Recently we were asked about the relative advantages and disadvantages of running a short-term research community (1 month) instead of a week-long bulletin board focus group project.  We thought it was an interesting question worth blogging about, so here are a few of the advantages and disadvantages of running a 1 month community over a 1 week bulletin board...

Advantages of a 1 month community

1. Explore a topic in-depth - A month-long community will give you more time to really explore a topic from multiple perspectives using a variety of tools (e.g., photos, blogs, etc...), rather than being rushed to fit all of your topics into a single week. 
2. Adapt the discussion - Rather than focusing on a limited set of questions in a week-long group, a short-term community lets you adapt the conversation around the feedback from early topics, and guide the group naturally to topics that are of interest to them.
3. Cover more topics - This may seem obvious, but a month-long community will give you time to cover more topics than you could in a bulletin board group.  It will also give you the chance to add in last minute topics you may have forgotten in your initial research plan.
   
4. Let the findings "incubate" - Giving participants the time to really think about their answers and articulate their thoughts can lead to more insightful feedback and ideas that might not have emerged in a week long bulletin board group.
5. Learn more about participants - With a month-long community you can take some time to learn about participants, providing some background and context for their answers to research topics.
6. More engaging for participants - Depending on the community platform you choose, the experience for participants in an online community setting tends to be much more engaging.  We've tried extending bulletin boards out over a few weeks and have been disappointed with the results as participants drop off from the conversation.  

Disadvantages of a 1 month community

1. Can be more than you need - If your research needs are limited to a single topic with a limited amount of feedback necessary, a bulletin board might make more sense. 
2. Turnaround on findings - A bulletin board is generally over in 3-4 days, while a short-term community will be providing ongoing feedback over a month.  If you need a feedback on a single topic asap, then a simple week-long bulletin board might be the way to go.  However, weekly topline reports from the community can also deliver findings quickly. 
3. Cost - A week-long bulletin board may be slightly less expensive than a community, depending on the number of participants and topics being covered.  However, when you compare the amount you are able to cover in a month long community versus a bulletin board the cost can actually be less, as you would need multiple bulletin boards to cover the same number of topics.

What's the takeaway?

We've done many bulletin board focus groups and online communities here at PluggedIN, and readily acknowledge that each has their own value as a qualitative research methodology.  What you choose will ultimately come down to your research objectives, the depth of feedback that you need and the timeframe in which have available to gather findings.  We hope this breakdown helps you consider some of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach as you decide what works best for you and your organization...

One of the biggest misconceptions about online communities for market research is that they need to be an ongoing initiative (typically lasting at least six months)... 

The reality is that communities should be designed around your objectives, organization and available resources, which may or may not necessitate an ongoing community approach.  Here are a few useful questions to help you decide whether or not you need an ongoing research community, or a short-term, project-oriented community. 

Do you have the need?

An ongoing research community is going to help you in a few key ways.  First, it is going to give you a deeper understanding of your target audience by virtue of continually learning about them through community activities.  It is also going to give you the chance to efficiently and cost effectively address a wide range of topics over time.  Finally, an ongoing community will help you collaborate with your audience to develop new products, services, marketing materials, etc...

While these are certainly benefits of an ongoing research community, you may or may not actually need this level of understanding or have a variety of topic areas to explore...  For example, you may already have a deep understanding of your audience through other research studies, and are more interested in evaluating reactions to specific topics in-depth.  In that case, a shorter-term community may suit your needs. 

Do you have the right culture?

If your organization values qualitative research and is constantly looking for new perspectives into the lives of your target audience, then an ongoing community approach will probably work well.  A continuous community may also make sense if your organization has multiple internal stakeholders who are conducting qualitative research studies fairly consistently.  However, if your needs are more "finite," or you are looking for alternatives to other qualitative methods (like focus groups), then perhaps a short-term community may be a better solution.

Do you have the time and resources?

With a continuous community comes responsibility - both on the part of the researchers and the company sponsoring the community.  You will need to be committed to launching activities on at least a weekly basis, coordinating the distribution of the findings across your organization and collaborating with stakeholders to brainstorm topics to explore in the community.  As you can imagine, this takes time and resources to accomplish.  It may make sense to run a short-term community first to see how your organization adapts, and then plan for ongoing initiatives after that...   

What's the takeaway?

We hope this post doesn't dissuade anyone from considering an ongoing research community, as there are definitely scenarios where this approach makes the most sense. 

Rather, we're pointing out that research communities do not need to (and sometimes should not) last indefinitely.  There are highly effective and cost efficient ways of wrapping a community approach around a targeted set of objectives, perhaps by setting up a short-term (1-3 month) community and then evaluating your options after that to determine if an ongoing community makes sense for your organization...

Do you wonder about whether or not you need an online research community? Well, here are here a few key signs that you might be a good candidate for an online community. If any of these apply to you - you may fit the mold.

1. You crave a better understanding of your customers or other special audience. You are interested in how they live, how your brand fits into their lifestyle and what they think about the general world around them.

2. You do a lot of qualitative research or at least want to! You are interested in creating conversations with your audience to understand what makes them tick.

3. You are naturally curious and open to new approaches to market research and qualitative research especially.

4. You have a high demand for research and have several internal teams and departments that may want to tap into a central community to test ideas and concepts.

5. In your organization ideation and trend spotting is very important and continuous concept development is engrained in your culture.

6. You want ongoing access to a resource that  can provide you with quick/directional research at a moments notice.

7. Your industry changes quickly and you need to stay on top of these changes and how your customers react.

There are plenty more, but I thought I would keep it simple.  Feel free to offer additional characteristics if you can.