Facebook Insights Upgrade — SPYCH Internal Thoughts & Notes

Happy Monday!

As most digital marketers now know, Facebook Insights has been upgraded.  If your content strategies are driven by what consumers are saying &/or engaging with (we hope this is everyone…), this is great news & can be a useful tool for your team!

There are many websites & blogs talking about this, mostly regurgitating what Facebook sent out in their original announcement, which you can check out here.  While working on the June social media report for Aidmatrix Digital Ball (check out this awesome, philanthropic event in November!) our team dove into the new insights, & we wanted to share our internal notes highlighting some of the updates we see valuable.  So, here they are in pretty much the same way we emailed them internally — enjoy!

• The “Overview” nav is straightforward and nothing too useful at this level (other than general updates we’re use to). That said, the sub-nav once you click into something (“Page Likes”, for example) is pretty sweet.
• From the “Overview” nav, when you click down into “Page Likes”, “Post Reach” or “Engagement” that’s when it starts to get cool. The first thing you’ll notice is how to change the dates — it’s just a slick sliding scale you simply drag with the mouse which is really convenient for assessing spikes, drops, etc. 
• Within the “Page Likes” tab at the bottom is the “Where Your Likes Came From” section. This will provide some valuable info for any brands (definitely some of our retail/resto brands) putting a lot of emphasis on mobile engagement.
• From here, you can click over into the “Page Visits” tab which is even cooler — telling you what tabs on the page people hit, breaking out check-ins really nicely & graphically representing “External Referrals”.
• Now, let’s look under the “Posts” nav. Within this, under the “All Posts” sub-nav, you can toggle the “Reach” section to a couple different options. The one I find interesting is the “Fans/Non fans” options as this shows the breakdown of your reach in great detail. You can see what was engaging within your fan base but, more importantly, what was popular outside of the current fans to then reach new consumers & grow the network.
• While we’re talking about toggling here, the “Engagement” tab has an option to show us the number of “Post Clicks”. From what I recall, we have always just been able to see likes, comments or shares, but this now allows us to show how many people clicked into the post, regardless of whether they took any action. It’s great to know how many people are technically making a click commitment to posts (where we couldn’t have known this before), but we can also dive in to see the % of how many click vs. like/comment/share, etc. All good things to dive deeper into.
• Also under “Engagement”, you can toggle this to provide an “Engagement Rate” to save time on calculating it. This also takes into account the clicks mentioned above.
• The “When your Fans are Online” tab is a cool visualization showing optimal times to post based on the page fans habits, instead of industry norms & guesstimates. 
• The “Best Post Types” is really just a clean summary of the “All Posts” section, but will definitely save some time.
• The last nav button, “People” (so there is Overview, Page, Posts, People), has all the demo information, but also has cool “People Reached” & “People Engaged” tabs which show those things as subsets of your total demo — pretty cool stuff.

If you think we missed something that could be valuable for others — or you have some tips outside of these — please let us know in the comments!

Have a great week,

The SPYCH Team

Come Visit with Us! The Future of Consumer Intelligence Event – May 14-16

Ben Smithee, our fearless leader, is the Chairman of next week’s Future of Consumer Intelligence (#FOCI13) event in San Fran!

He will be the emcee of the event, introducing many awesome speakers & running around like crazy — spending the days/nights talking shop with attendees about research, strategy & the future of the industry (#FutureOfMRX).  Ben, Katy & Landon from SPYCH will all be at the conference hotel (Parc 55 Hotel) from Mon-Thurs of next week, so please let us know if you’re around so we can set a time to meet & hopefully catch-up over a snack or a drink!

If you take the time to “SHARE” this post, we’re using this to keep track of who from our existing network is there & will buy you a beverage (coffee… or scotch) to celebrate! 🙂

Please connect with us here & help us spread this message, ensuring we all get a chance to meet up & have a bit of fun while discussing the #FutureOfMRX!

Looking forward to it,

The SPYCH Team

The #FutureOfMRX is in Fusing the Great Divide – Part 3 of 3

Happy late-January! We’re wrapping-up our blog series, so thanks for your ‘likes’, emails and feedback about the posts and about Ben’s article in VUE Magazine!

Since it has taken a few weeks – and to further illustrate how quickly the environment we live in is changing – we are concluding this series by having our fearless leader, Ben, take these predictions a bit further. This will be in a post NEXT WEEK, so check out key point #3 – Evolving Media – in the mean time. We’ll see you here next week for Ben’s recap and some exciting predictions for the #FutureOfMRX! 

