenges of using text on your phone right now?
5. How do you use the music feature... how would you improve it?

Online Community Research Design

• "Last Use" Discussion: Tell us about the last time you used your mobile phone... What exactly did you do?
• "Teens vs. Adults" Discussion: Let's say you were designing a mobile phone for Teens. How would your Teen Phone be different than typical mobile phones for adults? Think about the look, design, and the different features and functions you would want to include!
• "My Phone is Alive!" Photo Gallery: If your phone came to life as a person, animal, or another living thing - what would it be? Upload a photo of the "living thing" that best reflects your cell phone.
• "My Phone Diary" Blog Gallery: Keep a diary today and tomorrow of all the things you do with you mobile phone. So start with the moment you wake up this AM - and finish with the time you go to sleep tomorrow PM. Tell us every time you touch your phone... where you are, who you are with, what you are doing - everything!
• "Mobile Phones & You" Survey: Q1) What do you do most with your phone [call, text, listen to music, play games, use apps, other]? Q2) If you left home without your mobile phone, what would you miss most? [open end]  Q3) When you think about your cell phone, what 1-2 words come to mind? Q4-Q8) On a scale of 1-10, how important is the phone feature? [repeat for text, music, games, apps, etc.].

Organic Research Design

One important thing to keep in mind is that with the community environment, you have the ability to address objectives over time, and the community itself responds well to this more natural flow. You can take the findings/responses from this initial wave of research activity and incorporate it in your design of the next wave. In this example, it may be follow up discussions on the mobile phone features. You could identify the ones that members thought were the most important and run follow-up activities designed to understand how Teens are currently using these features and their thoughts about frustrations/gaps that these features need to address.

- Ben

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day (well, maybe not an "epiphany" - more like a random thought)...  I think I'm an online community moderator's nightmare.  Here's why.

I'm the type of person who is trolling any one of ten or so different communities or social networks at any given time.  I might be checking in on Digg.com, watching the latest tweets roll in on Twitter from my iPhone, reading through various group discussions on LinkedIN, looking at friend updates on Facebook, checking out my blog feeds through Bloglines and just generally checking-in on a variety of "niche" type networks I'm also a part of (e.g., various marketing forums, market research communities, etc...).  That doesn't even start to include any of the time I spend checking in on PluggedIN communities!

Here's the kicker though - I almost never contribute content or even actively participate in these public communities/social networks (even though I might spend a couple hours a day lurking).  I still feel part of a community (especially on sites like Digg), but I'm really not much of a contributing member.  In fact, as a moderator I'd be pretty disappointed if I had to have me as a member of one of our research communities :-)

Why don't I participate?

It made me think about why I'm like that, and how I could convince someone like myself to get off the fence and start joining the conversation, particularly in the online research communities we moderate.  

As for the why, I really think it comes down to a limited attention span and time available to find content that is really important.  I try really hard to balance work and life, and allowing for time to participate in all of the communities I watch is a luxury I don't always have.  Which leads me to the question...

How would I convince someone like me to participate?

I think there are a few ways a community or community moderator could get someone like me to quit lurking and start participating...

• Personalization and attention - I like sites that I can customize or subscribe to the content I want to see.  I need to find the content I'm looking for, quickly...
• Knowledge of who is in charge - I like sites where you know who is in charge on some personal level.  Even with Digg, you at least know some of the Digg team and can get to know them a bit (e.g., by following Kevin Rose on Twitter).  That makes me want to feel part of that community...
• New content - I need to see sites that are updated frequently, though not too much so.  Posting at least something new each day will generally get me coming back for more...
  
• Usability - Busy sites, or sites where it takes me more than a few steps to find the content I'm looking for, are a big no-no in my book.  In fact, they won't even make the cut of regular sites to troll through (much less participate in) if the usability of the site is poor.  
• A little "something" for my time :) - I'm not suggesting that I'll only participate if I'm given something directly, but a small acknowledgement that my time is valuable and the community appreciates having me as a member (even in my "lurker" capacity) would go a long way to me dropping the trolling habit and actually contributing content.  This could be in the form of inside knowledge only available to members, free products, discounts, etc...
• Feeling exclusive and "in the know" - I really liked Digg way back in the day when it felt like it was a geeky site about technology news.  It has changed quite a bit since then, and I still visit the site religiously.  However, it just doesn't have the same "exclusive" feel as it did back in the day.  The same thing happened with Second Life after it started receiving a ton of press and marketers jumped in the fray.  Sites that make me feel valued and exclusive for being a member are more likely to get my attention and contributions.   

