Having recently joined Latitude Insights and the market research industry as a whole, I was quite interested to hear about something called an “online community”.   I had never learned about “online communities” at uni (certainly not in enough depth for me to remember learning about them anyway!).

Nonetheless, as I learnt more about them, one of the things that stood out to me was this concept that “engagement” and other intrinsic rewards can be much more valuable to members than monetary rewards.

I’ll admit that I was a little sceptical at first to think that people could truly appreciate intrinsic rewards, especially in an increasingly price-conscious world… that was, until I actually experienced an online community for myself!  As I began to invite individuals to various communities, I expected every second person to ask me, “sooo….what are the ‘rewards’ for this research?” (A polite way of saying “show me the money PA-LEASE!!”).   Whilst this is an essential question for some, overall, this question is rarely asked. It is more common to get comments such as, “I’m really looking forward to this discussion, I think it will be very interesting!”

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The holy grail of marketing is delivering the right message, to the right people at the right time. Without relevance marketing initiatives go to waste.

Market research, at its best, talks with consumers about things that are going on in their lives at that point in time. This is advantageous for two reasons. Firstly, for example, exploring consumer confidence the week an interest rate cut is announced leads to more accurate feedback, rather than rely solely on participant recall. Secondly, talking about topical issues or events actually increases engagement level with the research.

Insights communities are ideal for keeping research relevant to participants. The longitudinal nature of communities means that foreseeable events (e.g. Christmas) can be planned for. Furthermore, the flexible nature of communities allows researchers to respond to unexpected, topical issues that arise (think the announcement of the carbon tax).

When planning an online community, think about the timing of your topics, and how to maximise their relevance.

It’s incredible to think so much has changed over the past three years. As Charleni Li points out in her recent blog Groundswell Paperback: A Look Back Three Years Later, it was only back in May 2008 that Facebook and Twitter were still emerging trends. Even more incredible, the iPhone had no apps! Can any of us now imagine a world without our iPhone, without Facebook or without Twitter? I know I can’t!

And marketers and researchers alike are embracing these technologies to reach their different audiences.

This then led to me on to a bit of a tangent, wondering whether MROCs (market research online communities) or insight communities have yet fully ‘emerged’. It seems the world of marketing research may be lagging a little?  There are still many who are wedded to the idea of focus groups sufficing for all qualitative research.  Which continues to amaze me, because once the richness, depth of information and honesty online research community members reveal, there’s really no going back.