Pete Comley explores the development of Web 2.0 and the benefits it holds for market researchers, allowing them to build an interactive dialogue with their target audience.

Web 2.0 has revolutionised the internet in the last few years. The idea of the ‘collaborative web’, where people talk back to sites and directly with each other, is a marked shift from the way things were. Sites like YouTube with their user generated content and Facebook and its social networking, dominate the online world now. Indeed many corporate sites have also bowed to the pressure of Web 2.0 offering blogs, forums and RSS feeds. But has the research industry yet woken up to these changes, and if so, in what way? 

The simple answer is that it is beginning to, but there are many implications and possibilities probably yet to be explored. This article will concentrate on some of the ways that the pioneer agencies have been moving things forward and trying to develop a new Research 2.0 world. 

Evaluate 1.0 

It must first be noted that the internet and online surveys are fast becoming the most popular data collection method in the UK. Most of this research takes place using samples from online access panels, and to a lesser extent from client lists. However, the way in which most researchers deal with their ‘respondents’ is very much still rooted in the old Research 1.0 world. The mere fact that they refer to them as respondents implies that we are treating people no different to lab rats and expecting them to respond (i.e. answer our questions) when we initiate a stimulus to them (i.e. send an email invitation to a survey). In the Research 2.0 world this needs to change to being more of a two-way relationship where respondents become collaborators in our quest for insight and knowledge. We need to be prepared to have a dialogue with our customers over issues rather than demanding that they just answer our questions. 

Interactive Feedback 

There are many ways that even simple online questionnaires can be enhanced using Web 2.0 ideas. We at Virtual Surveys include a Videobooth at the end of surveys allowing people to add other comments on the project in their own words in a YouTube type fashion. We have found these invaluable when analysing data, and regularly include soundbites from them in presentations. We have also sometimes bounced people at the end of surveys into online forums or chat rooms where they have been able to carry on discussing the topic with other participants. This can work particular well when we invite them back to such forums a few days later and offer to share some of the results with them. This has the benefit of allowing us to ask additional probing questions, and more qualitatively clarify issues that arise from the numbers. However, from the ‘respondents’ point of view it clearly demonstrates how their opinions are valued and have been used. Moreover, in these days of declining response rates to all research, methods like this can really help engage people and encourage them to participate more. 

Blogs 

Another whole area where Web 2.0 has started to have an influence is blogs. There are two ways in which they have been used as a research tool. Firstly you can trawl the blog posts and seek information about your brand. Tools like technorati.com make this possible for anyone to do in seconds. There are also companies (such as Nielsen Buzzmetrix) who offer a monitoring service that will also read the comments and classify them into positive/negative content; benchmark companies against competitors; and more importantly interpret the data and flag important issues to their clients. 

Blogs can also be used as primary data collection tools. They are great for ethnographic work and in cases where you might want consumers to keep a diary over a period of time. You can even set up facilities so people can update their blog direct from their mobile phones. We recently completed a project for a beauty company who wanted to investigate when women experience problems with ‘sweaty moments’. By allowing people to text direct to their blogs, we obtained precise data on the exact instance of the problems and what they were doing. Relying on a recall survey would never have provided such accurate information nor such candid and honest revelations. 

Communities 

However, what is probably the most interesting trend in Research 2.0 is the switch from online panels towards online communities. Many online panel providers, (such as CAIO and ToLuna) are providing spaces within their website portals for their panelists to interact with each other, such as forums. ToLuna is even encouraging its panelists to ask questions of each other. 

A few companies have taken this a step further and have been developing private bespoke online research communities for their clients. These go much further than merely providing a forum for members to interact in. They allow members to create their own social presence within the community, and then to network with other members and most importantly direct with the client. They therefore provide a simple way for companies to keep their ‘finger on the pulse’ of their brands, as well as providing a fast and effective way to get insightful feedback on topical issues they wish to raise. 

We have also discovered that such communities, run over a mere week or two, make a great alternative to focus groups. Not only do they provide very detailed qualitative input on issues, but they also allow you to conduct more extensive tasks with participants. They are also useful when you want constant access to consumers during a development process and particularly so when potential customers are widely spread, both geographically and internationally. 

Research 3.0 and beyond 

Going further still, some companies (such as eCGlobal Panel) have started conducting research within virtual worlds such as Second Life. In these, they have run surveys and even focus groups with people’s avatars. The jury is still out on how useful this method will turn out to be. However, Second Life claims to have 11.5 million subscribers, so who knows? More likely to have potential will be link-ups with social networking sites and portals such as Google. You can already go on to Facebook and run simple straw polls with demographically and regionally targeted samples, costing a mere 50p per interview. 

I believe we have only just started to see in what ways the Web 2.0, and Web 3.0, revolution will affect research. It is possible that it will turn the industry upside down one day with a completely new model for market research. After all, we now live in a period of accelerating change. The US Futurist Ray Kurzweil recently noted the impact of technology seemed to be doubling every 12 months. On that scale, if you use 1900 to 1999 as an index of 100 years, then the change from 2001 to 2100 will be worth 20,000 years!