The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research

Tools and Techniques for Market Researchers

Ray Poynter

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780470710401
• eBook ISBN: 9780470971376
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

Drawing together the new techniques available to the market researcher into a single reference, The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research explores how these innovations are being used by the leaders in the field. This groundbreaking reference examines why traditional research is broken, both in theory and practice, and includes chapters on online research communities, community panels, blog mining, social networks, mobile research, e-ethnography, predictive markets, and DIY research.

"This handbook fills a significant learning gap for the market research profession and Ray Poynter has once again proven that he is a guiding light. The practical and pragmatic advice contained within these pages will be relevant to new students of research, young researchers and experienced researchers that want to understand the basics of online and social media research. Ray's views on 'how to be better with people' and 'how to maximise response rates' are vital clues that are likely to shape the future of market and social research."
—Peter Harris, National President, Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS)

"It's hard to imagine anyone better suited to covering the rapidly changing world of online research than Ray Poynter. In this book he shows us why. Whether you are new to online or a veteran interested in broadening your understanding of the full range of techniques—quant and qual—this book is for you."
—Reg Baker, President and Chief Operating Officer, Market Strategies International

"Finally, a comprehensive handbook for practitioners, clients, suppliers and students that includes best practices, clear explanations, advice and cautionary warnings. This should be the research benchmark for online research for some time. Poynter proves he is the online market research guru."
—Cam Davis, Ph.D., former Dean and current instructor of the online market research course for the Canadian Marketing Research and Intelligence Association

"Ray Poynter's comprehensive, authoritative, easy to read, and knowledgeable handbook has come to our rescue ... it is a must read for anyone who needs to engage with customers or stakeholders in a creative, immediate and flexible way that makes maximum use of all the exciting, new technology now open to us. Market researchers need to know this stuff now. I can guarantee that anyone who buys the book will find it a compelling read: they will be constantly turning to the next page in order to find yet another nugget of insight from Ray's tour de force."
—Dr David Smith, Director, DVL Smith Ltd; Professor, University of Hertfordshire, Business School  

PART I

Online Quantitative Survey Research

The single biggest impact of the internet on market research to date has been on the collection of quantitative survey data. The chapters in this first part of the book address different aspects of quantitative survey research conducted via online surveys.

Part I covers

• Overview of quantitative online research

• Web survey systems

• Designing online surveys

• Online access panels

• Client databases

• In-house panels

• Running an online survey

• The online quality debate

• Summary of online quantitative research

Note, there are other forms of quantitative research that are not survey research, such as web analytics and scanner data. These are not covered in this part of the book.

1

Overview of Online Quantitative Research

The largest impact of online market research so far has been in the area of quantitative survey research, both in terms of volume and value. By 2008, according to the 2009 ESOMAR Global Market Research Report, the value of online quantitative market research was 20% of the global research total, which put it at about US$ 6.5 billion. By contrast, telephone quantitative accounted for 18%, face-to-face surveys for 12%, and qualitative research was reported as representing about 14% of global market research revenues.

It is important to note that the majority of quantitative research conducted via online data collection is not inherently different - in terms of the problems it is seeking to solve, the questions it asks, and the analysis that is conducted - from quantitative research conducted via other modalities, such as face-to-face or telephone.

This chapter is a high-level review of the key issues that confront market researchers and market research buyers when conducting online quantitative studies.

The topics covered in this chapter are:

• Online survey process

• Surveys and the internet modality

• Finding respondents to interview

• Moving surveys online

ONLINE SURVEY PROCESS

The typical process for the data collection phase for a project using online data collection is as shown in Table 1.1.

It is important to note that the timeline for an online survey is different from that of a telephone study, and even more so from that of a face-to-face study. In non-trivial cases, the total time required for an online survey will be shorter than that for a telephone or face-to-face survey, but this is not true of each individual stage. Compared with a face-to-face or telephone survey, Steps 2 to 4 of Table 1.1 tend to be slower for online projects, whereas Steps 5 to 7 tend to be faster (note, in a face-to-face survey Steps 2-4 would be the printing and dispatch of the questionnaires and Steps 5-7 would be the fieldwork and the data punching). Most of the time savings that are created by online surveys occur in Step 6.

Table 1.1

1	Create and agree with the client a draft questionnaire, often referred to as a paper questionnaire or a Word questionnaire (as in Microsoft Word).
2	Script the survey, i.e. create an online questionnaire, typically using one of the data collection systems.
3	Host the survey, i.e. install the questionnaire on a server attached to the internet and link it to a database to store the results.
4	Test and approve the survey.
5	Invite people to take the survey, for example send invitations to people on a database or to members of a panel.
6	Collect the data and monitor the progress of the survey, possibly tweaking elements such as quota controls.
7	Close the survey, download the data, remove and/or archive the online survey and data.

