Marketing academics and practitioners struggle to understand the impact of social structure and context on WOM flow. Understanding is fundamental, not just to the WOM industry worldwide, but for all Market Researchers to contribute in understanding the most important driver of purchase behaviour: personal recommendation. The presentation addresses these questions presenting the methodology and preliminary results of a world-first research study using a Facebook application and Social Network Analysis to track offline brand-based conversations across multiple generations. The feasibility and potential pitfalls of utilising a personal social network (Facebook) to conduct research is outlined.
The potential of the web as the object of study has remained underexploited in market research. As a rich source of data on people's lives, interactions and opinions, the web offers tremendous possibilities in the years to come.This presentation illustrates the promise of this method through two 'webnographic' case studies: one among youth, examining the interests, attitudes and needs of this segment as expressed in online forums; and the second focused on feedback on a range of models launched by Nokia.