Empirical

Case Study: Why Cell Phones are Annoying

Research does not always have to involve a testing center or fancy questionnaire. It can be quite simple. The following is a brief overview of a study that used a simple research method.

Andrew Monk and his colleagues from the University of York conducted simple research by staging cell phone conversations in front of commuters who were either riding a train or waiting for a bus.

In half of the tests, two actors had a conversation face-to-face. In the other half, one actor talked on a mobile phone. In addition, half of the conversations were held at a level of normal loudness while the other half were louder.

The commuters did not know they were part of research, because knowing in advance would affect the way they viewed the staged conversation.

The results showed that most of the research participants said cell phone conversations were more annoying than face-to-face conversations, even if the cell phone conversations were held at a normal volume level.

In this case, researchers used a simple method to find the desired information. This and other types of simple research are both easier and less expensive to conduct.

Think outside the box. Maybe simple research will work to find the information you need.

Empirical

A focus group is empirical research. To experiment, or directly observe a situation is to conduct empirical research and gain information for your study. Focus groups can be used to answer a question or test a situation/hypothesis and is a form of primary research. A focus group is highly insightful as observation is a pure encoding of an audience’s reaction to something. For many categories or research projects involving an emotional stimulus (which many do), first hand observation and empirical research is the best way to study and analyze your audience as they experience your research project.

The Death of Social Media

Social media has become an extremely common channel on the internet. With the introduction of sites such as Facebook and Twitter, there has been an increase in number of users. Along with the number of users that are entering the conversation, there is a tremendous amount of marketers who are cashing in on the new opportunity to connect with their audience.

Although all types of social media started out as wonderful, useful ideas, the newness has worn off a bit. There are many reasons why individuals have become less involved with social media. Some reasons include the fact that spam is permeating quite a bit. Hackers have started to enter the world of social media, too. Also, the wearing down of one’s privacy has become a problem due to the terms of use of some sites.

These negative aspects of social media have led to its slow demise. Although the channel is still very popular, there is one thing that is making the market lose its appeal very quickly: marketers.  Marketers, as stated before, make an effort to reach a great number of users, but this has become a problem. It is possible for marketers to use the channel to further their brand or idea, but it is essential that they use it properly. Overusing the channel is something that marketers often make the mistake of doing. It is this invasion of marketers that has impacted users in a negative way. If marketers are not mindful of the way in which they use the channel, in two years social media will be a dead channel.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/22/facebook-twitter-linkedin-technology-cio-network-social-media.html

Blogs

Using blogs for research is easy to do, and in this new social media world it is a highly effective sampling of a given audience. Conducting research using a blog is a quick and efficient way to export questions and receive answers. This form of primary research is perfect for opinion surveys and gauging an audience’s attitude on a particular subject easily and efficiently. One must carefully select which blog site he or she uses to conduct research. With such a wide variety of blogospheres, some blogs have previously segmented audiences that could hinder research on a specific topic. Be sure to use a blog geared toward the topic of research one is conducting, or situate the research in a general, broad blog- such as WordPress, that won’t down size an audience before they receive the research message.