Do you need to learn about research methodology? Want to understand types of research design? Say yes! Our Handbook will show you the steps in the market research process, teach you how to identify various types of online and social media research methods, help you develop search terms for your quest, improve your ability to find and select high-quality sources to use in your analysis, give you an excellent overview of data collection techniques online—all with the goal of helping you use technology effectively. Plus, it’s compact enough to fit into your handbag or glove compartment!
The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research Tools and Techniques for market researchers. This handbook provides a rigorous yet practical process for planning and conducting rigorous online and social media research in the areas of: consumer and customer experience measurement market research in-house training and professional development
Social media technologies have attracted substantial attention among many types of users including researchers who have published studies for several years. This article presents an overview of trends in qualitative and mixed methods social media research literature published from 2007 through 2013. A collection of 229 qualitative studies were identified through a systematic literature review process. A subset of 55 of these articles report studies involving a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Articles were reviewed, analyzed, and coded through a qualitative content analysis approach. Overall trends are presented with respect to the entire collection of articles followed by an analysis of mixed methods research approaches identified in the subset of 55 studies. The most commonly used research approaches involved collecting data from people through interview, focus group, and survey methodologies. Content analysis was the second most commonly used approach whereby researchers use Facebook posts, Tweets (Twitter posts), YouTube videos, or other social media content as a data source. Many of the studies involving combinations of quantitative and qualitative data followed a design resembling Creswell and Plano Clark’s basic mixed methods typology (e.g., convergent parallel, explanatory sequential, and exploratory sequential).
Social media are understood to be “web-based platforms that enable and facilitate users to generate and share content, allowing subsequent online interactions with other users (where users are usually, but not always, individuals)” (Social Media Research Group, 2016). Social media platforms offer an ever-expanding resource for researchers and are increasingly used to recruit participants, generate data, and disseminate findings. Social media research is used within a wide range of disciplines including media and communication, critical data studies, sociology, political science, digital civics and practice related research, among many more.
There are many different ways to use social media platforms within research and the approach taken will affect the data collection and analysis techniques chosen. For example, using social media platforms to circulate surveys and find research participants has significantly different implications to using platforms to generate quantitative user data. There are a diverse range of quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to conducting social media research.
Data generation methods include using application programming interfaces (APIs), purchasing data through official resellers, ‘scraping’ data from the website or screenshotting social media pages, to name a few (Mayr and Weller, 2017).
The type of data generated can vary widely according to the platform and purpose of the project and may include network data, tracked activities such as likes and shares, images, or screenshots from profiles (Mayr and Weller, 2017). Examples of analysis techniques used in social media research includes the coding of images and non-text data, narrative analysis of social media text, geospatial analysis and using software such as R to analyse big data.
There are many benefits associated with using social media as a research tool including the availability and volume of real-time data (such as geotagging) and the cost and time-effective nature of access when compared with other methods. Considerations of social media research approaches include the increasing governance by social media platforms, a lack of representation of populations (Ruths and Pfeffer, 2014) and the presence of automated ‘bots’ which can skew the validity of the data. These methods also provide new ethical issues to consider for example around consent, privacy, and data protection. The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods (2017) provides a useful overview of issues around ethics, data storage, related philosophies, and case studies of social media related research projects.
DESCRIPTION
Drawing together the new techniques available to the market researcher into a single reference, The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research explores how these innovations are being used by the leaders in the field. This groundbreaking reference examines why traditional research is broken, both in theory and practice, and includes chapters on online research communities, community panels, blog mining, social networks, mobile research, e-ethnography, predictive markets, and DIY research. This handbook fills a significant learning gap for the market research profession and Ray Poynter has once again proven that he is a guiding light. The practical and pragmatic advice contained within these pages will be relevant to new students of research, young researchers and experienced researchers that want to understand the basics of online and social media research. Rays views on how to be better with people and how to maximise response rates are vital clues that are likely to shape the future of market and social research. Peter Harris, National President, Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS). Its hard to imagine anyone better suited to covering the rapidly changing world of online research than Ray Poynter. In this book he shows us why. Whether you are new to online or a veteran interested in broadening your understanding of the full range of techniquesquant and qualthis book is for you. Reg Baker, President and Chief Operating Officer, Market Strategies International Finally, a comprehensive handbook for practitioners, clients, suppliers and students that includes best practices, clear explanations, advice and cautionary warnings. This should be the research benchmark for online research for some time. Poynter proves he is the online market research guru. Cam Davis, Ph.D., former Dean and current instructor of the online market research course for the Canadian Marketing Research and Intelligence Association Ray Poynters comprehensive, authoritative, easy to read, and knowledgeable handbook has come to our rescue … it is a must read for anyone who needs to engage with customers or stakeholders in a creative, immediate and flexible way that makes maximum use of all the exciting, new technology now open to us. Market researchers need to know this stuff now. I can guarantee that anyone who buys the book will find it a compelling read: they will be constantly turning to the next page in order to find yet another nugget of insight from Rays tour de force. Dr David Smith, Director, DVL Smith Ltd; Professor, University of Hertfordshire, Business School
The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods offers a step-by-step guide to overcoming the challenges inherent in research projects that deal with ‘big and broad data’, from the formulation of research questions through to the interpretation of findings. The handbook includes chapters on specific social media platforms such as Twitter, Sina Weibo and Instagram, as well as a series of critical chapters.
The holistic approach is organised into the following sections:
- Conceptualising & Designing Social Media Research
- Collection & Storage
- Qualitative Approaches to Social Media Data
- Quantitative Approaches to Social Media Data
- Diverse Approaches to Social Media Data
- Analytical Tools
- Social Media Platforms
This handbook is the single most comprehensive resource for any scholar or graduate student embarking on a social media project.
Newcastle University Library Guide – https://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/socialmedia
References
- Mayr, P., and Weller, K., (2017). Think Before You Collect: Setting Up a Data Collection Approach for Social Media Studies. In: Sloan, L., and Quan-Haase, A., (2017). The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods. London: SAGE Ch.8.
- Ruths and Pfeffer, (2014), Social media for large studies of behavior, Science, 346(6213), pp.1063-1064.
- Social Media Research Group, (2016). Using social media for social research: An introduction. (Accessed 15 January 2021) <Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524750/GSR_Social_Media_Research_Guidance_-_Using_social_media_for_social_research.pdf>
Conclusion:
The Handbook is an essential guide to online social media research for market researchers. Comprehensive, accessible, practical and jargon-free, The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research is the first book written on the subject by researchers who have already successfully used this research methodology.