Research and social networks: self-serving vs. self-sustaining

We put out a research piece yesterday. Got good enough buzz…ClickZ’s Kate Kaye started talking to us about a related story…I got an email citing our study that flew around a big CPG conglomerate that ended up in the emailbox of one of our advisors…even Forrester cited it as insightful marketing findings…etc. I have been thinking about how we can use research to establish our company’s credibility, and extend our awareness. What I found is that not only do you need to think about what topic you’re going to address, but more importantly, whose purpose does it serve? As a social network, you have the ability to find more out about your members…not just about how much they need your site. By understanding the limits of the kind of research your members are willing to contribute on your platform, you can generate a new income stream, as well as help partners achieve their needs.

Here’s an anecdote that put it into perspective for me:
We called up a non-profit trade org in the commerce space to see if they would like to partner with us on any research initiatives. We did our little pitch…unbiased video product reviews uploaded by thousands of people, blah blah blah. Their response: “We are already partnered with [text review company] and have done a ton of research on the power of text reviews. We really don’t need to do any more.”

Fair enough. We knew about that research…we’d actually used it ourselves! But what struck us is that we weren’t thinking about doing research on text reviews, video reviews, or any reviews. We found that research so self-serving that it was unpalatable even to attempt to bring in a third party to help legitimize it. What we wanted to do was ask our community to provide research to benefit other organizations (that are obviously within context of what we do). What we realized was that as a social network, we had a *platform* for research, as opposed to a need to produce research to prove our own point.

So, we just went ahead and asked some questions we thought this organization might be interested in. We asked things like: What impact is the economy having on where and how often you shop? What impact are gas prices having on your summer travel?

We’ve gotten over 300 *video* responses to our few questions. We are creating reels that help amalgamate the thoughts of our members. The trade org we approached loved them, and totally sees us as someone to help them achieve their goals – and not just when they overlap directly with our own interests. Our members love the diversity, and love being asked their opinion on being a consumer. We are able to fulfill needs where everyone involved feels like they’re benefiting.

How can social networks expand beyond advertising as a revenue stream? When the collective or individual knowledge within the network becomes a workable asset that can be tapped into. With the ready participation of the members, there is a ton of value still waiting to get unlocked on social networks that will remain out of the reach of technology and distribution tools.