Are LinkedIn groups really useful for those into market research industry? Who’s reading them?
We’ve been thinking about it for a while, so we decided to get a deeper understanding about it, or even better… a qualitative study 🙂
We took into consideration the main LinkedIn groups related to qualitative research’ world (directly or indirectly), splitting them in different categories: those about marketing research, those about marketing and innovation, those who have a wider approach, also considering web and social media. Of course, we’re not only speaking about Italian-based groups, but also English.
We really wanted to know what the interactions, the comments, the buzz such groups generate are like. Let’s start from here. The situation is a bit distressing. In the vast majority of the cases, what we noticed is this:
Blank spaces. 90% (or even more!) of posts are definitely ignored, not being able to provide an engagement, a dialogue, any buzz. We’d like to know some reading numbers, but we assume it would be close to zero. And these groups are followed by 10k to 100k people (let’s call them people, not followers, in this case!)
First, especially for those of you who are not into LinkedIn advanced groups functions and for those looking for a new job in market research industry… this is a really practical and helpful function. There’s a button, this one
which allows you to put a filter job offers only. In addition to it, by subscribing to groups, you will get some emails with job offers (only about companies close to the place where you live, wow!). Useful, isn’t it? Pretty consistent with LinkedIn core values: even if LinkedIn is currently “Facebooking” (getting quite similar to Zuckemberg’ social), it still has some strengths.
By a in-depth analysis of the groups, we found out that more than 90% (let’s say 99%!) of posts sound as a “personal promotional campaign” (with a dedicated link to the personal blog/website). That’s obvious, of course, but that’s it.
None of those who share posts considered the “80%-20% rule”: let’s speak about yourself, but without being self-praising!
Moreover, posts are repeated, let’s say spammed in all of the main groups. So that when you change group, you’re going to read the same contents…
Such promotional contents can also be… out of target! Take a look here:
One can think it’s a new approach to get perfect replies from respondents, during online bulletin boards… but it’s not. We’re not speaking about market research, it’s another field of application. Find out more here: http://careerconfidential.com/webinar-signup-perfect-interview-answers/
Nothing to do with market research, definitely. But a paid service, a webinar service to be prepared to provide the best answers during a employees selection. Isn’t it a market research group? Why such a content is allowed?
No, it’s not only negative experiences. But you need to be patient, and we found some interesting topics, so far:
A qualitative researcher received a (fake? real?) letter from a respondent, where he was describing his sensation when attending his first focus group. Those who are able to foster a real engagement, are those who have a personal blog – and comments are on the blog rather than on LinkedIn channel.
And the question is: are LinkedIn contents able to convert? But here we’re going off the subject…
And most of all, regarding the letter… what a pearl of wisdom! Do “real” respondents still exist, and not only those who are real professionals? Such a provocation, which is linked to our Manifesto, exactly points 21-30 😉
And what about Italy?
There’s a Assirm group (Italian Market Research Association), which currently has limited views (just a thousand of followers and nothing more) with a few comments – maybe also because it’s Italian-only (we know that people from Italy do not speak English, but we live in a global market!)
There are other market research Italian groups (i.e. Domande di marketing Italia) – but it’s more or less the same: Italian-only, a few comments and interactions, and that’s it.
Much more interesting those groups who speak about social media marketing (i.e. social media marketing italiano or social media marketing Italia), where experts and professionals are able to create a good level of engagement.
Well appreciated and interesting (even a bit far from market research) the events organized by Andrea Albanese, Social Media Digital Marketing Italia group founder – people can take part to off line meetings, in order to foster their networking.
Our conclusions
Market Research and marketing-based Linkedin groups have a large amount of followers as well as many posts per day, but…
- with a low engagement level
- they are seen as a way to promote personal skills in order to get a new job…
- a real interest in sharing doubts, resources, issues connected to marketing world is definitely lacking
- some posts are even out of target – they sound more like “commercials” rather than content
So… what are they for?
At the end of our analysis, we have more doubts than answers…
Please let us know what’s your experience about it!