Wordless Wednesday: Women in Social Media

Research with Rob: When is a Panel Better Than a Focus Group?

The following is a post by Rob Beachy, Axiom's Market Research Expert. This is the first "Research with Rob" post, which will be a weekly series of posts about different issues involved with market research.

What is your goal with market research? If you have a product or service that has or could have a diverse demographic, and you want more than a two hour snapshot, then panels are the best alternative to long term market success.

Panels come in all sizes and types from in-person to online but it is imperative to understand the benefits of a panel.

1. Panels provide insight over a longer span of time providing the end-user more time to understand the product or service, its features and benefits, as well as providing the ability of the participant for more detailed likes, dislikes and new ways to use and improve your product or service.
2. They are a living conduit of information and feedback from quality to maintenance, warranty and service information.
3. They allow the marketing and technical teams more “time” to ask questions, potentially observe their product or service in use, and make changes or adjustments in the product or service to measure the end-user reactions.
4. They can provide all the qualitative benefits of a focus group and more.
5. Provides a larger, more diverse and often statistically significant sample to make better marketing and business decisions.

Costs per respondent are often the same a focus groups, but the value is much greater. If you are serious about gaining more insight into the use of your product or service, email or call us at (952) 224-2939.

Google Chairman Draws Line in the Pseudonym Sand

Opinions are split on the idea of using real names online, with many questioning the security risks that come with it.

Accordingly, most social networks simply require usernames that aren't actual names themselves. Even sites that urge the use of real names, like Facebook, still have ways to get around the real-name issue.

However, Google recently created a stir by suspending Google+ accounts that didn't use their real names.

Naturally, those whose personal brands were built on fake names (pseudonyms, blog names, etc.) were up in arms over the exclusion. However, I personally felt this issue would go through the same phases that practically all of these social media controversies do:

1. Polarizing decision by company
2. Angry mob of users
3. Retraction and resolution by company

Basically, when users start making a lot of noise, the social networks eventually makes concessions.

Not so in this case. In fact, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt was recently interviewed, more or less saying the if you don't like their policy, then don't use Google+. It's definitely not the typical fence-straddling corporate-speak we tend to get in response to contentious decisions, but it is a firm line the Google is drawing in regards to the use of real names online.

Either way, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out as Google+ continues to push for social networking legitimacy.

Idea Flight takes off: Utilizing iPads in Presentations

I was recently part of a client meeting, where three out of the six present used an iPad during the meeting. The other two had their laptops open to PDF versions of our presentation. Meanwhile, we had spent time and money on printing large, colorful reports to pass out.

This got me thinking: what if our meetings became digital? What if there was a way to save all that paper and ink, and just have colleagues follow along on tablets or laptops? Not only would this be a more economical and eco-friendly option, but think of all the multi-media options you could easily include.

I soon stumbled upon an iPad app developed by none other than the magazine publisher Condé Nast, called Idea Flight. The app, which has been downloaded 85,000 times since its launch in June, let’s one person (the pilot) control up to 15 users’ (the passengers) iPad screens remotely while running through a presentation. This allows the pilot to control what slide is being shown at one time, and keeps it all in sync. It is supported over a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection, and can be unlocked at the end of the presentation so that users can go back and revisit certain slides.

With the use of iPads and applications like Idea Flight, office presentations could be taken to the next level with a streamlined way to control speed and user engagement. Instead of pulling up a projector and tinkering with stagnant graphics at your next meeting, think of using an iPad to make links, videos, and illustrations come to life.

While iPads come with a steep price tag, their ease of use, transportation, and flexibility offer pretty enticing perks. However, if iPads are not a viable option, most people own a laptop. With a cloud-based presentation, everyone could follow along on their computer. Thus saving paper, time, and creating a more meaningful presentation. I will look more into cloud-based presentation apps in my next Daily Axiom.

Photovine App Grows A Photo Story

Google recently went live with a new picture sharing application for iPhone called Photovine. The app offers users a way to share pictures in categorized threads called vines. These vines have themes such as “sunsets” or “sleeping cats” as determined by the original creator. Users then take a picture that matches the theme and adds it to the vine, thus creating a growing photo story. Hence the apps tagline: “Plant a photo, watch it grow.”

Users can add comments, "like" photos and see vines in either a single, slideshow format, or grid view. There are also three different ways to sort the vines: Fresh, popular and watching. Users can also find and follow address books, as well as Facebook and Twitter contacts. Because anyone can upload to vines and view photos, the app can feel a little impersonal, which is why the “Activity” tab is nice. It shows all new photo-related activity from friends, making the app a little more intimate.




I am surprised to learn that Photovine is so far an Apple exclusive app. There’s no Android app yet, which is a curious move to say the least. Google doesn’t usually exclude its own mobile platform with new product launches. Also perplexing is the exclusion of an option to add your Gmail contacts. Is Google just playing nice with Apple fans? Why exclude its own services?

I have no doubt that Google will launch an Android version of the app soon, but until then, Apple bears the fruit of this "vine".