Online conversations: sense or nonsense? by Di Tunney & Rachel Francis Brainstorming session presented at Merlien Institute's QCRI2011 conference in Malta 7 & 8 April 2011

1. Online Conversations:
Sense or Nonsense?
What do we need to know to get it right?
Qualitative Consumer Research & Insights 2011
6-8 April 2011, Malta

2. Workshop Objectives
A conversation to establish ‘best practice’ guidelines on
the following areas:
• When and how to communicate with customers in social
media communities
• How to capture valid insights from online conversations
• Where to draw the line in using the personal information
that customers are revealing online
And to do this we will leverage the conversations
currently happening on line

3. Workshop Structure
14.00 – 14.10 Introduction to workshop and discussion topics
14.10– 14.15 You will be randomly assigned into 6 groups of approx equal size
Each group will be given a topic to discuss and a guideline associated
with that topic to develop
14.15 – 14.45 Use the stimulus material to discuss with your group the topic you
have been assigned. This could take the form of a debate with half the
group identifying positive points about the topic – the other half
negative points or just of people putting forward different points of
view
14.45– 15.00 Summarise your feedback on flip charts, identifying the best practice
guideline associated with the topic
15.00 – 15.30 Feedback in main group, summarising findings and next steps

4. Discussion Topic: Anything posted on social media is fair game for research purposes
Best Practice Issue: Unrestricted access vs. restricted access to consumer generated content

5. Twitter users represent a relatively
skewed sample of the population
Thursday, May 13, 2010 by Joanne Simonis, Cvent
Discussion Topic: You can’t get a representative sample on social media
Best Practice Issue: Developing ‘new ‘vs. adapting ‘traditional’ sampling criteria/methods

6. Tom Cohen
Discussion Topic: Some subjects shouldn’t be researched on Social Media
Best Practice Issue: When Social Media research or traditional research is more ‘appropriate’

7. Helium, Terrance Aym
DiscussionTopic: Research bots will replace interviewers & analysts in the next 25 years
Best Practice Issue: When and where to use ‘automated’ vs. ‘manual ‘data collection & analysis

8. What’s the right way to behave when listening in on
online conversations? Jeffrey Henning proposes
consumer-driven rules for social media monitoring
Discussion Topic: Listening is becoming more important than asking questions
Best Practice Issue: When to just ‘listen’ vs. ‘steering the conversation’

9. Discussion Topic : Social Media research is a major departure from Traditional
research and will involve learning a new skill set
Best Practice Issue: Development and use of new skills vs. applying existing skills

10. Feedback
• Prepare your feedback on flipcharts in a form suitable to
present to the rest of the group
• Nominate who will deliver the feedback
• Feedback should show:
1. The key points arising from the discussion
2. The implications for Best Practice Guideliines
• Feedback should be no more than 2 mins long
• Flip charts will be collected at the end of the session so
that the content can be published after the conference

11. SUMMING UP

12. Best Practice Issue Key Points Implications
Unrestricted access vs. restricted
access to consumer generated
content
Developing ‘new’ vs. adapting
‘traditional ‘sampling
criteria/methods
When social media research or
traditional research is more
‘appropriate’
When and where to use
‘automated’ vs. ‘manual ‘data
collection & analysis
When to just ‘listen’ vs. ‘steering
the conversation’
Developing and using new skills
vs. applying existing skills

13. Is it about balance?
Social Media Research Traditional Market Research

14. Summing up
• We believe that development of Best Practice in online
conversations will continue to evolve - though
transparent conversations amongst a wide spectrum of
practitioners and clients
• Next Steps
– We publish the outputs from the workshop
– Look forward to the ongoing conversation

15. Contact
• Website: www.liveinsights.com
• Twitter: @liveinsights
• E mail: di@liveinsights.com
rachel@liveinsights.com

16. Presented at the International conference on
Qualitative Consumer Research & Insights
7 & 8 April 2011, Malta
For more information
Please visit: http://www.merlien.org