Massive networks of intimate connections: the future of research?

Over the last few months I have explored alternative pop music, sustainable investments and Columbian politics, and stumbled upon a set of stories that got me really excited about possibilities of new research approaches, research which connects us in our quiet moments, pushing 'in situ' research forward. Through this technology, we can quickly develop stories that touch us, motivate us, and - maybe - change the world for the better.

A few months ago, I saw an Instagram post from an unsigned singer/songwriter named Murkage Dave. In an off-the-cuff selfie video, Dave addressed his fans; “I’d love to meet as many of you as possible, if you’re going to be in a London pub over the next couple of days, message me the location and I’ll try to come through”. I was soon sat in a pub, deep in conversation with Dave. A week later he shared a video of the experiment (you can see me at 1:03), soundtracked by his beautiful new single Us Lot. This song - my favourite of 2022 - is a paean to modern friendships, relationships wherein one friend may ‘ghost’ (ie: disappear) for stretches of time, despite still caring for the other, leaving their texts on ‘read’ for months before re-appearing in a snooker hall or a pub. Murkage Dave went on to shared a powerful article sharing various accounts of ghosting amongst friends, gathered from his fans via Instagram. If he ever loses interest in music, Murkage Dave could definitely work as a researcher, as he managed to put together a rich, multi-sensory backstory for Us Lot, using little more than Instagram, spare time and community.

In Jon Cohen’s informal guide to traditional qualitative research, Asking For Trouble, Cohen writes that ‘formal research environments create formal responses.’ To find out what people really, individually think, to develop ideas that break the status quo and exceed expectations, a roundtable with a packet of biscuits may not cut it. Maybe we should follow in Murkage Dave’s footsteps, and simply ask people questions online, allowing them to answer at their leisure? It’s definitely easier to get through to people this way in a post covid-world; fear of disease is not going away, many people have learned that they can be happier spending their free time or working away from bars and offices, and social media is as pervasive as ever, with the creative boom of Tik Tok amongst young people and the pandemic forcing older generations to equip themselves with modern technology.?

The classic retort to this kind of online research is the idea that ‘faceless’ respondents give generic answers. As Andrew Tenzer writes, juicy online stats like ‘90% of gen Z agree that authenticity is the number-one trait they want from a brand’ tend to be the product of social desirability bias (the temptation to say what you think you should say). And yet, Murkage Dave’s article about ghosting shows that social desirability can be used to your advantage, if you curate the conversation well. You just have to give people a shared cause.

In my job at The Wisdom Council, I conduct research with investments and pensions holders who are often aged 70 and over, using online research communities (ie: mini social media sites) made up of our clients’ customers. We’ve found that this model works really well, partly because of older investors’ post-covid ability to easily take part in online research from the safety of their homes. I recently tested a brochure for sustainable investments from M&G, sharing early versions of it with community members through feedback forums, before physically mailing later versions to customers and interviewing them over video call. These people were literally sat talking to me in the same spot where they would typically read one of these brochures; when they talked about the triggers that could make them throw it in the bin, they could see that bin. Moreover, we’ve seen the benefits of running research through communities with defined purposes (eg: to improve your investment provider’s services), as these customers want to give useful feedback; they are relying on this investment provider to secure their financial future. They really want other investors to feel informed and empowered, not confused and worried, and these social desires motivate thoughtful answers in research.

The core message of Jon Cohen’s Asking For Trouble is that you shouldn’t take respondents’ comments at face value. Different people will instinctively take different roles in research; some like to criticise, others offer enthusiastic praise, others struggle to generate interest. Cohen suggests that any research project should involve interviews with 12 people, as all of these perspectives are important, and amongst 12 people there will usually be a mixture of critics, supporters, developers and the disinterested. Once the researcher has talked to these different people and absorbed all of the perspectives, they use their intuition to reach the final insights. Over the last year we have used quantitative data at the Wisdom Council to build a questionnaire that profiles respondents’ views on sustainable investments, so we can now quickly put together a group including respondents who really want these products to succeed, respondents who view them with intrigue and suspicion, and also respondents who are generally unconvinced. It’s so exciting to see how data analysis and online communities can work in tandem with classic qual research, and making it easier to reach those intuitive insights.

The mind boggles when you think of what could be done with an really large motivated research community (or rather, a network of interconnected communities), especially once you know how quickly they can be created. One recent article that particularly blew my mind, written by Colombia-based journalist Sophie Foggin, focussed on the rise of anti-establishment politician named Rodolfo Hernández. Despite being dubbed the ‘old man of Tik Tok’ by the media, the most interesting part of Hernández’ story (wherein he massively over-exceed expectations, making it to the final presidential runoffs and winning 47% of the final vote) was his use of a tool named Wappid. The core user experience of Wappid is simple; it helps you build Whatsapp groups for people with shared interests, allowing you to create your own group that falls within a larger umbrella-group. As Foggin writes;

?‘Wappid uses referral marketing techniques and gamification to encourage registered users to grow their own personal support networks under the umbrella of Rodolfistas - [the name of Hernández’ supporters] - .wappid.com… The system is based on incentives to take action, rather than other social media’s more passive voyeurism. Once users are signed up to Rodolfistas.com, they must share links inviting friends to do the same via an automated WhatsApp message, as Hernández himself explained in a personal recorded appeal on the site: “You have to do this if you want to help me.” In doing so, users create an ever-growing “spider web” of networks, to which they are incentivized to constantly invite new people, who invite their friends, who invite theirs, and so on… leading volunteers who invite the most friends are rewarded with personalized voice and video messages from Hernández.’

So, as we look back on our journey through music, investments and politics, we see that the possibilities of research are rapidly expanding, utilising new technology and the human acceptance of technology into our lives. We can develop human insights that cut through to what people really think, and do this quickly, at scale. I’ve always enjoyed discovering new stories and human truths, but these new developments in research are particularly exciting to me, not only because they can help this process of discovery, but moreover because of the powerful people that this information can reach. Corporations around the world are gradually coming to accept that they must take action to make a positive difference in a way that makes sense for their brand and moreover that it is possible to use this inspiration to energise your team and your profits. And yet, the language of big business is still data. These new developments in research marry the scale of data with the intuition of qualitative research; maybe they can be used to help direct the changes that this world needs. I hope so.