Marketing Research & Social Communication
Lesson 5
Social Media Research
Ray Poynter
1Ray Poynter, Marketing Research & Social Communication, 2015
Agenda
1. What is social media research?
2. Qualitative social media research
3. Quantitative social media research
4. Sentiment analysis
5. Ethics overview
6. Quiz and assignment for next week
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Using Social Media & the Web
1. ESOMAR?
2. Ray Poynter?
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What is Social Media?
Very hard to define with precise definitions
But, “I know it when I see it”
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• Facebook• Twitter• LinkedIn• Blogging sites• Video uploading sites• Discussion & chat sites
What is Social Media Research?
Narrow Definition
• Quant and Qual
• Using naturally occurring
conversations to conduct
market research
• Usually the research is
into non-Social Media
topics such as
advertising, customer
satisfaction, brand
awareness etc.
Broad Definition
• Qual and Quant
• Everything in the narrow
definition
• Plus
– Research into social media
– Using social media to
recruit respondents
– Creating discussions and
tasks in social media
– MROCs and communities
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Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
• Not based on artificial
questions, e.g. surveys
and focus groups
• Genuine conversations
between real people
• Not limited to the agenda
of brands and
organisations
• Answers questions that
were never asked
Weaknesses
• Not everybody uses
social media
• Are people who they say
they are?
• Only works for high
profile brands and topics
• Does not answer many of
the questions that brands
and organisations want to
ask
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Nivea Black & White Clear
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yol6h-3nbTc
Nivea Black & White Clear
Social Media Research
– Discovered the scale of interest and concern
in Yellowing of White clothes and White stains
on Black clothes
Traditional Market Research
– Tested the name, pack, ad, price and
message
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Qual Approaches
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Unstructured data, collected to help
understand meaning
Four Steps to Insight
1. Understand the client’s needs
2. Find the discourse
3. Analyse the discourse
4. Synthesise the needs and the analysis
Quant Approaches
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Using algorithms to convert social media activity in to
numbers and measurement
Brands on Twitter
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Social Bakers - http://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/twitter/profiles/japan/brands/
Sentiment Analysis
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Positive
Positive
Negative
Neutral
Processing Social Media
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500,000 comments
Human
Sample
Hybrid
Sample then Census
Machine
Census
At the moment, humans are more accurate than machines, but machines are faster and cheaper.
Sample and Population
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Sample
Population
Content Analysis
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Comments on Park Hyatt, from TripAdvisor
Ibis, All Seasons, Novotel, Sofitel ….
Integration Surveys and Social Media
4000 Accor Hotels
12000 competitor hotels
Global dashboard
40 country dashboards
4000 hotel dashboards
Big Picture
1. Social media research is an additional
method of conducting research
2. Social media research can be qual or
quant, or both
3. Key themes are: Volume, Trends,
Sentiment, Influence and Content
4. Ethics are just as important with social
media research
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Before Next Lesson
1. Read Chapter 9 of the Textbook – Social
Media Research
2. Watch this TED video with Hans Rosling
(http://bit.ly/NewMR_100). At the lesson I
want you tell me the main story that Hans
Rosling is telling with data.
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