Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

Hi Jeff,
The following question was emailed to moderator@itracks.com by Ellen.

"Do you have any suggestions for encouraging participation from teens? I tried one BBFG with teens, and they all only logged on once, in the evening. I think this is largely because they had little opportunity during the day to log on and participate. But it severely limited interaction, when they just came on once a day."

Ellen K. Wilson, Ph.D.

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

No question, just a thanks for a great webinar. As a newbie to online qualitative I got a lot out of it.

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

I'm not an expert in teen research, Ellen, so hopefully some other colleagues will pop in. I will say, however, that a couple of years ago I did some message boards with teens, and was stunned to find a good number of them coming in during the day. It turned out that they had breaks during which they could (and would) go online. Some of them also got out of school early. Needless to say, some only logged in once a day, but I'm accustomed to that. Unless you make it a requirement up front that they log in at least once in multiple day-parts, you have no control over that.

Perhaps another thing to keep in mind is some people can log in only once a day and be more interactive than those who drop in several times a day. So be careful about forcing attendance in multiple day-parts. The trick is to get them to interact with each other. (In other words, its the quantity vs. quality issue.)

That said, here are some tips to get them to log on more frequently:

* Ask during recruitment about their ability to log in on mornings, afternoons, and evenings. You can disqualify those who can only log in during one day-part.
* Tell them during recruitment and when they are confirmed that they are expected to log in at least x number of times a day.
* Make incentives conditional on their logging in and posting in at least two day-parts each day.

I hope that helps!

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

Hi Jeff: Thanks for the presentation. I had to leave early so you may have covered this but...

My biggest concern with boards is the ability to effectively probe. What is your technique for eliciting responses to probes without sounding like a nag. In F2F groups it is easier to nag in a nice way to get a response or more insight but with boards too much follow up can 'sound' like a nag. Also, do you use email alerts or another technique to alert participants that a probe is waiting for their response? Sorry if you have already covered this in the Webinar.

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

We did NOT cover those issues, Margaret, so you're question is a good one.

First, I do not send email alerts when there are probes. I make it clear to them that it's THEIR responsibility to come to the board, read, and respond. It's also their responsibility to find the probes that are directed to them. I do not want respondents ONLY responding to probes directed to them. I feel that the email alerts will give them an "easy way out" of paying attention to what others are saying, and it muffles the likelihood that they'll interact with one another.

With some respondents, I do feel like a nag. They just don't give clear answers, or they skip parts of questions. I don't want the other respondents to think that those "sloppy" respondents can get away with that. At least they can see that I'm doing my best to get decent quality info from everyone! There's also the implication that if they don't answer all of my follow-ups, they may risk losing part of their incentive. ;-)

When I feel that I'm repeatedly asking follow-up/clarification probes of a particular respondent, I'll ease up a bit, only probe on the biggest issues, and I'll typically send them a note by email explaining the importance of answering all questions clearly and completely.

I hope that helps!

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

Yes, Jeff. Thanks much!

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

Hi Jeff - thanks for the webinar yesterday, it was excellent and very motivating.
My question is about the suitability of using this approach for busy people. For example I would love to hold a BBFG for frequent business flyers, but as they're a hard to reach audience as it is, how likely do you think it will be to encourage them to take part in a 3-day session? Thanks.

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

One more question, Jeff:
How do you respond to clients who express concern that the type of people who would be willing to spend the time taking part in a BBFG are going to unrepresentative of the wider target market? Is there any evidence to suggest that people who agree to do BBFG's are different?
Thanks.

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

I wanted to share this with all of you.

"I really enjoyed yesterday’s webinar and learned a few tricks of the trade that I’ll use in future online work. Well done."

Thanks,
Diane Linck

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

In my view, BBFGs are the BEST way to get busy people (e.g., frequent travelers) to participate in qualitative research, because they are not required to log on at any particular time. BBFGs provide them with the flexibility to participate at times during the day that work best for them. In fact, last summer I did BBFGs with frequent travelers while they were on the road. We purposely wanted to talk to business travelers while they were in the throes of the travelling experience. I told them up front that we'd need them to log in at least twice a day (they choose when) during particular days, and that they need to be travelling on those days. It worked!

In terms of the "non-representativeness" question, I hear that all the time. I guess I'd have to admit that those who do agree to particpate in BBFGs must be in some way different from those who decline. But can't we say the same about in-person focus group participants? Some people are more outgoing, comfortable about meeting total strangers in a roundtable discussion, and don't mind transporting themselves to the facility. But aren't they most likely different (in some way) from those who qualify but decline an invitation to participate in an in-person focus group? I always have to remind my clients who raise this issue that in qualitative research we NEVER make claims about the representativeness of our respondents. Those issues are the worry of the quantitative researchers. Of course all of our qual respondents need to meet certain recruitment criteria, but other than that, I always look upon our resulting set of respondents as a "convenience" sample.

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

I enjoyed your webinar Jeff! I agree with your comments about using bulletin boards with busy audiences. I've found that respondents truly will log in at all times of day or night - whatever works best for them.

That is also why programming the day's questions to release early is also good practice (I believe you mentioned 12:01am during the Q&A session). Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

Re: Top Tips for Moderating BBFGs - Webinar Q&A

Hi Jeff,
Great presentation! I also agree that BBFGs are a great way for busy people to participate in market research. As you know, we've conducted many successful 3-day sessions over the years with very busy people like researchers, scientists, faculty, librarians, etc. These respondents find that this format fits into their busy lives very nicely. They are required to log in at least once a day but they can come and go anytime they have chance during their day - in between classes, during lunch, in between meetings, late at night, etc. And, we usually have a pretty low no-show rate too. When someone doesn't show or participate for the full three days it's usually because something unexpected happened to pull them away.
Maria