Jeffrey Henning’s Top 20 #MRX Stories of the Year

By Jeffrey Henning & Tamara Barber

Here are the top 20 stories discussed on the Twitter #MRX community in 2011, based on the number of unique retweets received in their first week.

1. 2011 Innovation In Market Research Awards – Tom H.C. Anderson issued a call for nominations for the EXPLOR Innovation in Research and the NGMR Disruptive Innovation Awards which led to these NGMR award winners: Ipsos Loyalty, InsightExpress, RapLeaf and Dr. Bill MacElroy of Socratic Technologies.
2. NGMR Meme Contest Survey – This call for votes for the best NGMR meme led to over 9,000 votes, culminating with the 2011 NGMR Meme Winner.
3. 30+ New Buzz words and concepts emerging from ESOMAR 3D conference – For you stimulation junkies, Jon Puleston of GMI has prepared a glossary of 36 words and concepts that emerged from the exoflood of information at ESOMAR’s online research conference.
4. Ipsos agrees to £525m takeover of Synovate – Brian Tarran of Research described the (then pending) acquisition of Synovate by Ipsos for approximately $820 million, forming the world’s third-largest market research firm by annual sales, after Nielsen and Kantar. See also Ipsos completes Synovate acquisition.
5. Social media around the world 2011 – Steven Van Belleghem of InSites Consulting shared key social media statistics in this compelling SlideShare.
6. Introducing the 2011 #MRX Tweet Awards – Jon Puleston of GMI proposed this contest, an ongoing vote for your favorite of the most prolific tweeters on the #MRX hashtag. Vote early, vote often.
7. 8 Things I Would Do if I Were a Market Research Company – Research buyer Jason Anderson of Blizzard Entertainment offered some pointed advice for research firms and plans on shifting his research budget in accordance with these points. Check out the comments for a contentious debate.
8. Top Market Research Blogs of 2012: Open Call for Nominations – Sean Copeland of Environics Research Group plans to update his analysis of the top research blogs and kicked it off with an open call for nominations.
9. The Full List of Nominees for The Top New Market Research Blogs of 2012 – Sean has compiled the most exhaustive list of research blogs yet, listing over 140 blogs.
10. It’s time for market research to join 21st Century – Ray Poynter took on the CASRO guidelines and those of other trade organizations with his four principles for conducting “new” market research – “The ethics of NewMR should be based on: 1) The law; 2) Not doing things likely to outrage the public; 3) Creating high standards (and that can include charter marks and ISOs for those interested); 4) Emphasising the need to be open and honest”.
11. Six degrees of separation? On Facebook it’s just 4.74 – Robert Bain of Research contrasted a study showing how the average Facebook user can be connected to another in as few as 4.74 links with Milgram’s classic research from the 1960s that inspired the “six degrees of separation” meme.
12. Failing to Sell Yourself – In Research Live’s blog covering ESOMAR Congress, Robert Bain summarized the comments from research heads at Volkswagen, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, and Reckitt Benckiser, underscoring a strong client-side desire for agencies to evolve the product of market research. Joan Lewis of P&G remarked: “We need to not become the case study of the industry in disruption that didn’t notice it. We need to become the case study of the industry in disruption that drove it to a greater place”.
13. Qualitative Online 360: Call for Speakers – This was a call for speakers for Merlien Institute’s 2^nd annual online qual conference in January 18-19.
14. Getting the Story Straight – Dan Kvistbo of Norstat, in an editorial for Research magazine, worried “that we are in effect discursively constructing a new research paradigm that doesn’t have substantial warrant in the real world. We’ve gone from insisting on sound methodological approaches towards simply ‘delivering insight’ or ‘telling compelling stories’.” Check out the extensive comments as well.
15. Esomar 3D: Winners and losers – Tom Ewing of Kantar Operations Research Live Brainjuicer played Snakes & Ladders (that’s Chutes & Ladders to my fellow Americans) with the ideas from ESOMAR 3D. “Plenty of concepts and techniques were discussed, but which ideas are on the ladder of success and which notions are sliding down the snake of ignominy?”
16. CASRO Seeks Comments on Draft Social Media Research Guidelines – CASRO’s Social Media Research Task Force sought comments for its public comment guidelines for conducting social media research. The final guidelines are here: Social Media Research Guidelines [pdf].
17. Sentiment Analysis Symposium Call for Speakers– Tom H.C. Anderson, on the program committee for Seth Grimes’ Sentiment Analysis Symposium, is seeking presentation submissions about sentiment components, sentiment and social networks, business intelligence and sentiment analysis applications, and assessment and evaluation of approaches to sentiment analysis. Here’s an interview with Seth on sentiment analysis and a recap of the event.
18. The Winners of The Research Transformation award – Jon Puleston of  GMI ran a contest for the Festival of NewMR in which 30 judges voted on the ideas, techniques and books transforming research. Special congratulations to ESOMAR (best research organization), Research magazine (best journal) and ConfirmIt (best software firm).
19. The mobile hype ends here – Reg Baker of Market Strategies International wrote a rebuttal of Jay Pluhar’s Research column, “Mobile research: No time like the present.”
20. Time to rewrite the rules of research? – Robert Bain wrote a well-thought-out summary of the recent GreenBook debate on online privacy, discussing the general background as well as research from a number of firms on consumer attitudes toward social media contacts.

It was a great year of discussion and debate in the Twitter #MRX community. For 2012, please chime in!