Virtual Ethnography: Bridging the Gap between Market Research and Social Media

Virtual Ethnography:
Bridging the Gap between
Market Research & Social Media

#sm2ROIseries

Jen Cardew Kersey @JenKersey
John Song @JohnSong

thinkintrepid.com

OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION
#sm2ROIseries

Defining Virtual Ethnography

@ThePeeps: A Case Study

Virtual Ethnography in Market Research

Q&A

© INTREPID, An Alterian Company
2
2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

STEPS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING
#sm2ROIseries

3

The Basics
DEFINING VIRTUAL
ETHNOGRAPHY

4

WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHY?
#sm2ROIseries

Ethnography is a research methodology rather than just a data collection
technique. It is unique in its:

Data
Approach Analysis
Collection
• Open mind • See it from • Theoretical
• Objectivity their POV frameworks
• Adjustments • Experience it • Deep dives
as needed • Use multiple • Brainstorms
methods • Client
• Spend as involvement
much time • Going back
as needed into the field
• What they if needed
DO vs. what
they SAY

5

AND VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY?
#sm2ROIseries

Virtual ethnography, like it‟s offline counterpart, ethnography, is a research
methodology rather than a data collection technique

•Ethnography of a virtual space (one website or more)
•Ethnography of a group of people (across many websites)
•Ethnography of a topic (across internet & can include many groups)

Online, you can explore:

•Public vs. Private conversations
•Communities of people
•Influencers and extreme individuals
•Individuals

6

WHAT CAN VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY EXPLORE?
#sm2ROIseries
Virtual ethnography
Public
Discussions (in
stores, talk IM
Social
shows, radio
shows, etc.) Networking
Sites
Blogs/
Microblogs

Peer

Private
Conversations On the Web
evaluation
sites
Discussions
(with family,
being had by (Combination
of public,
friends,
spouses)
members of a private and
semi-public)
Multimedia
(YouTube,
community Podcasts)

Newsgroups

Semi-public Message
Discussions Boards
(at work, in the
restroom, while Chat rooms
shopping, etc.)

© INTREPID, An Alterian Company 2
7

WHAT MAKES VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY DIFFERENT
#sm2ROIseries

Versus

• Research questions guide the process
• Iterative process
• Cultural understanding defines keywords
• Contextualizing snippets
• Hand collected & software collected data
• Analyzed by software & researchers

8

Virtual Ethnography in Market
Research
THE APPROACH

9

@THEPEEPS VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY
#sm2ROIseries

Four week study that combined Social Media monitoring with virtual ethnography in
order to identify how people were talking about Peeps online, a deeper
understanding of their costumers, and opportunities for the Peeps brand

• Seasonal • Not as seasonal
Traditional Culture

Fan Culture
• “Intended” usage • Inventive & creative usage
• Strong feelings of nostalgia • Hobbies & entertainment
or hate • Media (& conversations)
• Conversations • Dioramas
• Colors • Microwave videos
• Shapes • Photographs all over the
• Flavors world
• Ways to eat them

10

DEFINE THE PROBLEM
#sm2ROIseries

articulate a clear and actionable brief that creates a framework for the
insight – the problem can be about a population or a specific topic (for
instance a product) or online space

FIND THE PEOPLE

define the participants that can most effectively shed light on the
questions

PLAN THE APPROACH

agree on an agenda that includes the mode of data collection – this keeps
the team focused during data collection but is flexible enough to allow for
ad hoc opportunities and paths
11

COLLECT THE DATA
#sm2ROIseries

leverage social media monitoring tools, like SM2, to help you collect and
manage the vast amounts of data available on the social web & hand
collect data as needed

Qualitative Research
Desk Research Participant
Interaction
Observation

• Basic facts & figures • Lurk to get a feel for the
• Lay of the land culture
• Competitor ecosystems • Do not disturb the culture by
• Background information the presence of a researcher,
a focus group facility, a
discussion guide, etc.
• Interact with questions with
the permission of the group

12

COLLECT THE DATA: USING SM2
#sm2ROIseries

•Search terms were added Using SM2 to "Peeps Show" AND "chick" "Peeps" AND
"Peeps" AND "microwave" "dancing"
as the researchers learned collect data from "Peeps" AND "Serious "Peeps" AND "test*" AND
more about the cultures all social media Eats" AND "mockery" "marshmallow" "Peeps"
"Peeps" AND "diorama"
platforms with the AND "game" "Peeps" AND "toy*" AND

