Jeffrey Hennings’s #MRX Top Ten – Calls for Improved Quality of Mobile Surveys, Qualitative Research & Gamification

By Jeffrey Henning:

Of the 1,600+ links shared on the Twitter #MRX community in the past two weeks, here are the top 10 most retweeted.

1. Follow the leaders – Research magazine, in partnership with Dollywaggon, has compiled the top 20 most influential Twitter users within market research: GreenBook Blog’s own @lennyism is #1; @lovestats is #2.
2. Unilever chasing improved qual quality with accreditation programme – Brian Tarran, writing for Research, says that Unilever is now rolling out the Qualitative Researchers Accreditation Programme in the UK. The company is seeking to certify research leads and moderators to improve the research quality of its selected suppliers.
3. Smartphone-ready respondents find research industry unprepared – Tim Macer of Meaning Ltd. points out problems with mobile surveys: “Taking a conventional web survey on a mobile device without optimizing it for mobile delivery is like trying to thread a needle in the dark. Yet this is the experience that awaits most mobile survey-takers today. We asked research firms [in conjunction with EasyInsites and Cint] what approach they took with mobiles when designing online surveys. Currently, just a tiny minority make any adjustments and most, it seems, simply hope for the best. Without attention, this trend will drive down response rates.”
4. Gamification in Market Research – Is Respondent Engagement More Important than Bias? – Edward Appleton considers gamification to be an important methodological innovation but worries that it introduces new biases. He wants to see further research on research prior to wider adoption of the techniques.
5. Three Myths about What Customers Want – The Corporate Executive Board debunks three common myths about what customers want from brands: Myth #1: Most consumers want to have relationships with your brand. Myth #2: Interactions build relationships. Myth #3: The more interaction the better.
6. Time to brush up on your social skills – Sinead Hasson, writing in Research, talks about key lessons for researchers embracing social media research: succinct communication, influencer profiling and passive online observation.
7. I was so much older then – Reflections on actual vs. perceived age from Lisa Edgar of The Big Window Consulting Ltd. and David Bunker of the BBC. Providing perceptions by perceived age helps television program producers better understand their audiences.
8. Facebook Will Disappear by 2020, Says Analyst – Sam Laird, writing for Mashable, reviews comments Ironfire Capital founder Eric Jackson, who said, “In five to eight years [Facebook is] going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared.”
9. Maslow’s Pyramid of Fatal Errors: Maslow Nice Guy, But No Scientist – Steven Reiss, Ph.D., writing in Psychology Today, highlights 3 mistakes Maslow made that invalidate his famous pyramid of needs: his categories are arbitrary and not based on research, his sequence of needs is invalid, and individuals each have their own hierarchy, which is stable for most of their life.
10. Results of a global study on cool cities, people and brands – InSites surveyed 15- to 25-year old youth around the world to learn what’s cool. Cities: New York City, London, Paris, Tokyo. People: Johnny Depp, Lady Gaga, President Obama.  Brands: Apple, Sony, Converse. Themselves: 39% think they themselves are cool!