What does this mean in a research community context?

Of course, this makes me think of a few community moderation and management tips for online research communities...

• Mix up discussions with surveys and polls - Polls are easy to participate in and help get lurkers (like myself) to take baby steps into becoming more active.  Put up an interesting poll and follow it up with a discussion around the results.  That's more likely to drive participation in discussions.
• Set reasonable expectations for time requirements - It's unlikely your research community is going to become anyone's homepage when they open their browser.  Set reasonable expectations for how much time people have to participate, and don't overburden them with activities each week.  I'm certainly not unique in having many different communities and social networks I'm a part of, and your research community members are likely to be in the same situation.
• Post personal profiles, pictures and ways of contacting moderators - As I mentioned with Digg and following Kevin Rose on Twitter, any ways that you can reach out and make the moderators seem more "human" will go a long way to building loyalty in a research community (or any online community for that matter).  Make sure you have a profile page with pictures, and try to update it from time-to-time.   

What do you think?

Would a community moderator like to have you as a participant?  How would you get someone to move from a regular lurker to a regular participant?  Comments and ideas are welcome!

--

Matt

I was talking with an old colleague yesterday and she asked me how moderation in a research community is different than traditional focus groups or other online qualitative tools (e.g. bulletin board groups, chat groups). As I was thinking about my answer, I realized there are quite a few differences:

Depth through variety

As a whole, communities are far less regimented (or at least should be) than typical qualitative methods. With discussions especially, you want to minimize the layers of questions and think about topics as a whole. That's not to say you can't go deep. There are ways to achieve this depth through a series of related community activities (e.g short polls, discussions, sentence completion activity), but the way you approach this depth is likely from multiple activities and not through one post alone.

Mix it up 

Communities are typically long term in nature, so mixing up the types of activities you post is very helpful for users, and even for us moderators!  It keeps things interesting and less monotonous which is very important in these ongoing research communities where you want keep people engaged over time.

Open up

One of the great things about communities is that they allow people to share their real identity through profile pages, photos, blogs and other tools. As a moderator, it is crucial that we use these same tools to show the community who we are and what is going on in our own life. The better you are able to do this as a researcher, the more the community in turn will open up about themselves and contribute.  

Let go

One of the hardest things for me to learn initially was the idea of letting go of control of the conversation. As moderators we want to "ask, ask, ask," but in communities it is really important to listen to the community and circle back on topics of interest. If there is a particularly interesting comment or user generated discussion, incorporating it into a future activity (and acknowledging the member that posted) reinforces the fact that you are listening to what the members are saying. Also, this approach is much more effective for "probes" and follow-up questions. Creating a new discussion and engaging the community as a whole is oftentimes more effective than trying to follow up inline with individual members, plus it opens up the opportunity to hear several opinions rather than one individual opinion.

Build community & fun

Equally as important as designing compelling research activities is the task of building community (which could be another post altogether). Responding to, acknowledging, and engaging members is crucial to establishing a sense of community as well. Also, proactively posting "community building activities" is important. These can be simple blog posts about a new game you found online, a gallery of funny Youtube videos people can contribute to, ridiculous celebrity death match surveys or even a book review of the month. Mixing in the fun goes a long way.

Know the outside

No matter how advanced your community platform is, it cannot possibly include every feature known to man. That's why it is important to have a list of sites and tools that you can link to for compelling content. Whether it is a collage tool, virtual avatar creator, or card sorting tool - there are a ton of clever and insightful tools out there that are only a link away. These items also break up the monotony for users as well and keep things interesting inside your community.

Time is relative

For our continuous communities, we try to keep the weekly participation requirement to about 15 minutes per week. However, for shorter term communities, participation can go as high as 30 minutes, depending on the duration of the project. This is not a hard/fast rule, but generally speaking the longer the initiative, the lower the regular participation requirement you want to place on your members.