To ensure you’re up-to-speed, check out the last 2 posts – The #FutureOfMRX is in Fusing the Great Divide – Part 1 of 3 and/or The #FutureOfMRX is in Fusing the Great Divide – Part 2 of 3.  Key point #3 is our focus for this week, and it is all about Evolving Media:

3) Evolving Media

As brands begin to focus more on mobility, it’s no surprise that advertising and marketing will follow and focus on the trending rise of mobility. However, it’s not only the media channel that will begin to shift; it’s also the way consumers engage with media that will evolve. The continuation of media’s becoming more web-based allows the pivot from a purely broadcast model to one that is more engaging and one that incorporates user/viewer interaction.

The socialization of journalism (whether viewed as a positive or negative) is a very real transition, and clearly something we as researchers must understand. All media will in some way become “social” media, and researchers will be tasked with helping brands understand this new arena, and with maximizing desired effect. Will traditional media measurement models like Nielsen evolve? Or, will new solutions and technologies (think: Social Media Listening) become the norm?

Though we have such a myriad of options and approaches to understanding people and their behaviors, it is the combination and hybrid utilization of these options that will power the researcher of tomorrow.

As you evaluate what research means in the future landscape, you must recognize that research has grown tremendously in scope, and its value to brands and organizations has never been greater. But, to capitalize fully on this opportunity, researchers must be willing to evolve and grow with the industry. We will be quicker to the draw on understanding new technologies and applications, yet we will not lose sight of our need to vet and evaluate opportunity and bias. It is clear that the research world of tomorrow is more complex and, in many ways, confusing. But we have many opportunities to add value, and we see researchers having a much more impactful seat at the table.

Like, comment and share (via icons directly below) while you can to make any valid points, because next week Ben gives his updated, more risky predictions!

Thanks, again,

– The SPYCH Team

Next Week  –  2/1/13  –  Updated Predictions

The #FutureOfMRX is in Fusing the Great Divide – Part 2 of 3

Last week, we kicked off our 3-week blog series looking toward the future and where the marketing research industry is heading. Thanks for your ‘likes’, emails and feedback about the post and about Ben’s article in VUE Magazine!

What’s next? For the next 2 weeks, we will be building off the first key point of focus – “Understanding through Observation” – and taking you further into our thoughts about the #FutureOfMRX! This quote from last week should get you up-to-speed on the post’s content:

In our opinion, the most valuable learnings are those that come from a point of observing behaviors and then, through dialogue, uncovering the underlying thoughts and emotive contexts behind those behaviors.

If you didn’t see it, check out last week’s before moving forward – The #FutureOfMRX is in Fusing the Great Divide – Part 1 of 3. Key point #2 is our focus for this week, and it is all about Multi-faceted Mobility.

As we continue looking forward to 2013 and subsequent years, let’s dive deeper into a few key points of focus that researchers should both understand and digest: (1) understanding through observation, (2) multi-faceted mobility, and (3) evolving media.

2) Multi-faceted Mobility

Mobile is perhaps the most important factor for the future of research and the largest contributor to why we are empowered with greater observational opportunities – although we are just now scratching the surface of what mobility brings to the game! That said, we must think much bigger than surveys optimized for the smartphone. The smallest of our multi- screen world has become by far the most important. While we still consume fragments of media through our televisions, we consume the media that drives our daily lives and actions through our mobile devices.

By learning how to navigate the world of mobility, research unlocks a plethora of understanding about consumers’ preferences, their behaviors, and the way they live their lives.

Over the next couple of years, begin to look for companies to invest really heavily in utilizing mobility for understanding. Look for things such as mobile-based communities, advancements in passive listening/tracking panels,and advancements in mechanisms for direct feedback from consumers straight to brands. We will see more and more commerce being funneled through mobile devices, as well as the integration of mobile into other arenas of media and advertising – such as second-screen applications, in-store shopping assistance, and other ways in which brands will encourage mobile usage.

The typical limitations are still applicable – for example, mobile WiFi, limited signal strength in certain regions, penetration of smartphone users and data speed – but these limitations are quickly diminishing, opening up a world of new insights for researchers to understand!

You agree? Are we missing anything? We encourage you to like, comment and share

Thanks, again for reading, and come back next week for key point #3!

– The SPYCH Team

Week 3  –  1/18/13  –  Evolving Media

The #FutureOfMRX is in Fusing the Great Divide – Part 1 of 3

As week 1 of 2013 is underway, let’s look toward the future and where the marketing research industry is heading… Most of us are familiar with the recent influx of new technologies, methodologies and theories – many of which are discussed on the Next Gen Market Research blog. Most of us are also familiar with and have recently ridden quite the economic roller coaster.

