1. INTRODUCTION TO ONLINERESEARCH METHODOLOGIES FOCUS ON QUALITATIVERobert PinterCorvinus University, Department of Information and Comm.Ipsos Interactive Services, Client Service Director02 October 2012, Budapest Business School

2. ONLINE RESEARCH TOPICS FOR TODAY Introduction: research of online phenomena andonline research methodologies Qualitative online research Online focus groups Research forums / blogs Research with online communities (MROC) Netnography social media research, social listening (Never)ending: future of online research 3. INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS INTERNET(OR ONLINE) RESEARCH? 4. INTRO How does internet change internet research?1. Internet changes the business environment, itplays more and more important role in clientslife, hence it becomes in itself a research topic.2. But research methodologies also change, internetbecomes a research tool (or more exactly: manytools) I AM GOING TO SPEAK ABOUT THIS 5. TYPES OF ONLINE RESEARCH METHODS Online qualitative: asking questions (activemethods) or observation (passive merhods) Questionnaire based (quantitative) Software based measurement, data collection (e.g.internet audience measurement)I WONT SPEAK ABOUT THESE 6. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ONLINE?IS IT POSSIBLE?! 7. MAIN ONLINE QUAL METHODS Possible classifications: synchronous or asynchronous active or passive Methods Online focus group / in-depth interview (active,synchronous) Online research forums / blogs (active, asynchronous) Market research online communities (both active orpassive / both synchronous or asynchronous Netnography (passive, asynchronous) Lets have a look first on online focus groups! 8. ONLINE FOCUS GROUP 9. WHY/WHEN TO DO ONLINE FOCUS GROUPINTERVIEWS (FGI): BENEFITS OF ONLINE FGI BenefitWhat does it mean?Less time Effective recruitment, shorter field time, full scriptof FGI from software right at closing interviewLess cost Recruitment is less costly and projectmanagement as wellOne way mirrorOnline FGI can apply a virtual one way mirror,clients may watch discussion (but not interact)Honesty and safetyParticipants cant see each other, making goodimpressions is less seducing, they feel thesituation more comfortable and secureValuable resultsParticipants are more open to sensitive topics,they think over reactions 9Hard to reach respondents Easier to involve hard to reach respondents, nogeographical limits, less time consuming forparticipants 10. POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR FGISEvaluation of an existingweb service (appearance,content, functions,possible future plans);Evaluation of marketingand promotional materialsat their different stages ofproduction;Investigation of alreadyexisting or new products ofa market;Sensitive or highlypersonal topics: erotics,drugs, healthcare, religion,moral issues, stereotypes,etc. 10 11. STAGES OF A FGI PROJECT 1: PREPARATION Interaction with end client, preparing of brief (aim ofresearch, definition of target group, deadlines, costsetc.) Schedule of research project (milestones, keypersons, deadlines) FGI interview guideline (draft and final versions) Pilot site for project, testing the environment (login)11 12. STAGES OF A FGI PROJECT 2: RECRUITMENT Refinement of definition of research target group Preparation of recruitment materials Recruitment via phone and / or e-mail / and or / f2f Over sampling the target group (based on pastexperiences) 12 13. STAGES OF A FGI PROJECT 3: FIELDWORK Invitation materials sent to respondents Respondents login to the live research environment Warm-up: few introductory questions Questions / tasks from approved guideline Discussion by participant lead by moderator Possible further questions from end clients (viamoderator only) 13 14. STAGES OF A FGI PROJECT: RESULTS Transcript of full FGI by software (automaticallyready at closing of interview) Quantitative & qualitative analysis of responses Preparation of research results (mainlypresentation)14 15. LETS SEE IT IN ACTION!Screenshots from an online FGIsoftware in action: login discussion using pictures virtual room for clients instructions at clickclients interaction (to each otherand to moderator) pop-up messaging to all15 16. 16Login window in a browser 17. 17Discussion in FGI software: participants may seeposts of each other and questions by moderator.They can write to each otherlike in chatting. 18. 18Moderator may put in(motion) pictureas well. 19. 19 Clients may speak with each otherin a separate window (virtual room, called Observers) 20. 20Clients may ask questions from moderator as well 21. 