In Katerina Torres’ blog she notes how qualitative research can be conducted on social media websites, more specifically, Facebook. Torres writes that Facebook offers many different elements to the website that would allow a public relations professional to engage in legitimate research. Torres mentions that Discussion forums on the popular website can be an excellent approach for PR pros to actually understand their publics and target publics opinions, likes/dislikes, etc. Torres also notes that these forums offer a duel opportunity for a PR practitioner to not only engage in qualitative research, but unobtrusive research as well. When a person posts on a Facebook wall, newsfeed, discussion, etc., they really have no concept of how many potential people can reach this message. Therefore, it would seem natural that PR pros could use these posts to unobtrusively study their targets.
Francesca’s blog also mentions how social media websites are quickly becoming an important research tool in the public relations industry. She notes how many companies, more specifically in the film industry, will post videos on YouTube and other sites to examine how their potential targets have reacted to a video, trailer, etc. Researchers can then wager what is the best approach to further disseminate their information into the media. Social media websites also offer the positive aspect of often being free, while other forms of research, such as focus groups and interviews, can often be extremely costly for a researcher or firm. Because of this financial save, it would seem like a “no brainer” for researchers and agencies to use social media websites as a main source of research.
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