With the reduction of in-person research techniques in the current COVID-19 environment, online research has taken center stage. While it may seem new and unusual to some, Phase 5 has been leveraging online tools and methodologies for many years, and has deep experience that helps its clients maximize results. Read on to learn more about best practices for online research communities.
How to Keep Online Community Participants Engaged
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What is an online research community?
Online research communities - sometimes called online bulletin boards - are private online groups in which participants complete activities, engage in interactive discussions with other participants and respond to moderator comments. They tend to be structured around a specific topic, have a set duration (a period of days or weeks), are asynchronous (i.e. members do not participate in real-time, but can login periodically to provide their feedback), and are usually qualitative in nature, but can include simple quantitative components (e.g. quick polls, ranking exercises, grid questions).
When to use an online research community?
Online research communities can be used to help with a wide range of business issues that require qualitative research, such as: product and service development, communications and creative testing, ideation, customer journey mapping, pilot testing, self-ethnography, voice of the customer, and employee engagement.
Online research communities have always been an effective, convenient and cost-beneficial research approach for gathering balanced, thoughtful and in-depth feedback from geographically dispersed and sometimes ‘hard to reach’ audiences. The COVID-19 pandemic has only emphasized the benefits and usefulness of online research communities at a time where in-person research is not feasible.
At Phase 5, we have many years of experience conducting online research communities for our clients. Over the years, we have developed some best practices on how to make them successful.
Best Practices
Let’s say you’ve just recruited 30 participants for a 2-week moderated online community and are ready, set to go with your research questions - but two weeks is a long time and it’s easy for participants to lose interest, fall behind or drop off. So, how do you ensure to keep your participants engaged? Here are some best practices that we’ve found helpful in our experience:
Incorporating these practices will ensure you have a more engaged research audience.
If you want to leverage an online community for your business needs, please reach out to us at info@phase-5.com.