Posts Tagged ‘navigating’
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
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 #16 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.
duboix from morguefile
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What, if any, methods are used for determining the geography associated with the data?
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Geography and demographics are a tricky situation for social media research. Unlike survey research where people provide their age, gender, and other personal information, very few people do so in the social media space. (When was the last time you saw someone tweet something like, “I’m a 28 year old female who has a Marketing Diploma and I love poptarts.”)
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There certainly are methods of determining the geographical and demographic characteristics of people contributing to social media but they aren’t perfect.
- How about if you notice if the website is .ca or .uk or .au? We wish that method worked but the vast majority of social media is generated in .com websites which are visited from people all around the world. And, people don’t refrain from posting on websites just because they notice it’s reflecting a different country. The internet is a wonderfully global population.
- How about IP addresses? This is another option, but again, a less than perfect option. According to my IP address, I’m sitting in the USA right now. But, I’m pretty sure I’m not!
- What about the demos that people do share? Yes, people do share their demographic information. A very, very tiny % of people share one or two pieces of information but certainly nowhere near what researchers are used to, and certainly nowhere near what is required to create a valid generalization outside of those individual people.
Because of these reasons, Conversition uses a variety of methods for understanding the demographics of social media contributors.
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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
MRA IMRO Guide #6: Social Media Research Skills
MRA IMRO Guide #7: Research Contributor Awareness
MRA IMRO Guide #8: Citing Reference
MRA IMRO Guide #9: Legal Issues
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Category conversition | Tags: Tags: annie pettit, citation, citing, content analysis, conversition, focus groups, guide, guidelines, imro, lovestats, market research, marketresearch, mra, mrx, navigating, newmr, references, reliability, sentiment analysis, smr, social media analytics, social media marketing, social media monitor, social media monitoring, social media plan, social media research, social media strategy, surveys, tessie ting, tessietweets, text analysis, validity,
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Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
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 #15 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.
clarita from morguefile
If sentiment scoring is provided, what is the process for validating results?
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We regularly validate both our sentiment analysis and our content analysis results.
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Sentiment analysis is validated both at a project level (for example, just YOUR data) as well as at an overall level (a random sample across many different brands). Though there are more scientifically accurate methods (i.e., have fun reading Krippendorf!), we have chosen a simpler method because it is easily understood by both novice and experienced research users.
The two important features of our process are 1) the large sample size which ensures we do not receive spuriously high (or low) validation scores associated with a skewed selection of data points, and 2) the blinded nature of the manual scoring which ensures the researcher does not unconsciously create high validation scores.
Our process is as follows:
- Randomly select 1000 verbatims
- Manually score each verbatim as negative, neutral, or positive
- Align the automated scores to the manual scores
- Calculate the percentage of automated and manual scores that match
The process for validating constructs is similar.
- Randomly select 1000 verbatims from a specific construct
- Determine if it does or does not reflect the intended construct
- Calculate the percentage of verbatims that were correctly identified as reflecting the intended construct
At the end of each process, we then identify the weak points and adjust our systems to account for them. For instance, if we discover that “Charlie Brown has been erroneously coded under the color construct, that anomaly is corrected.
It takes a long time to validate data but if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right.
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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
MRA IMRO Guide #6: Social Media Research Skills
MRA IMRO Guide #7: Research Contributor Awareness
MRA IMRO Guide #8: Citing Reference
MRA IMRO Guide #9: Legal Issues
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Category conversition | Tags: Tags: annie pettit, citation, citing, content analysis, conversition, focus groups, guide, guidelines, imro, lovestats, market research, marketresearch, mra, mrx, navigating, newmr, references, reliability, sentiment analysis, smr, social media analytics, social media marketing, social media monitoring, social media plan, social media research, social media strategy, surveys, tessie ting, tessietweets, text analysis, validity,
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Saturday, February 12th, 2011
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 #14 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.
Alvimann from morguefile
Does the company provide sentiment scoring?
Why yes we do!
Conversition has built a proprietary sentiment scoring system that features many advantages. We’re very proud of its accuracy, particularly in relation to its application in marketing research.
- We score more than 95% of data.
- We do not throw out verbatims that can’t be scored because it turns out they are true neutrals.
- We score verbatims on a continuous scale from extremely negative to extremely positive.
- We score grammatically correct and grammatically incorrect conversations.
- We score emoticons and slang.
- We use an automated system that lets us score millions of conversations every day.
- Our system is carefully designed to meet the specific needs of market researchers.
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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
MRA IMRO Guide #6: Social Media Research Skills
MRA IMRO Guide #7: Research Contributor Awareness
MRA IMRO Guide #8: Citing Reference
MRA IMRO Guide #9: Legal Issues
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Category conversition | Tags: Tags: annie pettit, citation, citing, conversition, guide, guidelines, imro, lovestats, market research, mra, mrx, navigating, references, reliability, smr, social media analytics, social media monitor, social media research, tessie ting, validity,
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Thursday, February 10th, 2011
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 #13 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.
manicmorff from morguefile
What data quality processes are implemented in each stage of the SMR?
