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Research Roundup: Social Media Research "in the Mix"

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I analyzed 157 links from the #MRX Twitter community to determine the most popular this week:

1. Quick thoughts on Facebook Questions by Tom Ewing:
   “Social networks achieve speed and agility by reducing the unit of content to its smallest feasible size. So the unit of music is the song, not the album (especially on YouTube). The unit of news is the article, not the newspaper. The unit of blogging is the blog post, not the blog itself. Cut out the stuff you don’t want, strip to what you do. So when you unbundle information, you end up with questions and answers as units. Facebook Questions is taking this idea and turning it into something spreadable, social, personalised, etc. etc.”
2. The battle for the soul of understanding online discussions by Ray Poynter:
   “There is battle going on, a battle for the soul of how online discourses should be interpreted. In one corner are the machines, the automated social media monitoring tools such as Radian6 and text analytics such as Leximancer. In the other corner are those who value human scale analysis, people such as Robert Kozinets (author of Netnography), who believe that ethnographic and qualitative approaches are the best tools for turning online discussions into insight.”
3. How Women Use Social Media by Pam Dyer (shared by Ben Smithee):
   “53% of adult females use social media at least on a weekly basis. Their top interests are entertainment, food, health/wellness, and recipes/cooking. Fashion/beauty/shopping comes in fifth. 34% of women use social networks to get information, while 20% of women are looking for advice and recommendations.”
4. Research in the mix by Tom De Ruyck:
   “Every method has its place. It’s all about fusing methods! Researchers have to become more like DJ’s: DJ’s play and select songs for an audience from their [rich] music collection… What makes DJ’s also successful is that they have the guts to experiment without forgetting tradition: they re-use old riffs and blend it with contemporary elements.”
5. Debriefed or deflated? by Jane Shirley in Research magazine:
   “We’ve all been there. The debrief that should be the agency’s chance to shine. The debrief that we have primed the client to expect big things of. The presentation that should be the client’s opportunity to learn something that will change their business, that has been long days in the making. Then the big moment arrives and it all goes horribly wrong.”
6. Yet Another Useless Customer Survey! by Diane Hagglund:
   “I’m on the phone right now with my bank, doing a ‘post transaction’ survey.  I always take these – what researcher doesn’t? And once again I’m annoyed.  What has my bank learned from doing this survey?  As far as I can tell, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.”
7. Consumer conversations in the co-creation of innovations by Niels Schillewaert:
   “Innovations come about in several ways. The innovation process is often powered by technology. In other cases, marketers have sufficient knowledge and intuition to independently create new products. Occasionally, a good innovation is created by accident. Today’s active and empowered consumer is however prepared to innovate in cooperation with brands.”
8. How to Measure Brand Value: Likes, Followers, Influencers, Views? No, Social Currency by Kevin Randall (shared by Henri-Paul Roy):
   “Social Currency significantly drives brand loyalty; brands with a high Social Currency command a price premium. The importance of the six levers that make up Social Currency varies by brand category. As expected, Toyota's Social Currency score dropped notably between December 2009 and February 2010.”
9. Like Any TV Show, Market Segmentation Studies Have Trade Offs by Jeff McKenna:
   “If your last segmentation project was a TV show which one would it be? Would it be like Cheers- great when it was done and lived on successfully after that, or was it more like Lost- complex and often confusing but enjoyable, you’re just hoping it ends well. Maybe it was more like American Idol and picking the right scheme became more of a popularity contest than one based on merit. Let’s just hope it was not like Buffy the Vampire Slayer- just one nightmarish scene after another.”
10. Tracking the Mood of Americans: Use Twitter if you want to prove they’re happy by Annie Pettit:
    “Twitter results do not equal Internet results. It’s not 1 to 1. It’s impossible to gather Twitter data, analyze the sentiment, and be confident that it represents a wide, more general audience. Perhaps people on Twitter have more extreme opinions than everyone else; perhaps they are less likely to guard their remarks so that the more extreme opinions are shared; perhaps Twitter opinions are in fact the closest to the average American opinion. Whatever the reason, it is undeniable that the mood on Twitter is unlike anywhere else.”

Thanks to everyone who shared these links on the #MRX community!