Using Social Media Research as a Science Experiment

Is your social media research an exercise in math or a social science experiment?


Many researchers are using social media as a listening tool, employing web crawlers that monitor all digital conversations about their brands.  They compile statistics that act as an "early warning system" for developments in the market place.  This is the math-based approach to social media research.


Approaching social media research from a science experiment mindset shows new possibilities.


What happens when you give chronic fatigue sufferers information from a holistic sleep expert?  What discussion topics do heavy gum chewers start themselves?  What are the conversations between moms on the topic of how they negotiate with their kids about what goes into school lunch bags?


We create these kinds of provocative experiments via private social networks that we set up and monitor.  


We add different elements together, create a forum and learn what unfolds.


The idea or topic that really heats things up in the social media lab has enough energy to light things up in the larger marketplace.