The document discusses the evolution and future of social media research, highlighting the shift towards more accessible and rapid data collection and analysis. It emphasizes the importance of engaging with audiences and using social media tools to gather insights while addressing challenges such as privacy concerns and the changing landscape of market research. The author encourages organizations to start leveraging these tools now and to experiment in safe environments to maximize learning and success.

1. The Future of Social Media Research
Alistair Leathwood, MD– FreshMinds Research
7th April 2011

2. Looking for Mr Right – a love story
Moral – there’s a lot of info out there

3. Who are we?
Research + Social Media
Twice named MRS Social business consulting
agency of the year

4. Ask the audience
Who uses facebook?
Who’s written a review?
Who’s read a review?
Who’s ordered anything online?
Who tweets?
Who’s posted a question on Quora?
Who has a refinery on their FarmVille?
Is it everyone?

5. TINA

6. Social search
Like
>3Bn /day

7. Realtime, offline and online
“There is a lot more
information per unit of
NOW than there was
before”
Nova Spivack

8. Blurred boundaries – everyone is a researcher
Photo: shoothad

9. Blurred boundaries
FreshMinds vs FreshNetworks?
Push polling
Sugging

10. The end of market research?

11. ...or the salvation?

12. What do we do?
solicit
create
We collate information
validate
analyze
deliver
Thanks to Tom Ewing, Kantar

13. Free tools!

14. Professional tools
Power ed by

15. There’s lots of this
Themes Sites Sentiment

16. Its complicated
Benchmarking / Level of support Syndicated /
Customer service
coverage required Custom data sets
Language
Services Spidering capability Pricing
coverage
Usability of Reporting
Flexibility Speed of analysis
dashboard capabilities
Need to real-time Research Data extraction
Workflow
data objectives capabilities
Power ed by

17. So how is it playing out?
Listening Engagement

18. Rollercoaster
Our journey with social media research has been a bit of
a rollercoaster

19. But now … We generate genuine insight:
quickly, cheaply and build advocacy

20. And we build real communities

21. “The future is here.
Its just not evenly distributed yet”
William Gibson

22. The future future
Privacy backlash
More communities
Gamification
Social CRM
Monetisation of access
... and of Opinion

23. What should you do?

24. 1. Start now
If not now, when?
If not you, who?

25. 2. Don’t fail to prepare ...
Success is the ability to go
from one failure to another with
no loss of enthusiasm
Winston Churchill

26. 3. Dip your toe

27. 4. Do it in a safe environment

28. 5. Learn

29. Thank you
Any questions?
> alistair@freshminds.co.uk
> Twitter: @aleathwood
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