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Do you remember your favorite subject in school? Do you remember why it was your favorite? Probably your answers would go from liking a subject or liking the teacher. In marketing research, it is common to form focus groups. These groups must meet at regular days and shall have different topics to discuss. Now, in our technologically advanced era, the website is becoming a great place to have a group meeting without having to leave the comfort of your own home or office. The researchers handling the online groups are known as moderators and online, there is what forum participants would call as an online bulletin. What this is, is like a live forum. The moderator and the other participants may post their comments, thoughts, or ideas about certain tasks, products, or services openly for others to see. This online Bulletin board is like a virtual classroom. However, it is important to know that like a classroom, lack of ‘spice’ can make it quite boring, uninteresting, not would be considered by potential participants as not worth their time and eventually your participants will start dropping out. How do you keep it interesting? In a situation where you are handling a group, it is important to remember that they are individuals who are only sharing their personal points of view in this online bulletin. The moderator has to think of ways to stimulate enthusiasm such as changing how they present a topic, or question. Taking the time to commend the members individually and also commend them in a group as well are common ways to keep things warm. Most of the time, the moderator has to balance listening with regulating conversations just as much as starting them or even just throwing a question and letting them have a chance at it. One thing’s for sure, it should never be a routine that members would soon guess. A more spontaneous approach is always more interesting that one that seems scripted. Aside from the approaches used in presenting or discussing a focus, the appearance of the site can also keep things interesting. If the application allows some change in color or style once in awhile, it helps keep things fresh. Maximize the tools provided to the moderator online to stir things up a little. If you do run out of ideas on what to do next, you may insert some quirks that sort of give yourselves a short break from the task at hand like an ice breaker or a trivial question before going back to business. AUTHOR INFORMATION Ron Jacobsen is an advocate of business and technology and writes about how to keep the fire alive with online bulletin board studies. Civicom is a global marketing research solutions company that offers facilitation of in-depth interviews, online focus groups, and mobile qualitative research studies.
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bulletin board focus groups, bbfg, online communities,
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