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Posted By:
itravin
285 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.huomah.com)
Category: Social Media
Looking at social media marketing from a pure quantitative standpoint seems almost counter intuitive and certainly misses many opportunities for lending further value to the over-all program that you are running."
3 Comments
Comments
In a way I think digital marketers have become addicted to quantitative metrics. We are so used to the complete accountability of online marketing that we may fail to respect qualitative research.
But I have long thought that social media holds immense qualitative powers. An organization that has access to a responsive online community can effectively replace market research such as focus groups and consumer panels. Furthermore, they are speaking directly to customers rather than simply members of their core demographic. Most marketers would drool over such direct access to the minds of their customers.
Exactly James... I think most marketeres suck up to quantitative metrics simply because all said and done people are still skeptical about anything online..because it is not tangible.. and so ROI and quantifiable numbers are needed to prove an online point.. and in qualitative figures we are talking about facotrs like human behaviour (like dave mentions in the post) which is hugely subjective.. its like those who understand it well will do well because of the direct reach it provides.. and others will simply go back to more definable matters..
It is interesting, as I was mentioning there are more and more major companies adopting this in the form of private online communities. What they seem to be struggling with in qual research is how to utilize the vast public networks to better understand the consumer and glean actionable information. But yes, people tend to look at quantitative measurements with a discipline that is more about branding (qualitative) than it is about conversions (quantitative). That is part of what lead me down this path... next up? Talking to some qual researchers to see where the two disciplines can assist each other.