•Social media monitoring following search "Peeps" AND "Washington
Post“
"marshmallow" "Peeps"
AND "Easter“
tools make the data terms: "Peeps" AND "Peep off" "Peeps" AND "travel" AND
"Peeps" AND "product" AND "chick"
quantifiable "Ann Arbor" AND "Peeps" "bunny" "Peeps" AND "Peeps" AND "experiment*“
"Peeps" AND "forum“ "purse*" "Peeps" AND "website"
"Peeps" AND "geek*" "Peeps" AND "recipe*" AND "marshmallow"
“Peeps" AND "community“ "Peeps" AND "color" AND "Peeps" AND "factory tour”
"Peeps" AND "gift" AND "taste“
"basket" "Peeps" AND "research"
"Peeps" AND "haiku" AND "expand" "Peeps" AND
"chicks" AND "Peeps“ "cooking*" AND
“bunnies” AND “Peeps” "marshmallow"
"Peeps" AND "holiday*" "Peeps" AND "seasonal"
AND "marshmallow" "Peeps" AND "cosmetics"
Total results
"Just Born" AND "candies" AND "marshmallow“ found are:
AND "peeps" "Peeps" AND "song*"
"Peeps" AND "jousting" "Peeps" AND "culture*"
16,414 results
"Just Born" AND "candy" AND "marshmallow“ within date
AND "peeps" "Peeps in "Peeps" AND "spoof*"
Places" AND "marshmallow"
range: 3/22 –
"Peeps" AND "Peeps" AND "dance" 4/6
"marshmallow" "Peeps" AND "stationery"

13

TAKE IT OFFLINE
#sm2ROIseries

validate your findings through more traditional methods like focus groups;
this also gives you the opportunity to compare and contrast what is found
online and offline (which can sometimes be surprising!)

Large amounts of data
Participant Hypotheses
Observation
Theories
Interacting Etc, etc.

Test hypotheses and verify theories:
In-depth interviews
Focus groups
Day-in-the-life-of
Etc, etc

14

ANALYZE AND INTERPRET OPPORTUNITIES
dive into the insights with workshops. In the end, tell stories with a clear
set of „A-Ha‟s and next steps)

Day-in-the-
Personas life-of

Slideshow of
artifacts
Who Segments of
conversations

Analysis of Topic and
sentiment How What word
frequencies

Analysis

Why When
Conversation
analysis Events

Where
Contextualize Time analysis
conversations of
conversations
List of hot
Ecosystem
sites
15

ANLAYSIS THROUGH AN ETHNOGRAPHIC FRAMEWORK
#sm2ROIseries

Fan culture is the culture made up of fans of brands & products. These
fans create art, which takes a variety of forms, from the products that
they love so much. Fan culture represents the love of the product as
well as the comradery amongst the fans.

Identity &
Involvement Belonging
&
Performance

Knowledge

Fan Culture
16

ANALYZE : TRADITIONAL VS. FAN CULTURES
#sm2ROIseries

The fan culture audiences express themselves online through video &
photos whereas the traditional audience is more likely to have written
conversations online

Traditional Culture conversations share of voice
5088
3115
1627 1581 1362 509 24

Microblog Blog Mainstreams Forum Social Network Video/Phot Wiki

1203

774

482
347
153 123
26

Video/photos Microblog Mainstreams Blog Social network Forum Wiki

Fan Culture conversations share of voice
17

ANALYZE: THE TRADITIONAL CULTURE
#sm2ROIseries
“Peeps are amazing...
and as bill said, stale ones are very good too!
They're great if you put 'em in the microwave for
like 15 seconds and let them get soft and big,
then eat them!”
<Bobby Gratz> (I Hate Peeps! - Facebook)
Ways to eat
Peeps

Peeps favorite
Are Peeps just for
colors and
Easter?
shapes

“@JenOgden *handing you a pink, chick PEEP*
“My opinion on peeps varies. I used to Traditional Enjoy & Happy Easter!!! (I like the purple bunny
loved them - stale - now not so much. But I Culture Peeps Peeps) teehee”
love them toasted/roasted. Mmmm!
Perfection. I don't know if I'll be eating any conversations http://twitter.com/DDubsTaraATL/statuses/11
this time. I haven't eaten candy in about a 543969430
month …”
<jenjie>
(“I have to ask--peeps or no peeps the
marshmallow-y things” -
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com )

