Last week we launched the results of our ‘Social Media around the World 2012’ study. The study contains loads of facts & figures about consumers and social network sites. One of the topics we included this year, is the role of social networks in structural collaboration between consumers and brands. The results are clear: consumers love to be involved in co-creation and crowdsourcing projects. More importantly: they have a very high preference for using a market research community as a co-creation platform.

8 out of 10 want to be involved in collaboration

The large majority of consumers would like to help brands and companies they like. About 80% of all internet users are open to being involved in any form of collaboration with a brand. Their preference goes to improving existing products and services. And still, half of them would even like to be involved in developing the overall strategy of the brand. 45% are willing to help in creating the next advertising campaign.

Market research communities score very high in consumer perception

Most consumers don’t want any financial reward for helping a brand they like. Their main motivation is getting feedback on their input. In the end, consumers want to help the brand improve its products and services. They are without any doubt the most neutral consultant a company could hire. Looking at the key motivation of consumers, it is no surprise that consumers like market research communities as a platform to help companies. The most preferred platform is a Facebook community, followed by a market research community.
Knowing that consumers like to co-create from Facebook as well, we developed a Facebook application that allows us to set up a research community on the Facebook page. We were nominated with this approach for the MOA innovation award. As researchers we need to learn from the facts from our own studies. Well, if people like Facebook communities and research communities, we need to combine them.

Looking for more conclusions?

If you would like to read more details of our “Social Media around the World 2012′ study, feel free to check out the entire research report. It’s on SlideShare, it’s free and you can download it if you like. Here are the slides: