Social Media for the Win

After reading through numerous blogs from my classmates this week, I noticed a common trend: social media being used for qualitative research.  I found this interesting because I clicked through blogs at random and many of them had to do with conducting qualitative research using social media sites such as Facebook.

Katerina's Blog talked about her favorite show, Glee!, the positive response from fans of one of the main characters.  Katerina said that she had heard things about this actresses personality and wanted to see what her fans thought of her.  She conducted qualitative research by going to the fan page of this actress and reading the
comments about her and found the rumors she heard to be false.  Katerina also made a good point in saying that people may feel more free writing their feelings and opinions on social media sites because its the world wide web.  Everyone expresses their feelings on the internet so it is a prime oppurtunity for organizations to see what is truly being said about their brand.

Laura's Blog also dealt with qualitative research and social media.  What I liked about Laura's blog was the link that she posted.  It provided the reader with message boards about celebrities and people and go and post thoughts and opinions about celebrities on their specific message board.  I never knew such a site existed.  This can be extremely useful for publicists to see what is being said about their clients, good or bad.

The reason that I find it so interesting to use social media as qualitative research is the fact that I did not even think of it.  I always saw qualitative as a formal word and therefore expected formal research studies such as focus groups and interviews.  While writing last weeks blog I was trying to think of creative ways to conduct qualitative research and while using social media may not be considered creative among some, it is an over-looked media outlet and for that reason, and I feel organizations that choose to use it are creative.