Ah, we love data quality! You need a sharp eye to see all of the details that we focus on in our regular data quality processes.
Once data has been collected, we apply rigorous techniques to identify and remove many different types of spam. Keyword loading and unmoderated boards are the worst of the offendors but we vigorously seek them out. That’s how we know that British Petroleum data isn’t Blood Pressure or Basis Point data.
We also apply apply rigorous processes to both our sentiment scoring and content analysis. That’s how we know that Charlie Brown isn’t a color and that ‘what a crock’ isn’t dishes. That’s how we know that “the bomb” is a good thing to say but “ftl” isn’t.
It’s not sufficient for us to use a one method fits all system. We know that doesn’t work. So we have a one method fits all process and hundreds of individualized methods, a unique one for every client. Because we know that an average level of data quality isn’t good enough. You need data quality specific to your job.
Quality is job 1. We believe it and practice it.
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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
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Category conversition | Tags: Tags: annie pettit, citation, citing, conversition, guide, guidelines, imro, lovestats, market research, mra, mrx, navigating, references, reliability, smr, social media analytics, social media monitor, social media research, tessie ting, validity,
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Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
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 #10 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.
hmm360 from morguefile
What is the level of expertise and industry qualifications of social media researchers and/or SMR companies?
Social media research is a relatively new specialization in the industry of market research. It can be difficult for clients to understand the skills and expertise of their provider, most of whom have wildly different backgrounds.
Conversition’s number one skill is that of research. We are researchers who have built a research product. Our experience comes from decades of first hand experience as data collection providers, full service research providers, survey panel providers, and research client service. We have consulted with clients on research design and methodology, written surveys, analyzed surveys, written research reports, and presented reports to clients. We have conducted research on research including survey and incentive satisfaction, online survey data quality, and parallel studies. We know the intricate details of sampling, weighting, standards, norms, and scaling. We know research inside and out.
This extensive research background gives us unique insight into the desires and needs of researchers seeking a quantitative solution to the social media space and, as such, we have created a social media research tool that makes sense for researchers.
Conversition was built by researchers for researchers.
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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
MRA IMRO Guide #6: Social Media Research Skills
MRA IMRO Guide #7: Research Contributor Awareness
MRA IMRO Guide #8: Citing Reference
MRA IMRO Guide #9: Legal Issues
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Category conversition | Tags: Tags: annie pettit, citation, citing, content analysis, conversition, focus groups, guide, guidelines, imro, lovestats, market research, marketresearch, mra, mrx, navigating, newmr, references, reliability, sentiment analysis, smr, social media analytics, social media marketing, social media monitoring, social media plan, social media research, social media strategy, surveys, tessie ting, tessietweets, text analysis, validity,
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Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
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 #12 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.
clarita from morguefile
What is the process for gathering data?
Conversition specializes in the preparation of social media data for market research purposes. As such, a portion of our data is gathered by a third party which specializes in data collection from the internet. Data is gathered from millions of different websites including popular ones such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr, as well as very small, personal websites that may only have a few readers.
We, and our vendors, honor all website notifications regarding crawling permissions. If a website has behind the scenes coding that says ‘do not crawl,’ then we do not crawl the website. In fact, special permissions, though not required by the website owners, have been obtained to crawl and gather data from many of the major websites.
In addition, we regularly check our processes by attempting to crawl websites that we know are password protected.
We take our data collection process very seriously and hope you appreciate that.
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Related links
MRA IMRO Guide #1: Advantages and Disadvantages of SMR – The Conversition Commentary
MRA IMRO Guide #2: Datasources of SMR – The Conversition Commentary
MRA IMRO Guide #3: Data Fusion and SMR – The Conversition Commentary
MRA IMRO Guide #4: Reliability of SMR – The Conversition Commentary
MRA IMRO Guide #5: Responsibilities of Social Media Data Users – The Conversition Commentary
MRA IMRO Guide #6: Social Media Research Skills – The Conversition Commentary
MRA IMRO Guide #7: Research Contributor Awareness – The Conversition Commentary
MRA IMRO Guide #8: Citing Reference
MRA IMRO Guide #9: Legal Issues
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Category conversition | Tags: Tags: annie pettit, citation, citing, content analysis, conversition, focus groups, guide, guidelines, imro, lovestats, market research, marketresearch, mra, mrx, navigating, newmr, references, reliability, sentiment analysis, smr, social media analytics, social media marketing, social media monitor, social media monitoring, social media plan, social media research, social media strategy, surveys, tessie ting, tessietweets, text analysis, validity,
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Saturday, February 5th, 2011
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 #11 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.
mconnors from morguefile
What are the standard data and/or research outputs?
Conversition offers clients two different outputs. First, you may choose to access our specialized website portal which allows you to look at the data live and instantly create your own charts, tables, and EvoClouds. The portal also includes a number of pre-defined reports that allow you to quickly identify and analyze the important results in your dataset.