Be regular & spontaneous

Inevitably, whatever the mix of activities you choose to launch, launching these at fairly regular intervals helps set the expectations of members that new content is released at a specific time. This will get them in the habit of checking in on a regular basis. Also, mixing in the spontaneous along the way let's them know that community activity has a sporadic nature as well. This will hopefully encourage members to check in throughout the week and months when they get a free minute. Breaking news and current events are a great source for this more "spontaneous" activity.

Interested in getting the most out of your research community? Think about some of the following:

Make your research wish list

What are the specific issues and topics you will want to explore over the life of the community? In what ways do you want to "understand" your customers better? List these out before you get started.

Set your expectations 

What are you hoping to achieve through your research community? Are you replacing or supplementing other research efforts? What are the tangible measures of success for you? Share these with your vendor and review them over time.

Nominate a community champion

Who at your organization will be responsible for the research community? Who can liaise with your community vendor and your internal teams to make the experience the most rewarding? Responsibility leads to success.

Build a plan

How long do you want your community to last? How are you going to manage the flow of research activities over the life of your community? Does your business cycle require a certain focus on particular research items at specific times throughout the year? A plan is important to sustaining your community over the long haul.

Choose the right vendor 

Are you a DIY or a DIFM client? Who do you want to manage your community and more importantly, can that vendor deliver on what you need? If your focus is research, make sure you are comfortable with the researchers working on your community.

Know your audience 

Is there a natural affinity for your brand or are people more skeptical about you? What special characteristics does your audience possess that will impact the community design and overall facilitation techniques? Different types of people require different approaches to communities... one size does not always fit all.

While we've learned a lot over the years about how to run successful research communities, we've also had our share of mistakes.  However, it's from these mistakes that we've learned some of our best techniques for running research communities... (To learn about some of these techniques, download our "10 Tips for Creating Successful Online Research Communities" paper).

Here are three examples of where we've gone wrong in the past, and what we've learned from our mistakes.  Hopefully they'll help you as you setup or run your own online research community.

Mistake #1 - Trying to do too much, too soon

It's easy to get really excited about all the possible topics a research community can cover in the planning stages.  In the past, we would sit down and brainstorm every possible topic and try to figure out how we could cram that into a facilitation plan that made sense. 

Since then we've learned that it's best to pace out the activities over the life of the community for two reasons:

• It is more mindful of the member experience - While participants are generally compensated for their time and are usually very willing to share their opinions, there is a certain point of no return.  Overwhelm them early on with too many activities and they won't come back.
• It acknowledges the role of "organically" building out the facilitation plan - We've learned that it makes more sense to start with a few guided topics/areas of interest to the client, and then let them build into detailed discussions over time.  It's impossible to anticipate everything members want to talk about.  Once you realize and accept that as part of your planning, you're on your way to a more authentic and in-depth discussion with participants.   
  

Mistake #2 - Combining segments that don't fit

We've made this mistake on a few occasions now...  There is often the temptation to combine segments during the community design phase since it saves money and is generally more efficient to moderate and manage.  However, it's wise to carefully consider the topics you intend to cover with each and whether or not the segments belong together.  I've covered this before in my post on "Should I combine segments in a single research community?"

If you have a primary segment of interest, we recommend starting there first and then thinking about the segments you can cover otherwise.  If budget is a concern, perhaps using an already-established shared research community would be a better option to cost effectively run ongoing research with your secondary segments. 

Mistake #3 - Not varying activities

This is an easy mistake to identify, but a hard one to overcome...  We've made the mistake before of just running discussions, since research communities are ideal for ongoing qualitative feedback.  Over time, this impacted attrition rates in some of our larger ongoing communities. 

Since then we've learned that it's wise to vary up activities with a short survey or multimedia exercise from time-to-time, just so the experience doesn't become boring for participants.  This seems like a fairly obvious recommendation, but it's one that can be tricky to plan for.

Care to share?

Have any "lessons learned" from mistakes you've made with research communities?  Comments are welcome!

