Facebook for Focus Groups? 7 Reasons Why Perhaps Not (at least yet)
Will Facebook replace research-oriented platforms like QualBoard and i-Tracks for asynchronous discussions with groups of pre-recruited participants? While nice in theory, here are 7 reasons why using Facebook for research is not yet on par with research-specific platforms
I was getting excited about using Facebook to host a 6-month project with a group of 20-somethings . . . I knew my audience would be there every day, they were familiar with the platform and used to interacting with others in that environment , so what a perfect setting – right? But then reality set in:
1) Even with the most private group setting selected (“secret group”), members can still add their own friends to the group without needing approval from the admin. Apparently “secret” just means that no one can find the group on their own, they need to be invited to join by someone already in the group.
2) Content ownership? I doubt Facebook would do anything with it . . . certainly wouldn’t be good for PR if they did! . . . but do they really own the ideas that are generated in the group discussion I lead on their platform for my client?
3) No indents in multi-level threads makes it difficult to follow-up with probes and track the flow of the responses. This is true for all FB discussions so not a surprise, and ok if you want free-flowing, open discussions about broad topics, but problematic if you want to be more specific and targeted in your questioning.
4) Tracking the conversation gets disjointed because it is easy to post on the wall, use private messaging and instant group chat – but there is no way to bring those back together to keep track of what was said. And no transcript tool . . . and no way to track any behind-the-scenes conversations between participants.
5) No automated way to let participants know which questions they still need to answer.
6) Participants have to start a new thread if they want to post photos in response to a question. (May or may not be an issue depending on the kinds of Qs you want to ask.)
7) Managing the participants is time consuming as there isn’t an easy way for the moderator to track who has answered what questions, who has logged in, etc.
Unfortunately FB doesn’t seem to have much in the way of customer service so I’m still trying to find out if there are work-arounds for any of these issues. I really want to make this work! Anyone have solutions?
Susan Abbott says:
June 22nd, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Really interesting challenge! I have been hearing from people that you can do this on FB, but clearly they haven’t actually done it, as you have. Some of the challenges one might live with, but others are very problematic — e.g. no transcript download.
Did you ever consider inviting people to a NING group? (Not sure if those are still free…)
Were you also sourcing people from FB?
thanks for an interesting read!
NanBurgess-Whitman says:
June 29th, 2011 at 9:46 am
Thanks for this, Dorrie. It brings to the forefront what lots of people are wondering, gee, why not just do it on Facebook? I, for one, am extremely skeptical its even a remote possibility… given all the reasons you stated and then some. Facebook is just not the protected, robust forum we need in qualitative MR (I have similiar opinions about Second Life platforms). Reporting and analysis plays a huge role, and our online providers have proven tools that help with efficiency and accuracy of data collection. Facebook should remain what it is, a social forum. Let’s not push structure onto a product that is designed with another purpose in mind, otherwise Qualitative Market Research done on Facebook becomes a watered down effort.
Linda Stegeman says:
June 29th, 2011 at 10:39 am
Hi Dorrie and Susan,
Artafact bulletin boards are built on ning with proprietary tools for exporting content, etc. You can even recruit directly from Facebook. All of the issues noted above with Facebook are not issues with ning. Ning is no longer free but has gotten significantly better since they launched a few years ago. Feel free to contact me for more information.
thanks,
Linda
Liz Cooke says:
June 29th, 2011 at 11:00 am
The only suggestion I have addresses item 1 – rather than using a facebook group, could you use a facebook event? It provides the same platform – a wall on which all invitees may write, but it has greater privacy settings. You can restrict access to the event page to those people who have been invited, and restrict it further so that invitees cannot invite their friends. Interesting questions! Good luck!
Woody Youngs says:
June 29th, 2011 at 11:37 am
I recently moderated a virtual leaders’ meeting on our Scout Troop’s FB fan page and can appreciate the issues you cite. I limited the window of discussion to 29 minutes and managed the thread on a discussions tab established for that specific purpose. It was reasonably workable. The challenges I had were: (a) when the discussion tab filled up (it spilled to a 2nd page with about 25-30 comments), the participants – 7-8 people as we would often see for groups – were not able to see the newest comments easily/quickly, and (b) getting participants to record comments ONLY in the discussion tab (rather than using live chat). I attribute the latter to the page display issue. After trying this format then talking live with the participants, I learned that their view of the FB discussion tab page simply was not refreshing quickly enough once the first page filled. That might be a user settings issue (frequency of refresh) or a constraint of FB, I don’t know yet. Otherwise, participants’ feedback was very positive. I will definitely try this a few more times with this volunteer group before considering offering the option to paying clients.
Also, Susan… If you develop the dialog in a discussion tab rather than on the main page, you can copy and paste content out to Word – so you can can have a transcript.
Thanks for the article and discussion.
Michel Floyd says:
June 29th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Using fb as an online qual tool is definitely a stretch. It obviously wasn’t designed for that. A facebook app that lets you leverage the underlying social network but provides moderation, access restrictions, transcripts, stimulus, etc… would be a lot better.