Social media focus groups

People have told me over the past year that I'm obsessed with Twitter and that my obsession should be on Mahalo. Of course, I see Twitter as akin to breathing and talking for business--essential. What's the point of having over 20,000 followers on Twitter folks have asked me. Why have 5,000 friends on Facebook, or over 1,000 people on Pownce.

Why waste your time doing ustream videos? Why be a "community CEO" was the refrain from the peanut gallery. Well, here's one of dozens of amazing reasons: social media focus groups.

Today one of our designers sent me a mockup of a new "guide" page on Mahalo. The concept was simple, what if we put the search result on the right and the guide note (a mini, scanable wikipedia style article) on the left. Currently it's links on the left, content on the right for our "guides" (don't go callin' them search results now!).

So, I took total of 30 seconds to upload the photo to Flickr and twitter and Pownce the URL of the photo asking for feedback. The result? 2,755 views, 48 notes on the image (see above), and 202 comments.

In order to organize something like professionally--the old way-- you would need three weeks, five people, and would spend at least $5,000 to $25,000 depending on if you did it inhouse or with a consulting firm.

You can comment on the photo yourself here.

In words of Kanye: take this, haters!

Apr 28th 2008 5:08PM
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1. This feedback is probably pretty useful, but beware, there's a big -- dare I say huge, even? -- difference in how people explain their behavior and how they actually behave.

So, just like focus groups, this kind of feedback can be useful if evaluated for what it is: people's understanding of their behavior and not actually their behavior.

So, if you want to determine whether it will actually work BEFORE you deploy it, you'll need to watch users -- that is, usability testing -- even guerilla usability testing would be useful.

For this particular issue, which side should the guide note be on so that more people will see it, you might even consider an eye tracking study.

Just a couple cents for the hopper.

Posted at 5:50PM on Apr 29th 2008 by Rick

2. Also, it's not just about how people explain their behavior (what they do and what they say are different) but you're not getting a statistically valid sample due to Twitter users probably being more technically advanced than overall Mahalo users.

Darren

Posted at 6:53AM on Apr 30th 2008 by Darren Herman

3. As they say, the proof is always in the pudding. If Jason can leverage his (very) significant social networks to produce the desired business results for Mahalo, then it will have been time well spent (of course if Mahalo fully succeeds there would have been many other factors contributing). By contrast, if Mahalo doesn't ultimately succeed, it may well be fair to question whether too much attention and focus was devoted by Jason to the social network realm. The greatest key perhaps to success, I believe, in any endeavor is priorities, decision-making, judgments, whatever you want to call it. And that is what separates people in life -- when you consider the fact that we each have the same identical 24 hours in a day (and we're all born the same way into this world, naked and in some sense alone). Certainly, some people are given many more opportunities in life than others. But some people, from good backgrounds or poor, seem to make a lot of their own luck throughout life across circumstances, while others don't. I like Jason's statements in the past about how his own initiative has been a key to his success, and how he rewards it in his companies. I do find a few of his public statements outrageous, and beyond any intended publicity/controversy aspect that may or may not serve business goals (not all press is good press but a lot of it is I believe) I personally think that it is likely that he could become more successful still - he has already had significant success -- if he wasn't slightly abrasive at times in the past (haven't read of any recent dustups).

Posted at 8:11AM on Apr 30th 2008 by Alex Hammer

4. I take some jibes at the office for blogging, twittering and delicousing. Because when you have a large, active community like Jason does you can leverage it for amazing benefits. I'll admit the value isn't huge for me yet, but I've only really been at it for 6 months. But its growing every month.

All I do is try to provide valuable insights, write consistently, and participate in other people's conversations. The 2-4 hours a week I put might grow my community and become a unique professional asset over time.

The consist engagement keeps me well read and directs to me to form my opinions on digital marketing, which often find their way into my work at the office. Actually paying back dividends on the time I invested.

Posted at 11:04AM on Apr 30th 2008 by Greg March

5. So Meta. Is this like the network self modifying/correcting itself? Feedback loops baby, Feedback

Posted at 3:04PM on Apr 30th 2008 by bavb

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