What’s next? Over the next 3 weeks, we’re diving into 3 points of focus Ben Smithee recently hit on in the December issue of MRIA’s VUE Magazine. These are our thoughts on key points we think researchers should be aware of and understand, so please read through and let us know your thoughts when you can! 

While unfortunately we have no crystal ball, we definitely have some thoughts… 🙂 There will probably be a culminating shift where the energy of the past few years of stretching, branching and exploring the new and uncharted is now focused on aggregating these efforts and skills into comprehensive solutions and approaches. Basically, as researchers continue to gain a more diverse understanding of the consumer, we will start to see things realign under a more holistic approach.

We are by no means suggesting the industry will stop growing or we will stop expanding our vision and exploring new opportunities and technologies, but we ARE suggesting that the focus of the next few years will be on bringing together all that we have learned into powerful, hybrid approaches.

As we look forward to 2013 and subsequent years, let’s walk through a few key points of focus that researchers should both understand and digest: (1) understanding through observation, (2) multi-faceted mobility, and (3) evolving media.

1) Understanding through Observation

As technology grows and researchers are equipped with more and more tools to observe behavior in real time, we will continue to see growth in the areas of research that focus on observational insights. In-depth discussions, focus groups, and other Q&A-based methods will likely still exist, but they will be utilized as supplementary methods to dig deeper into understanding the why behind observed actions.

These traditional in-person methods will also be leveraged in special niche arenas where observational techniques fall short – for example, in sensitive health-care topics, personal hygiene, and other areas where observing consumers directly will substantially bias the results. Traditional methods will also still play a heavy role in the world of advertising and messaging, as group feedback and discussion still offer tremendous value.

While many would now insert Henry Ford’s objection that ‘people would have asked for faster horses,’ we refuse to believe a keen researcher would have presented the results as ‘build a faster horse,’ and wouldn’t have dug deeper into the true consumer need state – but that’s a whole different discussion.

In our opinion, the most valuable learnings are those that come from a point of observing behaviors and then, through dialogue, uncovering the underlying thoughts and emotive contexts behind those behaviors.

Therefore, in our opinion, a researcher without some form of observational prowess (in either the physical or digital environment) will be severely limited in the future.

Do you agree? Are we missing anything? We welcome your comments, as we’re all in this together and looking forward to a successful 2013!

Thanks for reading, and come back next week for key point #2!

– The SPYCH Team

Week 2  –  1/11/13  –  Multi-faceted Mobility

Week 3  –  1/18/13  –  Evolving Media

“Cyber Monday” or “Mobile Monday”?

We made it through Thanksgiving without eating too much (although my suit was tight this morning) and survived “Black Friday” with a little technological assistance. On that note, we should point out that Black Friday online sales TOPPED $1 BILLION for the first time in history. To help you prep for next year (and for Christmas), there are a couple apps and sites someone on our team used or we know others enjoyed – and here is our quick explanation/use case:

ShopSavvy is great for comparison shopping while SnipSnap helps you to “cut coupons” and be pinged by your phone when close to stores you have coupons for. Wallaby keeps track of your rewards cards and suggests what card might be the best to make a purchase based on what rewards you will earn. Obviously, there are MANY more, but those are the ones that we directly saw/utilized and that came to mind. If you want more reviews, you know the drill – “google it”. Some big brands that did it right were Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Apple as they offered mobile couponing and other in-the-moment rewards (even some rewards for hidden items). For the record, TaskRabbit is more my (Landon’s) speed… Long story short, it lets people do your shopping for you which I will never complain about! 🙂

Okay, now it’s “Cyber Monday” which – based on what we’re projecting – will be dubbed “Mobile Monday” moving forward. We’re a research firm at our core, so we have plenty of facts, figures and detailed explanations as to why this will happen. However, for brevity purposes, we will only share 2 simple reasons:

1) It sounds better

2) Internet access is WAY too accessible (from numerous types of “mobile” devices) for everyone to just wait around until Monday

This is where we need our fellow tech geeks’ help… Below are a few options for “Mobile Monday” shopping (some mentioned above) and we need to know what we’re missing. Check out the list below and let us know if we’re missing some apps that really enhance the mobile shopping experience!

