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Social Media

Collaboration: social media tools from email lists to virtual worlds offer enormous scope for collaboration. Low-risk activities like commenting, social bookmarking, chatting and blogging help develop the trust necessary for collaboration.
At greater length: Collaboration is one of the higher goals of social networking - being able to discuss and work with people across boundaries of organisation, time and space. The tools to achieve this extend from email with attachments through web-based workspaces with messaging, file storage, calendars and other tools. With the right equipment and connections you can talk to and see each other, text, sketch and transfer files almost instantly. You can set up a workspace in a virtual world, and collaborate with other avatars. However, the conditions for successful collaboration are more human and cultural than technical, with the bottom line being trust. Bloggers maintain that the conversational and authentic tone of the medium helps create conditions for collaboration. Sharing, commenting, chatting, co-authoring allow low-risk explorations of who you would feel comfortable working with.

Conversation through blogging, commenting or contributing to forums is the currency of social networking.

Crowdsourcing refers to harnessing the skills and enthusiasm of those outside an organisation who are prepared to volunteer their time contributing content and solving problems.

Forums are discussion areas on websites, where people can post messages or comment on existing messages asynchronously – that is, independently of time or place. Chat is the synchronous equivalent. Before blogs developed, email lists and forums were the main means of conversing online. Forum discussions happen in one place, and so can be managed and facilitated in ways that blog conversations can't because these are happening in many different places controlled by their authors.

Online communities are groups of people communicating mainly through the Internet. They may simply have a shared interest to talk about ... or more formally learn from each other and find solutions as a Community of Practice . Online communities may use email lists or forums, where content is centralised. Communities may also emerge from conversations around or between bloggers. List or forum-based communities can be difficult to join up with blog-based communities because of the different ways they operate technically. *The Leading Edge manages Online Insight Communities (OIC)

Participation - or participatory - culture is used to described a way of doing things in which people use social media to share and collaborate. Using social media certainly opens up more and more ways to do that. It may encourage openness and transparency. However, the tools do not on their own create a participatory culture, because people are unlikely to commit to using them unless they are that way inclined in the first place.achieve.

ocial networking sites are online places where users can create a profile for themselves, and then socialise with others using a range of social media tools including blogs, video, images, tagging, lists of friends, forums and messaging.

ocial media is a terms for the tools and platforms people use to publish, converse and share content online. The tools include blogs, wikis, podcasts, and sites to share photos and bookmarks.

witter – microblogging tool

Web 2.0 is a term coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004 to describe blogs, wikis, social networking sites and other Internet-based services that emphasize collaboration and sharing, rather than less interactive publishing (Web 1.0). It is associated with the idea of the Internet as platform.

Source: SocialMedia Wikispace


Research glossary
Diary Methodology is a procedure which is used to compile consumer purchase data or media habits. During this procedure, respondents will be required to complete a written report which details their behaviour over a certain period.

xploratory Research is used in the early stages of the decision-making process, exploratory research is used to assess the situation in hand with the minimum cost and time possible. The process must be flexible due to the unknown quantities that may be encountered. Versatility and a wide-ranged approach to the preliminary investigation are key. The exploratory research can draw on interviews, observations, group interviews, secondary data sources and case histories.

Fieldwork  can be conducted by observation, surveys (such as face to face interviews, telephone interviews and web interviews) or experiments. It is the basic term for the live collection of primary data from external sources. Fieldwork is either co-ordinated by an in-house fieldwork department within a market research agency or an external fieldwork company. Once fieldwork has been conducted data processing is usually the next step.

Internet Research The use of internet research has grown massively over the last few years due to the increasing popularity of the internet for both business and leisure purposes. The research itself can be qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative internet research can be performed as a web-survey where the respondents reply to questionnaire-based emails. This means that with the click of a mouse, the results are back in the inbox of the researcher ready for analysis. Qualitative research can be carried out for example by setting up group forums on the internet, or by setting up group discussions using web-cams, thus mimicking the conventional group-discussion format.

Longitudinal Research is used in most instances where continuous performance monitoring is taking place which consists of repeatedly analysing a fixed sample of population elements. 

Open-Ended Question is a question to which the answer has no definite response. e.g. yes or no.

Panels A panel is a long-standing sample that is retained by a market research agency from which data can be attained. It is most useful for continuous research whereby the same set of respondents are used on a continuous basis over time.

Qualitative Research is in-depth research performed on a small scale to provide detailed in depth results and data. Qualitative research can be performed over the phone, via group discussions or through one-to-one interviews. Discussions are normally aided by using a 'topic guide' - this outlines the basic structure of the interview/group and indicates the general direction in which the interview/group should be led. Questions are of open nature as opposed to closed questions which are used in quantitative research.

Quantitative Research is performed on a far larger scale compared with qualitative research (in terms of the sample size) and helps to provide accurate statistical data from which conclusions can be drawn. Questions tend to be closed as opposed to open.

Questionnaire contains a group of questions and is used as an investigative market research tool in order to gain information from a respondent. It is used mainly in quantitative research. Questionnaires normally contain closed questions but open questions can also be included.

Research Design Also known as a market research briefing, this is a basic plan which guides the data collection and analysis phases of the research project. It acts as a framework which details the type of information to be collected, the data sources and the data collection procedure.

Research Report The research report is the compilation of findings from a piece of research. These findings are normally presented in the form of a report or a Powerpoint document.

Respondent A respondent is the person whose views and opinions are required by the researcher.

Sample In research terms, a sample refers to a group of interviewees or respondents who are chosen to represent the population as a whole. The sample provides the data within the market research project.

Survey The systematic gathering, analysis and elucidation of information about any aspect of study. In reference to market research it specifically applies to the gathering of information through processes such as sampling or interviews with selected candidates, respondents or interviewees.

Validity in reference to market research is concerned with whether the purpose of the research was fulfilled accurately.
Source:marketresearchworld.net


Insights an insight is a significant human truth that can be leveraged for business growth. Our approach to developing insights goes beyond consumer research alone because it includes brand and competitor understanding.
Source: The Digital Edge