Second, you may choose to download datapaks which are very similar to survey datasets. After uploading the files to your preferred statistical software, whether it’s SPSS, SAS, SYSTAT, or QUANVERT, you then have the utimate in flexibility. You can run any assortment of crosstabs, create new variables, or cut the data by your preferred date range.
Though we often consult with our clients on the preparation of their research reports, Conversition does not, as a regular offering, offer full-service research report writing. You are the master of your category.
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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
MRA IMRO Guide #6: Social Media Research Skills
MRA IMRO Guide #7: Research Contributor Awareness
MRA IMRO Guide #8: Citing Reference
MRA IMRO Guide #9: Legal Issues
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Category conversition | Tags: Tags: annie pettit, citation, citing, content analysis, conversition, focus groups, guide, guidelines, imro, lovestats, market research, marketresearch, mra, mrx, navigating, newmr, references, reliability, sentiment analysis, smr, social media analytics, social media marketing, social media monitoring, social media plan, social media research, social media strategy, surveys, tessie ting, tessietweets, text analysis, validity,
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Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
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 #9 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.
kconnors from morguefile
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What are the controversies and legal issues regarding the rights of the people whose data is being used?
This topic is, excuse the formal language, ginormous. As researchers, marketers, and technology providers, people using social media data are still learning about the rights of people who create that data.
Some people feel that because the internet is a public space, anyone can go online and gather data from anywhere, from anyone, for any purpose, even if it takes a couple of minutes to generate a password to access the data. Some people take another extreme and feel that no data should be collected without the explicit permission of the person who has created the data.
The Conversition position falls in the middle.
We believe that password protection signals a desire for privacy. Even if it is possible to create a password and enter a site within a minute, data should not be gathered from the site.
We believe that social media data should not be shared verbatim in research reports. Verbatim comments are easily searchable online and individuals can be quickly and easily identified. Comments which may seem benign to us may be embarrassing or damaging to the person who wrote them, a person who may not have understood which types of data on the internet are and are not public.
We believe that people creating information on the internet should not be engaged with for research purposes until after they have specifically given permission to continue the contact for that purpose.
We believe that the rights of the individual come ahead of the desires of the researcher. Just as surveys and focus groups are created with the safety of the individual in mind, and this means writing non-threatening surveys and finding physically safe focus group locations, so should social media research processes ensure that the safety of the individual comes first.
The legalities of social media data collection and use still need to be determined and they will vary on a country by country basis. But, while the legalities are still being determined and after they are determined, we plan to respect the individual.
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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
MRA IMRO Guide #6: Social Media Research Skills
MRA IMRO Guide #7: Research Contributor Awareness
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Category conversition | Tags: Tags: annie pettit, controversy, conversition, ethics, imro, legal, lovestats, market research, mra, mrx, navigating, rights, social media analytics, social media monitor, social media research, tessie ting,
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Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
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: 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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Friday, December 17th, 2010
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 #6 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.
ppdigital from morguefile
What additional knowledge, skills and abilities will a corporate researcher need to learn in order to improve their level of competency with SMR?
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The leap from traditional survey and focus group skills to social media research skills is not necessarily a very large one. Many traditional skills, including sampling, weighting, norms, scaling, handling bias, accounting for statistical assumptions, and other key topics of marketing research are directly relevant and remain essential. The basic skills required of researchers are completely unchanged.
There are, of course, nuances and in this respect, researchers who have specialized in qualitative methods may find themselves slightly ahead of the game. Most qual researchers already have a good understanding of sentiment analysis and content analysis as these are essential components of the focus group, personal interview, and observational research methods. Qual researchers who already have extensive experience in manual versions of sentiment and content analysis may find they need to become more familiar with the slight differences of their automated equivalents including how grammatical errors, slang, and other normally only-human-understood elements are interpreted.
Researchers who have chosen to specialize in the quantitative side of things will have to take a larger leap. In fact, quantitative researchers are familiar with sentiment analysis but it is normally presented in the form of Likert scales where responders slot their opinions into pre-specified boxes such as “Strongly Agree“ or “Somewhat Disagree“. In the social media research case, however, quant researchers will need to spend some time learning about the processes for placing opinions into those Likert scale boxes on behalf of the responder (sentiment analysis). And, where quantitative researchers are used to creating categories of topics via a survey to which responders then provide an answer, they will have to learn how to reverse engineer that process. Thus, they will have to learn how to read an opinion and assign it to specific questions or categories such as “How likely are you to purchase this item?” on behalf of the responder (content analysis).
If you keep your eyes open, you’ll notice just how familiar you already are with this thing called social media research.
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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: Tags: annie pettit, conversition, guide, guidelines, imro, lovestats, market research, mra, mrx, navigating, qualitative, quantitative, skills, smr, social media analytics, social media monitor, social media research, tessie ting,
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