Android:

• TGI Cyber Monday
• Shop Savvy
• Deal Drop
• Amazon Mobile and Amazon Price Check

iPhone:

• TGI Cyber Monday
• Amazon Mobile and Amazon Price Check
• Shop Savvy
• Shopkick

Windows Phone:

• Shop Savvy
• Amazon Mobile

What else?

Happy shopping, and we look forward to your help in updating this list! If you need us, we’ll actually be working! 🙂

– Landon

A Baby Boomer’s Musings on Working with Gen Y

For those who don’t know me, I am Ben’s business partner, and originally invested in the start of SPYCH. Ben often quips there are some who disbelieve I even exist, so hopefully my presence at September’s Corporate Researchers Conference in Dallas and this blog entry will diffuse some of those myths! 😉

I hired Ben almost 5 years ago.  At that time, I was extremely busy with projects and needed help. I found Ben to be bright, enthusiastic, articulate and engaged –  all the qualities clients and I would want in a moderator. He had the proverbial “fire in his belly”.

Just 10 months into his tenure at DGA, Ben approached my wife Debbie and me at our kitchen table with a foundational idea that focused on Gen Y and the notion of “empathic research,” which was essentially the genesis for SPYCH.

From that point forward, since Ben was completely dedicated and devoted to developing SPYCH, I needed to find a new person to backfill his spot and help support me. On Ben’s recommendation, I interviewed Elizabeth, who was just as bright, enthusiastic, articulate and engaged as Ben was when I first spoke to him – In a relatively short period of time, Elizabeth was conducting research projects on her own and doing great work for both our pharmaceutical and CPG clients.

What can you take from my experiences?

I am often asked by my Baby Boomer peers why I was able to have two success stories with my “young hires,” while their own experiences with Gen Y employees tended to be lukewarm/ mixed at best. Upon reflection, I believe there are some things in particular to look for when hiring potential Gen Y employees/colleagues, as well as a few things you can offer to them to make your firm a “Gen Y destination” (as Ben likes to say!):

Dave’s Things to Look for When Hiring/Working with Gen Y (in no particular order):

1. Level of engagement
2. Ability to quickly establish rapport
3. Ability to think well “on their feet”
4. A high degree of inquisitiveness
5. Confidence tempered with the willingness to learn

New Twitter Header Image Great for Branding – Here’s how to do It

Twitter Profile Changes Strengthen Brand Messaging

By upgrading the aesthetic elements of Twitter profiles, they’re now providing individuals & brands with more opportunities to strengthen their branding messages in the digital space. The addition of a “Header Image” – which could be likened to the Facebook cover photo – allows users to upgrade the look & feel of their profiles. With the right marketing & creative minds at work, this will also be great for brands as they continue searching for ways to strengthen their digital marketing presence!

Header Image Ex.

How does this affect you & How do you do It?

As it stands today, Twitter isn’t pushing the new profile changes automatically. That means you can disregard this post & do nothing to keep the old profile layout if you choose to do so. However, since you’re here & have read this far, switching to the new profile layout & adding a custom header image is simple. The process is slightly different depending on whether you’re executing it through the website or using an app, so we’ll outline the steps for changing your profile through both the website & the iPad app.

From the Website:

1. After logging in, head to the profile editing page by visiting https://twitter.com/settings/design. You can also access this page by either clicking on the “Edit your profile” button on your profile page or the “Settings” (gear icon) on the right side of the top menu bar & selecting “Edit profile”, and clicking “Design” on the left menu.
2. Scroll past all the themes you’re use to seeing, & you’ll eventually see the new “Header” option. From here, you will just need to choose an image from your computer to upload as your new header.
3. Once you’ve chosen the image, you’ll have the ability to zoom or reposition it before uploading.
4. Admire your art…

From the iPad App:

1. Navigate to your profile page by clicking on the “Me” icon on the bottom of the menu on the left of the screen
2. Click the Settings gear, & select “Edit profile”
3. Select the “Header” option at the top of the menu that pops up
4. Choose an image file from your mobile device. If you have a camera on your device, it will also give you the option of taking a new photo. Just like on the website, you have the opportunity to adjust the size & positioning of the image before adding it
5. Admire your art…

Here at SPYCH, we’re always on the lookout for creative brand messaging & examples of good work. Include your Twitter handles or other great examples you’ve seen in the comments so we can check them out & show you some love!

