It has been a pretty hectic first month for me at Latitude Insights but what a blast it’s been. Already immersed in two very different communities it’s been great to learn and understand the various methods that make managing a community such a rewarding and valuable experience, not just for me but for our clients and members as well.

I have an online research background, so the idea of communicating with people via the Internet wasn’t new to me and is something I find very interesting. There is definitely a certain skill required to get the most out of people with whom you have no actual direct contact with but as people become more and more online savvy, the less noticeable the gap between online and offline communications continues to become. You may miss out on seeing how people express themselves physically but online I find that people are much more inclined to open up to you with information they may not usually share in a face to face environment.

Online communities evolve and run like any other community. There are leaders, there are followers and a mesh of relationships will build with time. What surprises me is just how quickly this happens. After the initial login, members introduce themselves and find common ground, as you would when you meet someone for the first time in real life. As a moderator, it’s a matter of using and nurturing these relationships in order to get participants talking with each other and also with me. Before long members are discussing and posting topics of their own such is the comfort that they have sharing information in the community. Communicating online is now no longer seen as scary or the domain of the IT geeks and as a result people are so much more comfortable engaging with others and meeting new friends. They help each other, they celebrate each other’s achievements and support each other through troubled times, just like a real community.

As a moderator I’ve learned that in the end I have to keep order but still don’t want to be the ‘tough guy’ who isn’t seen to have fun or have a personality and can be someone who members will want to chat and share their experiences with. How can I expect everyone in the community to share themselves if I’m not doing it myself?

I was used conducting focus groups with up to 8 participants at a time so have had to adjust to communities of over 100 running over a much longer time period. Sure, not everyone is talking at the same time but it really is great to see a larger group dynamic evolve to include me but also the experience of friendships grow and build.

Like the communities, I’m looking forward to growing and building upon my experience as time goes on.

It’s almost been a year since I started working with insights communities and I have learnt that they are filled with constant surprises. If you had asked me last September, what I expected from a role of an insights community moderator, I would have summed up, “To facilitate focus groups…online”. So a year later, what do I have to add?

Today I would say that a community moderator is more than just a facilitator. We spend months with participants in a community – I’ve even had a member describe the community as his “second family”. This is not unexpected; given that everyday we are invited into the lives of members. We travel their paths through pregnancies, holidays, graduations, and even funerals. The role of moderator is stretched to confidante, advisor, watchdog, IT tech, storyteller, leader, pupil, events organiser, cheerleader, and friend.

So, walking the thin line between the professional and personal, how does this tie in with our research? How do we remain objective, whilst we are subjective to the trials and tribulations of our members? I believe we don’t. Through the lens of familiarity, we grasp a deeper understanding of where members are coming from. Communities provide an environment to harness relationships, and this is a unique opportunity for qualitative research.

In the last year I have learnt how to be a better moderator by getting to know members. I have learnt how to be a better researcher by analysing data within a broader context. I look forward to the next 365 days of communities, and welcome whatever twists and turns they may bring…

Part of what I love about working with the team at Latitude is the opportunity to laugh each and every day.

Throughout the week, our community moderators post blogs to their members to touch base, say hello, give them an update and (hopefully) make them smile.

With our unique approach to community engagement, moderators are encouraged to inject a healthy dose of their own personality into communications with their members, with often humorous results. Throwing in a few tidbits of novelty information, or a joke or two allows us all to reveal a little about what interests us, makes us tick, or cracks us up, which in turn encourages members to do the same.

Here’s a couple of snippets from some recent moderator blogs…

One moderator shares her weekend of indulgence with her community…

To celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day…

While this sort of dialogue may not be a source for powerful insights for our clients, what it does facilitate is a fun, friendly atmosphere in which our members can express themselves openly, engage with us as moderators and bond with each other as members.

Because after all, who doesn’t love to laugh every now and again!

Latitude Insight’s case study of iPhone users uncovered just what consumers find so fascinating about the iPhone, why they use that four-letter word – LOVE, and how brands can become part of this ‘affair’.

The study revealed that Smartphones change user’s lives. Initially thinking they are getting a new phone, with email and web capabilities, they find iPhone gives them so much more.

It helps them communicate. It makes them more connected because of its web capabilities. But going even further, the real benefits are about being more entertained, more efficient in what they do, having more freedom because they are not stuck to a computer, and having more ability do things away from home and work. It’s a whole new world where users can do things anywhere, anytime.

Smartphone users also admit to relying less on their computer now they have a mobile device. With predictions that by 2011, 85% of handsets will have some sort of browser, it’s important brands recognise the opportunity mobile devices gives them in terms of another distribution channel to engage with their customers.

Furthermore, with over 100,000 apps available, many free, it’s important apps have lasting traction. They need to ‘do’ something and have a tangible impact on time or convenience to be worthwhile and valued by users.

As a focus group moderator, I can’t remember how many times I’ve been ready to start at 6.30pm, with only half a room of mildly hungry participants all quietly waiting for the rest to make it through traffic so we can start talking (and eating). And when you’ve only got 90 minutes, well you want to make sure every minute counts.

So it’s interesting to examine what time conversations happen online, based on what is convenient to our community members. One of the greatest benefits of online research communities is the flexibility for members – they can talk anytime, anywhere so long as they have internet connection.

The graphs at left show it’s possible to have conversations with research participants from 8am in the morning to midnight. Here are some other points of interest:

- Mums with kids at home show a steady presence all day, from breakfast to bed time. There’s not even a real ‘trough’ in the conversations at dinner (proving once again they’re able to multitask by feeding the kids and talking to us)

- Small business owners want to converse during work hours and tend to go quiet after 6pm. Isn’t this when we typically want them to come to groups?

