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Consumers Don't Want to Hear from Social Media Researchers, Unless...

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Jay Owens raises some good questions about my recent post on the attribution of social media comments in research reports:

Why couldn't you just ask the participants, "Would it be ok if I quoted what you said here in this report I'm writing for ____?" You show them what you want to quote, and you explain what the research will be used for. It's easy enough to message someone on Twitter to ask this, and bulletin boards usually have a private messages channel. 

Surely informed consent is a possibility? Am I missing something? I can’t understand why this wasn’t mentioned. It won’t bias responses because you’re asking for permission after the comment/statement has been made. If people refuse to give you permission to quote them, then that’s got to be respected, and if they want to be anonymised you can agree how to do that.   

The issue of contacting consumers is a complex one. On the one hand, consumers don’t want to be contacted by market researchers. On the other hand, consumers want researchers to ask permission before using their quotes.

In the Vovici social media listening survey, we asked 426 U.S. online consumers which groups it was acceptable to be contacted by. Coming in dead last of the seven groups we asked about was independent market researchers, which only 15% of respondents wanted to be contacted by. Since consumers were twice as receptive to being contacted by the organization’s researchers, presumably if they make a comment about an iPad they’d rather hear from Apple researchers than from third-party researchers. Still, the majority would rather not hear from any researchers at all:

• “I'm entitled to my own opinion without some media marketing research using or interfering with my comments, and wanting to make a big deal out of it, good or bad.”
• “It could lead to less comments if people think they may be hassled by the researchers.”
• “Marketing agencies have been contacting the consumers to advertise there items by using social networks and interfering with the enjoyment of the people using it.”

When we then asked consumers if they would rather have researchers ask for permission before reporting their comments, or use their comments without contacting them, to my surprise – given that they didn’t want to be contacted by researchers in general – 85% of consumers wanted the researchers to seek their permission.  Why?

• Sadly, consumers fear market researchers will willfully misinterpret their responses.
  • “I don't know if my comments/opinions may be twisted to fit what the researcher needs.”
  •  “[I dislike] the idea that comments that I make could be taken out of context to support a product or position that I don't personally support.”
  • “The comments may be taken out of context to produce the opposite of what I intended.”
• Others fear researchers will get it wrong through incompetence.
  •  “They [researchers] sometimes take things out of context and should always contact the person before using their comments.”
  • “I do see a lot of negative in discussion.  So you would have to contact the commenter to make sure you understand.”
  • “I don't like when only half of a comment or story is used. It seems unfair and can be harmful.”

How to net this out? Consumers don’t really want to talk to market researchers about their comments, but if push comes to shove, they will talk to researchers to make sure that their comments aren’t misrepresented (intentionally or not).

These attitudes remind of why I dislike hearing social media research framed as “online ethnography”. In an actual ethnographic study, you’ve recruited participants and given them some neutral background on the research you are doing – they have consented to have you watch them and ask them questions. In social media research, consumers’ comments aren’t intended for market researchers, and the consumers would prefer not to be contacted. They are only willing to be contacted if you reporting their comment because they don’t trust you to get it right. It’s not really analogous to ethnographic research.

So, Jay, you can certainly ask people who contributed key quotes for permission to use them. Many will ignore the request and others will decline, but some will give permission, clarify their remarks and provide further background. I’d do it rarely, and only for key quotes. Do we really want to go back to shoving clipboards in people’s faces at malls? Because that’s what this is starting to feel like.

See also:

• Consumer Attitudes towards Social Media Market Research
• The Winds of Privacy
• Attribution of Social Media Comments in Research Reports