3 Expert Tips for Maximizing Webcam Response in Your Bulletin Board Focus Group
Ready to take your bulletin board focus group to the next level? Then take advantage of webcam response, which allows you to quickly and seamlessly gather all the richness of a participant’s response—like body language, tone of voice and emotion—with the convenience of an online bulletin board discussion. “You see things respondents wouldn’t otherwise think to tell you about, so it really takes the insight to the next level,” says Heather Mitchell, a senior moderator at Farmington, Conn.-based The Pert Group, who has used the technology for about as long as it’s been available.
She says webcam response is intuitive and easy to use, but like with any new tool in the online qualitative researcher’s toolbox, there can be a learning curve. Below, Mitchell shares three tips to help you maximize webcam response in your next bulletin board focus group.
1. Take advantage of learning opportunities: You may be an experienced online qualitative researcher, but as new features, capabilities and upgrades are released, you’re likely to run into new challenges. That’s why Mitchell recommends taking advantage of learning opportunities, like the weekly webinars offered by 20|20 Research. “The intro to webcam response webinar was indispensable for getting a look at the technology and understanding the look and feel,” Mitchell says. “I was comfortable with the platform after that initial session and it gave me the understanding and basis I needed to move on to more advanced sessions.” If you work with 20|20 Research, you’ll also have access to a team of experts who can answer your questions and provide assistance throughout your research project. “I had a lot of one-on-one time with 20|20 and asked a ton of questions,” she says. “They were very open to helping me learn.”
2. Choose the right camera for the project: It’s called webcam response, but webcams aren’t your only option. Mitchell has used both traditional webcams (cameras that hook up to the respondent’s computer) and mobile flip cameras, which respondents can carry around their house. They may seem interchangeable, but they’re not, says Mitchell. “We had been defaulting to mobile flip cameras for maximum portability, but they’re not as user friendly or software compatible as webcams.” Determine what’s most important to your project. If it’s maximum mobility, the mobile flip cameras are probably the better choice. If mobility is not an issue, your best bet is using a webcam.
3. Ask the right questions: Webcam response can either add a lot of noise to your research project or provide truly helpful insight—it all depends on the questions you ask respondents. “When you ask respondents to record something quite lengthy, where you really don’t need the video of all of that, it can become very burdensome to the researcher,” Mitchell explains. “Maybe they could have typed that same information and you could have gotten a dialog flowing among participants.” Most often, Mitchell uses webcam response to have respondents demonstrate or show something that is relatively brief. “Videos tend to be three minutes or less for any given respondent,” she says.
