tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117327408974038391.post7370464651068224952..comments2008-05-05T09:39:48.661-04:00Oliver Picherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01437149417751496367noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117327408974038391.post-22315826098452227302008-05-05T09:39:00.000-04:002008-05-05T09:39:00.000-04:00Thanks for the comment, Tom. The idea of using LinkedIn or Facebook to conduct more specialized market research is an intriguing one. I think these social media sites can be fantastic tools for qualitative research, but I'm not sure that they are ready for quantitative research for a couple of reasons:<BR/><BR/>First, the community on the sites is a self-selected population and probably not representative of the population in general.<BR/><BR/>Second, a pollster's "reach" in the community is dependent on his or her own social map. Unless the survey tool provides a way to, say, reach all LinkedIn users equally, there is going to be a built-in bias in the survey population. And, if the survey tool does do an end-run around the social map, then how is the survey processing leveraging the power of the social map? (Which is what social media is all about, anyway.)<strong>Oliver Picher</strong>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01437149417751496367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117327408974038391.post-84629097490955947122008-05-04T10:21:00.000-04:002008-05-04T10:21:00.000-04:00Seems like there will soon be more powerful tools for market research on LI than the Q&A function: http://www.tomhcanderson.com/2008/05/04/facebook-and-now-linked-enter-the-%e2%80%9cmarket-research%e2%80%9d-game/TAhttp://www.tomhcanderson.comnoreply@blogger.com