 

– Landon

Hipsters… Can’t Live With ‘Em, Can’t Live Without ‘Em

“You are such a hipster.” “I am not a hipster. I am just me,” my sister replied, trying to be ironic (hallmark hipster trait), Her response proved my point seeing as according to The Hipster Handbook, “a hipster never admits to being a hipster,” (Lanham, 2003).  Still, I made a vain attempt to define it for her. This task was far more difficult than I had suspected…

Attempt A: A subculture of upper and middle class over-educated youth rejecting (or pretending to) social mores and norms. Attempt B: Self-proclaimed nonconformists conforming to a new set of “counterculture” rules. My sister looked at me with eyes that said, “seriously?”  Attempt C: Hipsters are defined by a certain characteristic sartorial choice including but not limited to skinny jeans, deep V-necks, scarves, messy hair, and obviously vintage-looking (emphasis on looking) handbags. Looking at her outfit, she was caught red-handed, but still appeared to disagree.  So, I resorted to the number one authority on definitions: urban dictionary.  I read this aloud: a subculture of men and women typically in their 20’s and 30’s that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter. And then, I showed her this YouTube video… I recommend it for those seeking a more comprehensive (and hilarious!) explanation of this cultural phenomena.

Hipster (Urban Dictionary): A subculture of men and women typically in their 20’s and 30’s that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter.

Now, why is this relevant to a market research blog? Well, yes ok, it involves Gen-Y, but it is more than that… The emergence of the hipster trend is indicative of a greater cultural shift towards counterculture and anti-consumerist notions. We are seeing these trends on a nationwide scale, consider the Occupy rallies as exhibit A. Or the sudden couponing craze, exhibit B. Or the reintroduction of vintage into mainstream fashion, exhibit C (Penelope Cruz in a vintage dress at the Oscars in 2009, the popularity of “Fashion Hunters” a reality show about a designer second-hand store in Manhattan). My point is these seemingly innocuous bunch have (intentionally or not) set forth ideas that have permeated the mainstream. And tapping into their buying behavior is not a task for the feeble.

Check out the approach of this Australian ad by Honda. I’d be interested to know how many hipsters actually enjoyed this ad. I would argue that non-hispsters likely enjoyed this advertisement more than the hipster demographic due to the almost-mocking use of magnified stereotypes. And the fact that many hipsters don’t have TVs. That said, take a look at this hilarious mock-up  by Kurt Snibee. While it may not be a real ad campaign, it cuts to the heart of what we as researchers must do… Take the time to understand the consumer.

As the case is with my sister and her hipster friends, often the consumer doesn’t understand him or herself.

Written By:  Margo Aaron, Research Consultant

References: Lanham, R. (2003). The Hipster Handbook. New York: Anchor Books.

Social Capital and Never Bowling Alone Again

How many hours do you spend with technology every day? Two hours?.. Eight hours?.. Think about your smartphone comfortably sitting in your jeans pocket or resting in the special pocket designated in your purse… Do “Twitter” and “Facebook” come up regularly in daily conversation? How often do you turn to your phone when you’re sitting at a traffic light, or waiting on the elevator?

Social capital refers to connections of social trust, norms, and networks that people can develop to get collective or economic results.

Without a doubt, technology has become ingrained into the daily lives of most individuals, but I can’t help but reflect on what it must have been like before this time…  The sociological book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam highlights the emphasis humans place on social interactions with others. The novel received its name from the 1950’s and 60’s fad of bowling leagues within communities, and describes the reduction in all forms of in-person social interaction – taking from Americans one of the greatest methods of enriching the fabric of their social lives. Putnam fights to highlight the declining involvement in communal organizations, which is interesting because this novel was published in 2000 – right before the spike of social networking sites online. In the short years since this was published, not only have people found a communal satisfaction through online forms of social media, but the majority of the American culture has embraced the technology wave with open arms.  Brian Solis sums up the minority to this evolving trend when he states, “Skeptics will now be recognized as laggards as they now officially stand in the way of progress” in reference to the recently released Nielson Social Media Report.

Market researchers and technology developers have recognized this shift and emphasis on consumers’ need to fill their social cravings with social sites/digital media. This was accomplished by utilizing smartphone surveys and hand held activity tracking on cell phone devices. Older generations look on to the younger generations, such as Gen Y and Millennials, and tisk at the dependence they have on their connection to their cell phone or computer. However, it may be that they’re simply not realizing the underlying innate-need for a social community, which is being satisfied with their channels of technology… They can reach out to friends and family at an arm’s length, literally.

Market researchers learned, adapted and utilized creative ways to gain this access to consumers – using smartphone surveys, hand held activity tracking, etc… If we label this as an early example of using technology to create more accessible marketing research, what is the next step in applying technology of the future to consumer research?