In a face-to-face or telephone survey, the appearance of the questionnaire, which is dealt with in Step 2, is normally only a minor issue. Because the online modality is a self-completion mode, the layout, wording, and appearance of the survey are extremely important, as they are for postal surveys. Better designed, more carefully worded, more engaging surveys produce better data, but they also take longer to produce.

Step 3 in Table 1.1 is normally a quick process for online surveys and is analogous to the hosting of a CATI questionnaire for a telephone study.

Step 4 does not have a direct analogy in most face-to-face surveys; however, it can delay the online survey process. In all modalities it is a good idea to pilot a survey, but in online surveys the software and the layout have to be tested too, if major problems are to be avoided.

SURVEYS AND THE INTERNET MODALITY

The language of questionnaires and surveys tends to be derived from face-to-face research, with its references to questionnaires, pages, interviewers etc. However, each specific modality has its own features and characteristics that need recognising and utilising. This section reviews what we mean by different types of internet-related surveys.

WEB SURVEYS

In most cases, an internet survey is a questionnaire accessed via an internet browser (such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla’s Firefox). This type of survey is commonly known as a web survey and is typically created and operated via specialist online survey software (such as the products from companies like Confirmit, Nebu, or Voxco). The survey can be provided via a range of tools, for example HTML, JavaScript, and Flash, and can appear as either one long page or as a number of screens, with each screen showing one or more questions.

Later chapters of this book cover the choice of web interviewing systems, the design of web surveys, and managing web survey projects.

There are alternatives to the web survey, but none of the alternatives is in widespread use. Examples of the alternatives include email surveys and downloadable surveys, which are covered in the sections below.

EMAIL SURVEYS

The term ‘email survey’ normally refers to a survey that is emailed to respondents. An email survey does not normally refer to studies where the survey is hosted on the web and an invitation is emailed to the respondent; this is normally referred to as a ‘web survey’. However, email surveys have become much less common than they used to be and the term ‘email survey’ may have become more ambiguous.

In the very early days of online research, email surveys were popular because they did not require people to be online whilst they completed the survey. The internet at that stage tended to be very slow and most users were paying for access to it by the minute. Also, in those early days there were many people who had email access but who did not have access to the web, particularly from PCs they accessed whilst at work.

There are two ways to conduct an email survey. The first is to include the survey in the body of the email and the second is to send the survey as an attachment to the email.

Email surveys in the body of the email

Email surveys in the body of the email further divide into two main varieties, text emails and HTML emails.

A text email sets out the questionnaire as part of the email in the same way that a message is typed into an email. The respondent clicks ‘Reply’ and then scrolls down the email, entering their responses. The main drawbacks with this approach were that the survey tended to be boring, restricted, and respondents could miss questions, answer inappropriately (for example picking two options where only one should be selected), or even delete parts of the questionnaire. Interview software exists to draft these surveys, to conduct the mailing, and to interpret the replies.

An HTML email survey uses the power of HTML to create a more interesting survey. An HTML survey can look appealing. For example, it can use standard features such as radio buttons and check boxes, and can include a SUBMIT button at the foot of the email, making the survey more intuitive.

The main problem with HTML surveys is that many people’s email filters will either prevent HTML emails from getting through, or they will convert them to plain text.

One area where email surveys have a specific benefit, compared with web surveys, is within a large organisation, for example when conducting a staff survey. In a large organisation a web-based survey can cause many recipients to log into the survey at the same time, potentially causing bandwidth problems. An email study distributed within a company will, in many cases, spread the load more evenly.

One special case of an email survey is where an email service is utilised to poll people’s views, for example the voting buttons in Microsoft’s Outlook can be used to gather people’s views.

Email surveys as an attachment

In the early days of the internet it was quite acceptable to email a survey as a piece of executable code. These emails arrived on the respondent’s machine, the attachment was opened, the survey completed, and it then emailed itself back to the project sponsor. The general reluctance to accept executable code via email has resulted in this form of survey becoming rare.

DOWNLOADABLE SURVEYS

A downloadable survey is one that is downloaded from the internet to a local device and the results are then sent back to the server at the end of the data collection process. Downloadable surveys tend to be implemented for mobile devices such as smartphones rather than for PC-BASED surveys.

One more recent innovation is to include a mobile, downloadable survey as part of a wider project, such as e-ethnography (a subject of a later chapter), but this remains relatively rare.

FINDING RESPONDENTS TO INTERVIEW

Initially, one of the main reasons that online data collection was held back was because there was no reliable and scalable method of contacting potential respondents. Face-to-face research was able to draw on sources such as electoral registers, postal address files and similar sources. Telephone was able to draw on directories and RDD (random di...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Introduction
• PART I - Online Quantitative Survey Research
• PART II - Qualitative Research
• PART III - Social Media
• PART IV - Research Topics
• PART V - Breaking News!
• Glossary
• Further Information
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Index