- Our communities with an even mix of males and females, or those which are male dominated show a real dip at around 6pm – usually after a late afternoon peak in visits to the community. This coincides with the commute home, dinner, and other post-work activities.

- People are ready to talk from breakfast time – not when you’d typically participate in market research.

So when respondents say, ‘No I’m having dinner’ they probably mean it. We’ve all got to eat sometime. But there’s 23 other hours in the day to chat if you belong to an online research community.

While recently attending the AMSRS Summer School there was much discussion about what needs to change and where the industry was headed in the future.  Ray Poynter’s blog post has a great summary of outtakes from Summer School, but there was one point that was made that I believe is fundamental to the future of our industry that needs to constantly be addressed – engagement of participants.

As an industry we seem to forget that it is part of our job to ensure we engage those we ask to participate in our research.  For the most part, people are not obliged to participate in research, they voluteer to do so.  While I agree that most people genuinely want to offer their opinions and be heard, it is the way in which we make them do this that can be the problem.  Answering a 30 minute online survey, full of grid questions is by no means engaging. And without any feedback mechanisms, too often people feel their views are not heard.

While as an industry we have moved on from the use of the term ‘respondents’ to ‘participants’, I am not sure we have fully embraced the idea that we have to work harder to engage participants in what we do.  At Summer School when I broached this subject, I was met with the response – ‘we are not in the entertainment industry!’   No we are not, but we are in an industry that relies on engagement!  And for most part we have taken the easy way out, procuring engagement via monetary incentives.   But now even that is getting harder.

So what does that mean for researchers?

- It means we need to change the way we do things.
- We should be looking for new and engaging ways to collect information.
- We should be experimenting with things that we may not be comfortable with.
- We should be looking for more natural (and I would argue more authentic) ways to engage the public in what we do.

In my experience, participant engagement is possible and rewarding.  In fact, it can even be fun (dare it say it!).  And making participation enjoyable doesn’t undermine the legitimacy of it.

Feedback from participants involvement in Latitude’s online research communities shows just how much engagement is indeed possible:

“I had no idea how much fun this could be and have given facebook the flick this week as I just don’t have time for it right now! It is great to come back and see what people have added to your discussions and see what new ones have begun.”

“This has been a fantastic experience. It is so nice to know that what we are saying seems to count and that the right people are taking notice to make (client) better than it already is. I’ve had heaps of fun and would love to participate in the future .”

“I’ve never experienced anything like it personally. The only thing I can compare it to is surveys that I regularly do but they rarely give you an option for free speech like this forum has. It was far more interactive and you could easily clarify our thoughts and suggestions by just asking. A survey couldn’t do this.  It was fun, informative and made me feel like a valued customer.”

I say it’s time the industry realised the bar has been raised and we need to aim higher.
What do you think?

The last couple of days, all we have heard is iPad, iPad, iPad.  While I’m not sure iPad will be as revolutionary as the iPod or iPhone, what I do know is that Apple will make a lot of revenue from their iTunes store.  Did you know that in 2009, Apple accounted for 99.4% of all mobile app sales?

According to the Gartner report that’s a big chunk of the $4.2 billion in mobile app revenue that Apple scored in 2009 alone.  Apps are growing by the minute with the market estimated to almost double in the next year, to 4.5 billion apps.

For marketers this creates a number of interesting questions and opportunities:
- What makes a good App?
- What are consumers willing to pay for?
- How does the market learn about Apps?
- How do I make sure I get my Apps noticed ?

Over the coming months Latitude hopes to answer some of these questions with their iPhone user research community.  Not only will we ask members to ‘show us your Apps’ we want to drill down to understand how they find, choose and interact with their Apps.  Which ones can’t they live without and most importantly, which ones add to their brand experience.

So what Apps can’t you live without?

Matt and Ben at PluggedIn have made a few predications about the year ahead, many of which I agree with.  For us at Latitude it’s been a big year and it’s always good to take time to reflect on what has happened when looking to the future.

It was only a couple of weeks ago I was reminded of an article I wrote early last year in Research News about online qual and looking back on it highlights how much things have changed in the last 18 months.  At that time, it seemed I was the only one in Australia talking about online communities.  Fast forward 18 months and the buzz words at this year’s AMSRS conference was online communities.  So if you didn’t know what they were, you do now and if you weren’t thinking about them, you have started to.  The latest prediction is no surprise to us –  MROCs will be big news next year.

Today it seems everyone has a different definition for what these are but over the next year I’m sure clearer definitions will emerge and we will stop comparing apples and oranges.  We’ve seen some people talk about MROC’s, others use the term online research communities and then there are those who talk about online community panels but as time and experience emerge it will become clearer what the differences are.

We’ve seen a couple of big players enter the Australian market and the global players scrambling to get on board, but over the year we at Latitude have been working with a fantastic set of clients who are ahead of the curve.  From FMCG icon brands to banks, well know Australian drama series, luxury cars and retailers we’ve covered the spectrum of diverse conversations with equally diverse audiences.

The beauty of our real time 24/7 connection to consumer conversations emerges as brands goes through a product recalls, competitors experience PR nightmares, social media trials go haywire and through it all we are getting immediate responses from consumers as they see it.  The timeliness of the feedback procees is one of the biggest benefits for our clients.  So there is no doubt in my mind that more clients (big and small) will see the benefits of online research communities and it will fundamentally change how research is integrated into their business .

And I take this opportunity to thank the fanatastic team of researchers, clients and community members I get to work with everyday.  Without you, this would be no fun!  And here’s to continuing the ride in the year ahead.