18

ANALYZE: DEEP DIVING INTO FAN CULTURE ACTIVITIES
Peeps in microwave No Other Taste
190 YouTube videos and still counting reason 6% better
12% 9%
The number of views for these videos
Fun
are 2,841,589; with 11,213
54%
comments. Gross
19%

peeps are gross. they deserve that
(AndrewKalember – YouTube
audience)

oh my gosh that looked so gross but
FUNNY!!! XD though i feel bad for
them now. i microwaved a peep and it
almost exploded the fluff came out
the side..... i'm gonna post it XD XD
as soon as my computer lets me
(MewBerrylvy – YouTube audience)

video “Three PeepsRIGHTS RESERVEDIn A Microwave Oven” (745 comments)
© INTREPID 2010 ALL In A Basket... 19

ANALYZE: FAN CULTURE & MICROWAVES, WHY DO THEY DO IT?
#sm2ROIseries

Inexpensive
on clearance

Taste better Hobby

Microwave Peeps

Curiosity Dislike Peeps

Easter time
(non religious) Entertaining
ritual

20

SHARE THE INSIGHT: FAN CULTURE PROFILE
#sm2ROIseries

finally, work hard to make the outputs accessible, engaging, and
meaningful

Shelly S is a female librarian from New York

She has 57 peeps photos which attracted 5945 views in
total. And all of these photos are classified as fan
culture

The concept of her photos are toys/food diorama
21

ANOTHER MAIN STREAM BRAND WITH A FAN CULTURE
#sm2ROIseries

Traditional Culture Duck Tape duct tape is a great Fan Culture
example of a company
embracing the naturally
occurring fan culture and
making a profitable product
that appeals to the fan culture
population without disrupting
the traditional consumers.
Sales go through different
http://members.socket.net/~llile/ConcreteStain/Concrete_
Stain.html
channels

© INTREPID, An Alterian Company http://yuni-
22
2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED promdresses.blogspot.com/201
0/03/duct-tape-prom.html

SHARE THE INSIGHT: RECOMMENDING NEXT STEPS
#sm2ROIseries

How can the fan culture of Peeps be
leveraged by the brand?

How can we reach
What are they doing? Who are these people? them?

What draws
Why do they What do they Online Social In-store
Seasonal Year-Round Projects them to the Events
like Peeps? need from us? Media Products
culture?

Merchandise that Just Born can create around the Peeps brands that will serve
the Fan Culture while not disrupting the Traditional Culture

23

ADDITIONAL VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY USAGE
#sm2ROIseries

True brand
Market Analysis Messaging
sentiment
•How people •Listening to •How people
are learning consumer talk about the
languages conversations brand when no
online (positive & one is asking
•If a traditional negative) them
offline about the •Influencers,
publisher has product communities,
an opportunity •Testing individuals
in online messages with •Contextualizing
products offline focus this with offline
groups conversation

24

Intrepid, An ALTERIAN Company
WWW.THINKINTREPID.COM

25

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Jen Cardew Kersey has had an interest in virtual
ethnography since finishing up her MS degree in
applied anthropology at the University of North Texas.
She has since discovered an unrealized love for
market research. Jen has been involved in various
virtual ethnography projects and has presented her
findings to a variety of audiences.

John Song was founder and CEO of Intrepid
Consultants , which was recently acquired by Alterian
. At Intrepid, he worked to provide actionable insights
from social media data. Before his days at Intrepid,
John founded a web analytics consultancy that was
later sold to the digital agency Ascentium . Prior to
that, he was a minority co-founder and managing
director (EMEA) for Noetix , a business intelligence
software company. http://meetjohnsong.com/
26

How can you use virtual ethnography to
gain insight for your marketing needs?

#sm2ROIseries

Jen Cardew Kersey @JenKersey
John Song @JohnSong

thinkintrepid.com

VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY FAQs

Research • Determine which methodologies will be best suited to inform
and answer which research questions – virtual ethnography is
questions well suited to at least inform most research questions

Determine where • Intrepid‟s research team is able to apply their expert knowledge
of the internet and culture to help navigate the abundance of
to go info online

Participate and • Intrepid knows what types of conversations need to be captured,
where we should participate and what should be represented in
observe the sample

Determine what‟s • It takes skill and experience to wade through abundant amounts
relevant & of information and not become biased. It‟s significant if it might
significant answer a research question

Collect & • Intrepid organizes a representative sample of artifacts
organize (multimedia) in an online catalog to aid analysis and to be used
artifacts as an on-going living archive

Knowing what‟s • Just like any other qualitative method, a trained researcher will
know when they have enough data- new themes will stop
enough emerging and the researcher intuition kicks in

© INTREPID, An Alterian Company 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 28

Virtual Ethnography: Bridging the Gap between Market Research and Social Media

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