Comments on: Are You Driving Your Research or is Your Research Driving You?

By: Medisoft

Medisoft — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:53:42 +0000

Not to defend him, but his point might have been that although Coke C2 didn’t make it, it was something he heard of, probably simply because of the Code brand. (I don’t know, just guessing)

Personally, I kind of liked C2, I hate diet, and C2 didn’t have much of the diet taste. Although I realize your article wasn’t “which is better”, just making a comment.

By: Shannon Paul

Shannon Paul — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:14:51 +0000

It says you didn’t read the post beyond the second paragraph.

By: David Cameron

David Cameron — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:30:20 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. The day of the big launch may still be with us. I get the value of making a big splash from the outset. BUT, as you note, one can derive a ton of value through incremental work. Reminds me that branding and relationship building is a long-term investment. It’s a bit like the rabbit vs. the hare, right?

Research is not infallible, clearly. Examples abound of failed products backed by research. I don’t think one shouldn’t base decisions without any data at all, but I do think one must be prepared to take calculated risks.

Great post, Shannon. Happy holidays.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:16:05 +0000

*cough*

Jones Soda? I never heard of that. Coke C2, I have. What does that say?

By: Shannon Paul

Shannon Paul — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:21:44 +0000

Jeff,
Where were you when I was trying to write a headline?! Seriously, paralysis by analysis would have been great :-)

By: Mona Nomura

Mona Nomura — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:17:55 +0000

My greatest challenge has been applying metrics, conversion, and ROI into digital media practices, since I know how to do all this…”stuff” instinctually. I’d be lying if I said I can now articulate social media formulas, because I can not – still.

But what I CAN say for sure is the ROI is dependent on your goals, so there is no one sure fire pre-packaged way.

By: Geekgiant

Geekgiant — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:08:51 +0000

Let’s try this again since I’m very clearly under-caffeinated.

Just because research doesn’t yet exist, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it. Especially with social media. One of its great advantages is that it can provide feedback and/or results in near real time.
Some people have asked me for the “silver bullet” of social media success. I’ve recently stopped saying there isn’t one when I realized that the silver bullet is just being fired from a .22, not a .50 caliber… a little slower, but it can still be deadly if aimed right.

It takes time, effort and a lot of innovation to be successful here and that’s what I think a lot of the “research” will show.

By: jamiefavreau

jamiefavreau — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:08:26 +0000

“Some businesses are still waiting — crunching theoretical numbers focused on specific social networks from years past while others are putting some solid, preliminary segmentation research to good use by getting to work, testing experimental ideas, measuring results, and repeating that process several times over.”

I totally agree with this. I think unless you know where your audience is then the channel does not matter. It isn’t an exact science and it is hard to define. I have to write a proposal for a client and I have some experience and have read a lot but I am still learning. I hope I give him all he is looking for and win the bid since it is something I am very passionate about.

I hope the ones who are sewing the seeds and creating a community win over the ones who think this is a plug and play situation. You need to know your audience and they need to know you so they don’t think you are pushing your message on them.

By: Geekgiant

Geekgiant — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:35:20 +0000

Well, Jones Soda is considering selling for about 2/3s of its current ask. I’m not sure what that means overall, just that I think it’s too early to call social media in general a success.

Lots of ups and downs to be had still.

By: Jeff Marth

Jeff Marth — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:27:14 +0000

Well said. Companies who wait for critical mass, before jumping into social media, will never reach it or only reach it after their competition already has.