presentatie eam2014, using facebook for an online panel, an explorative study
DESCRIPTION
The growing popularity and use of Facebook makes it an interesting source for data. Every day, Facebook users write several posts and messages that contain information about their daily life. Researchers already use the data from social network sites as, for example, exit polls or information on the spread of an infectious disease . These data can be considered as non-reactive data, since the Facebook users did not write down he information for the purpose that the researcher used it for. However, we are interested in how Facebook could be used to collect reactive information; in other words, how can we use Facebook to create an online panel and what are the characteristics of such a panel? We performed an explorative study in a probability based online panel in the Netherlands on the use of social media, with a focus on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The first results show that Facebook is the most popular social network and that the majority of users visits Facebook on a daily basis. Young people in particular are very active on social media, which offers scope for using Facebook as a way to attract this hard-to-reach group of potential respondents. In addition, we developed a prototype of a technical panel infrastructure. This panel infrastructure uses Facebook to communicate with (potential) respondents. People can invite each other to become a member, post interesting studies on their pages, get invitations for new questionnaires, and keep track of which questionnaires have been completed. With this infrastructure we transform Facebook into a panel management system without leaking information to social network sites. The next steps will be to find strategies to attract respondents to our infrastructure, and to investigate the consequences on the data quality. Technically, a lot is possible, but what will practice tell us?TRANSCRIPT
24 July 2014
Using Facebook for an online panel?
An explorative study
Arnaud Wijnant & Salima Douhou
July 24, 2014VI European Congress of Methodology
Utrecht UniversityThe Netherlands
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3
Our world as an online data
collection institute.
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CentERdata (Tilburg University)- Two representative web panels:
- LISS panel- 5000 households- Every month a set of questionnaires
- CentERpanel- 2000 households- Every week a set of questionnaires
- Both panels are representative for the Dutch population (providing pc’s and internet connections)
- Panel management includes a helpdesk
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What happens outside our world?
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Social networks
dec-
04
dec-
06
Oct-0
7
jan-
09
apr-0
9
sep-
09
feb-
10
sep-
10
feb-
11
sep-
11
apr-1
2
Oct-1
2
Mar-1
3
jan-
140
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Number of Facebook users
number of users (million)
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Social Media top 5
Skype
YouTube
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
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Frequency of Facebook use
64%
18%
8%
10%
daily2-4 times a weekonce a weekless than once a week
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Basic user profile
• FB is a very popular and very frequently visited social media
• In addition, FB is a social media mainly used for private purposes, unlike LinkedIn which is more related to professional life.
• The majority trusts social media sites such as FB, Twitter and LinkedIn and are careful with sharing too much personal information via social media.
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Social networks in the research world.
Many non-reactive/big data analyses
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How can we use social networks in
our panels?
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Online panel vs Facebook
Respondent Website to log in
Invitation Helpdesk
Facebook user Facebook.com
Notification FB Messages
Incentives
SocialIncentives
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The advantages
- Potential new sample- People maintain their data- Use of large infrastructure
(security, mobile, availability)
- Combine with other Facebook data
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The disadvantages
- Huge sample bias- Privacy concerns for
respondents- Future of social network site
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How does it look in practice?
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The panel is an app
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Respondents’ main screen
Complete questionnaire
Publish on respondent’s
wall
Invite other friends for the
panel
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Recommend interesting questionnaire to friends
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Invite friends
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Complete questionnaire within Facebook
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New invitation
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New invitation (2)
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The future
- Extensive Social Network profile analysis
- Recruitment strategies- Pilot studies
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Questions?
Twitter: @centerdata