Thinking of diving into the world of online research communities , but not sure where to start? Here are five questions to start thinking about before you embark on the path of tapping into a shared research community or building your own custom online research community .

What am I really looking to get out of an online research community?

As with any market research initiative, try taking a step back and asking yourself what you are really looking to get out of your online research community. Sure, communities can be used for a wide range of applications and may provide you with a number of benefits , but if there was one thing you would be looking for out of the research community, what would it be? A little soul searching goes a long way, and will make sure you’re ultimately getting what you’re looking for. Nothing dooms an online research community from the start like poorly defined objectives.

Who do I want to invite to participate in my online research community?

This question works on two levels. First, who do you want as members of your community. Think about the recruiting criteria and how you intend on screening for participants. Generally speaking, you can adapt screeners from other research initiatives (like focus groups) for use in an online community. However, you might consider adding a few additional criteria to ensure recruits will make for good community members.

On another level, who do you want to invite from your company? Is this something you want to keep to your research department, and share as necessary with the rest of the organization? Or is this something that you want multiple departments to tap into freely? There are benefits and drawbacks to both approaches, which is the subject of another blog post entirely! For now, choose carefully

Does my organization value qualitative research enough to make an online research community worth it?

Online research communities are all about gaining a deep and insightful perspective on customers, understanding experiences and stories, identifying the “ideal” customer experience, generating new ideas for products and services, and so on… They’re far more about qualitative insights than they are about hard and fast metrics, stats and quantitative research. If your organization tends to value the latter much more than the former, then take a deep look at a research community and make sure you know what you’re going to get out of it (e.g., in-depth qualitative feedback). That’s not to say that an online research community couldn’t represent a nascent desire for your organization to reach beyond the numbers and understand the “why” behind the numbers more than ever before…

How often do I have quick “ad hoc” requests for research pop-up?

Research communities are an ideal venue for handling impromptu requests for research insights. In fact, having an online research community allows you to cut your research cycle from 4-6 weeks to a few days or weeks. However, it’s worthwhile to keep tabs on how many of these you get (on average), since it will impact your planning for a long-term research community. If you get at least 2-3 requests a week, you will definitely want to consider these as you are planning out weekly activities, as you don’t want to overload members with too many activities each week.

Can I assign someone to be the single point-of-contact for this at my company?

While it’s not necessary to have a dedicated full-time person involved in the research community initiative, it is helpful to have a single point person who serves as the liaison between the community company and your internal teams. Generally this is an existing research manager or consumer insights analyst, although the position varies from company to company.

If you choose PluggedIN for your online research community, we’ll help make this person’s life a lot easier by proactively suggesting new research activities, working with internal teams to determine their needs and launch related activities in the community, and constantly reporting on what is happening in the community to keep everyone up to speed. Ultimately though, there needs to be someone at your company who is willing to be responsible for (and responsive to) your research community.

More to come!

There are many questions to consider before launching an online research community initiative. We’ll post more in the weeks to come. In the meantime, if you have any questions you would like answered, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment to this post below, or write me an email directly at mfoley@pluggedinco.com . I’m looking forward to the questions!

Every day it seems like we come across another new “community building” start-up that promises to change the world through their whiz-bang software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. In fact, just today we had a friend of ours in the industry forward a marketing piece from a platform provider asking if we were aware of their latest offering.

While some of these offerings are admittedly really cool, and I am always a big fan of innovation in the community platform space, I constantly have to take a step back and remind myself of something we discuss here at PluggedIN - the concept that the people running the community and the research activities you run are more important than the features.

I’m not dismissing the role of a great platform with tons of valuable features and a great user experience. In fact, this is something we’re constantly working on with the PluggedIN Community Research Platform . I’m merely suggesting that the researchers and community managers/moderators are what make the experience the most rewarding for the clients and community members. Without careful researcher guidance and facilitation, a research community won’t be nearly as valuable as it could be.

It’s really hard to keep this in mind when you see the latest features or dream up some great new research technology that could be integrated into the platform. We’re constantly taking a step back and forcing ourselves to ask… What does this do to contribute to the research objectives? Is this going to allow us to better understand the audience? Test concepts? Collaborate?

Just my two cents though :) What have your experiences been?