21Clients cant interact with participants of research 22. Help menu is at one click22 23. Pop-up message may be sentto everyone at once 23 24. OUTPUT: LOG FILE 24System preparesautomatically logsof all window 25. ONLINE FGI: SUMMARY Online FGI is practically joint chatting with recruitedmembers based on a guideline (active, synchronousmethod) Nearly completely different group dynamics Not so deep involvement, more active discussion,plenty of shorter posts / comments Avoiding research topics which need deeperinvolvement and longer reactions No geographical limits in participation Intimacy is less problematic Online research topics are good choices This is not widespread like offline, traditional focusgroups 26. WHY WE NEED ONLINE FGI? 27. RESEARCH FORUMS / BLOGS 28. RESEARCH FORUMS/BLOGS Online research forum / blog is practically jointparticipation in a forum / blog with recruitedmembers Based on discussion on pre-defined questions(active but asynchronous method) Not widespread globally 29. USING BLOGS / FORUMS FOR RESEARCHPURPOSES Participants are recruited from target group(s) definedby end client Participants have access to research blog / forum Blog or forum is restricted area for participants (needto login) Respondents need to prepare post /comments ingiven topics and time period, moderated byresearchers After closing fieldwork researcher prepares analysis Analysing traditional blogposts / forum activities is partof netnography 30. EXAMPLE FOR RESEARCH FORUM Discussion between recruited members in a restricted area in given topics & certain time period30 31. RESEARCH WITH ONLINE COMMUNITIES 32. MARKET RESEARCH ONLINE COMMUNITIES(MROC) Research communities: a kind of online researchpanels, which are communities as well, users mayinteract with each other This is suitable for both online quantitative andqualitative research Short surveys (or votes) with many participants Moderated conversations (real time orasynchronous) Other activities, e.g. postingpictures, videos, comments etc. 33. MROC DIFFERENCES FROM ONLINE PANELS Similar to online research access panels But there are important differences: Special recruitment aspects / groups Usually much smaller panel size Unique registration form Not only questionnaire based research projects, butmoderated discussions (online qual) as well Community: members may interact with each other It demands high involvement from both researcher andend client (and participants) huge workload (impact oncosts) Can be used for: getting know target group more deeply,insight generation, testing company materials (e.g.concepts, ads, products) 34. HOW DOES AN MROC PLATFORM LOOK LIKE? An example for an MROC platform in action 35. SUMMARY MROCs are good choice for ongoing researchactivities Suitable for both online qual / quant It can be both active and passive, synchronous andasynchronous MROC is a real mix of all online research methods It means usually a huge workload 36. NETNOGRAPHY 37. NETNOGRAPHY: WHAT IS IT? Observation of any kind of online discussions ofusers, any user generated content It is called also social media research or sociallistening 38. HOW DOES NETNOGRAPHY WORK? Researchers use a social media mining tool to bring us the cleanest data.This tool crawls the web every day and captures new contentSocial Networks Recurring phrases, topics & people are identified using Natural LanguageProcessing The Sentiment Classifier works out if the tone of the mentions are good,neutral or bad Researchers then read, clean and analyze the content to provide actionableinsight 39. OUTPUT EXAMPLE: CUSTOM DASHBOARD FORCLIENTS (LIVE REPORT) 40. NETNOGRAPHY Collecting, categorizing and analysing of usergenerated content on internet (e.g. blog posts,comments, social media activities) Passive method: observation and not askingquestions Hence content may not reply to our exact questions Question: who are represented by this data? Not really quantifiable results (not percents, butopinions, attitudes) Researcher must follow strict ethical and legal rules(e.g. anonymous participants, walled gardens etc.) 41. SUMMARY Thanks to internet researchers may conduct notonly active, but passive research (observationbased) as well. Internet is a huge data base (a goldmine) forresearchers: users tell everything by themselves forfree, it only needs to be collected and analyzed But it has its limitations: representativity,quantifiability, not replying to questions, limitedcoverage (walled gardens), strict rules 42. ENDING: CONSTANT CHANGE 43. MARKET RESEARCH (METHOD) IS IN CONSTANTCHANGE: INNOVATION IS ON ITS WAY Gartner MRhype-curve Plenty ofpromising newmethodologies Which one ofthem will besuccesful andreach stage ofProductivity? Productive,widespreadmethodsnowadays: CATI,CAPI, CAWI andfocus groups 44. FURTHER READINGRay Poynter (2010): The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research. John Wiley and Sons. 45. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!Robert PinterCorvinus UniversityDepartment of Information andCommunicationIpsos Interactive ServicesClient Service Directorrobert.pinter@uni-corvinus.huhttp://facebook.com/probesztwitter: @probeszskype: probesz