I’m delighted to have a guest blogger today. Many of you have probably already started following my friend and fellow social web enthusiast, Bryna Jones. I’m a BIG fan of Bryna’s work, as well as the work her firm, Engine Communications, is doing up in Ontario, Canada.
Here are a few other things that amaze me about Bryna.
For one, she’s a dedicated mom with a happy kid, and that in itself is a full-time job. She somehow finds time to dive headfirst into defining, refining and publishing her own human brand online. She spends her days working in a small agency environment, and if you’ve ever been in that world, you know the type of time and commitment it takes to be successful. Now, throw in the fact that she works her butt off to help people less fortunate than her by supporting various non-profit efforts. And just to top it all off, the girl is planning an adventure to climb a really big mountain in the coming year.
Get the picture? Bryna is a hustler, so it’s no wonder that she is making waves across two countries.
She’s been kind enough to take some time to share her unique approach to using Facebook to crowd source information and build focus groups using her networks.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Bryna…
Last year, as a PR student at Loyalist College, I was challenged by my professor, Kerry Ramsay, to come up with personal vision, mission, and values statements. She asked us things that I had never put down on paper: How do you see yourself? Who do you want to be? How do others to see you?
I could cover the first two sections to some extent. (Nate knows that even now, question number two is something that I’m in the process of discovering.) Question three was a bit different though. I couldn’t answer it alone. How do others see me? Well, I’d have to ask them.
Armed only with my blind optimism, I decided to pose said question to 300 or so of my Facebook “friends.†I wrote a note. I don’t think I even tagged anyone in it. I simply stated that I had an assignment to do, needed some opinions, and left it at that. I have to admit that at the time I really didn’t “get†social media. It was in the beginning stages of my love affair with this medium, and we didn’t know each other very well. This was to be our first real encounter.
Immediately, I started to get responses. Over a span of three days, I had approximately thirty people tell me how they saw me. I mentioned my blind optimism because when you pose that question to a broad audience, you could really get almost anything back. I was lucky. People were very encouraging; very positive.
I finished my assignment with a new sense of excitement about the potential in social media to gather opinion and feedback, quickly and conveniently. Within a week, I’d posed another assignment-related question: Did my friends wear watches? If yes, why?
The stories that people gave me about their watches were astounding. Women who saw them as much a part of fashion as a good pair of shoes; men who felt naked without them; people who didn’t use a watch—cell phones were all they needed. I even had a cop tell me he still wears his Mickey Mouse watch from when he was a kid (but not to tell or it would ruin his “tough guy†persona).
What started out as a simple Facebook note became an impromptu focus group. Product research, random sample of the population (sure, a little biased in that they all know me, but still), great conversation—check! Another assignment was complete.
It’s easy enough to leave it there, but that’s really not my style. Let’s explore the implications together.
Although the concept of the marketing focus group has been around for decades, along with other modes of communication, technology has changed how we can do them. My impromptu Facebook note generated a conversation with a group of people that I couldn’t have had anywhere else. My target market was all right there. The work for me was only in posing the questions, and responding/mediating the discussion as needed. I didn’t even have to serve anyone bad coffee and stale cookies.
Whether you tweet a question to your audience, message it in a thread, or bare it all in a Facebook note, there are so many options for getting feedback—the only limit is your own creativity. For more personal issues, I’ve used the thread. For general topics a note, or the comment section on your blog, would suffice. The key is in making sure to thoughtfully respond, probe for more detail, and thank those who are willing to help you.
Of course, we must take into consideration the fact that this is not a scientific process. My target group know me personally, know my bias/motives behind asking the question; some people might not respond, others might not respond well. We all know the pros and cons.
So how valid are the results? It all depends on what you need them for.
Regardless of theoretical validity, there’s still value in gathering feedback, generating conversation, and communicating with your audience. Engaging people and building community are two aspects of this. If you’ve accomplished them, then that might be enough. As Nate mentioned on the blog before, using the North Star principle can help define what it is you want to accomplish.
Create a goal for the focus group, and then make sure you evaluate whether you reached it. What is the purpose of the conversation? Devise some measurable outcomes. How many people would you like to have participate? How many new ideas would you like to generate? Once again, the only limits placed on the discussion are yours.
Try it out. See what happens. Whether for the professional, or the personal, you have a social network—use it.
Join The Discussion!