Comments on: Twitter and market research: demographic dangers http://www.knowledgeistics.com/2009/06/08/twitter-and-market-research-demographic-dangers/ Market Research Meets Social Media Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:07:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Alain Breillatt http://www.knowledgeistics.com/2009/06/08/twitter-and-market-research-demographic-dangers/comment-page-1/#comment-36 Alain Breillatt Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:31:10 +0000 http://www.knowledgeistics.com/?p=114#comment-36 I'm not sure I would argue that Twitter can actually offer breadth though. It can offer a slice of the population but in general you have no real idea as to who these people are other than their location, maybe their vocation, and possibly their gender. What slice of the population do they represent? Probably late 20 to early 40 somethings in general. But most likely, based on my experience, people who live on the web all day and probably heavily overpopulated by software / web people, and PR, Marketing, and Consultants who cater to these people. There's no question a certain percentage include bloggers of all stripes and hucksters using the latest shiny megaphone to broadcast their message - but it still is a fairly narrow strip of the population. You can easily find a lot (tens, hundreds, thousands) of people discussing certain topics or brands, but how broad is their representation? Are they truly lead users of the product / service area you focus on? Josh Bernhoff coined the phrase, "Objects in the groundswell may be smaller than they appear." And by that he meant, "people who congregate online are not a representative sample." http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/04/what-should-nbc-and-subway-do-about-the-save-chuck-campaign.html In my mind, John has it right on this one. I’m not sure I would argue that Twitter can actually offer breadth though. It can offer a slice of the population but in general you have no real idea as to who these people are other than their location, maybe their vocation, and possibly their gender. What slice of the population do they represent? Probably late 20 to early 40 somethings in general. But most likely, based on my experience, people who live on the web all day and probably heavily overpopulated by software / web people, and PR, Marketing, and Consultants who cater to these people. There’s no question a certain percentage include bloggers of all stripes and hucksters using the latest shiny megaphone to broadcast their message – but it still is a fairly narrow strip of the population. You can easily find a lot (tens, hundreds, thousands) of people discussing certain topics or brands, but how broad is their representation? Are they truly lead users of the product / service area you focus on?

Josh Bernhoff coined the phrase, “Objects in the groundswell may be smaller than they appear.” And by that he meant, “people who congregate online are not a representative sample.” http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/04/what-should-nbc-and-subway-do-about-the-save-chuck-campaign.html

In my mind, John has it right on this one.

]]> By: Ben Foster http://www.knowledgeistics.com/2009/06/08/twitter-and-market-research-demographic-dangers/comment-page-1/#comment-34 Ben Foster Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:04:56 +0000 http://www.knowledgeistics.com/?p=114#comment-34 I like looking at Market Research insights in two dimensions #1 - Breadth of the Need (How much of the population has it) #2 - Intensity of the Need (How "strong" of a need is it) I think Twitter can help a lot with #1 - Breadth but not so much with #2 - Intensity. You can use Twitter to find out a lot about breadth. Once you have that, follow up with some in-depth SMMR to understand the details behind the intensity. I like looking at Market Research insights in two dimensions

#1 – Breadth of the Need (How much of the population has it)
#2 – Intensity of the Need (How “strong” of a need is it)

I think Twitter can help a lot with #1 – Breadth but not so much with #2 – Intensity. You can use Twitter to find out a lot about breadth. Once you have that, follow up with some in-depth SMMR to understand the details behind the intensity.

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