#MRX MRA IMRO SMR Guidelines #7: Research Contributor Awareness – The Conversition Commentary
December 22, 2010 | Comments Off
MRA recently released version 1 of the MRA/IMRO Guide to the Top 16 Social Media Research Questions, a tool to help newcomers and vendors communicate with each other about this new datasource and method. Conversition was a key contributor to this document which is now available on the MRA website.
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This blog is #7 in a series of 16, each one addressing Conversition’s viewpoint on one of the items in the guidelines. We welcome your questions and comments, and look forward to further discussions on this exciting new trend in the market research industry.
slowfoot from morguefile
Are the participants aware that their user-generated content is under observation?
No.
The simple answer is no.
Not all people using social media realize that the comments and opinions they share online are under observation. It might seem counter-intuitive but as researchers of human behaviour, we need to remember that not everyone comes from the same social environment that we have. Given that you’re reading this blog, chances are you are fully immersed in the social media space and know that there is no such thing as private social media. But you’re an exception to the rule.
Human behaviours fall on a normal curve. Some people fall on the end of the curve where they understand that any sense of privacy was lost many years ago and that is probably where you sit. Other people fall on the end of the curve where they believe that the Nigerian prince truly does need financial assistance to cash in his multi-million dollar inheritance. There may be many fewer people on this side of the curve, but that doesn’t mean we can disregard them. As researchers, we are obliged to take care and protect people who may not fully appreciate all the implications of the internet. We do, after all, respect their opinions and so we should also show respect for the conditions under which they shared those opinions.
Most people, however, fall somewhere in between. They accept that the internet is public. They know that many people will read their comments on YouTube. But, they probably haven’t read the Facebook Terms of Service and they probably aren’t aware of which pieces of data are being shared widely. They probably aren’t thinking that when they obtain a password for a chatgroup about dyslexia there may be a researcher in the group who also easily obtained a password. And they certainly aren’t expecting that a completely disrespectful comment they made during extreme frustration would end up in an official report on the desk of the CEO of a global corporation with their name and twitter ID right beside it.
Research contributors are not all aware. It’s our duty to respect that.
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Related links
MRA IMRO Guide #1: Advantages and Disadvantages of SMR
MRA IMRO Guide #2: Datasources of SMR
MRA IMRO Guide #3: Data Fusion and SMR
MRA IMRO Guide #4: Reliability of SMR
MRA IMRO Guide #5: Responsibilities of Social Media Data Users
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Category conversition | Tags: annie pettit,conversition,guide,guidelines,imro,lovestats,market research,mra,mrx,navigating,reliability,smr,social media analytics,social media monitor,social media research,tessie ting,tessietweets,validity
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