Social media and the spirit of social media is changing everything around us. One of these areas which receives surprisingly little attention is the impact social media may have on professional organizations. Social media and specifically social networking, represents both a tremendous opportunity and challenge to our traditional trade organizations. Just as the web (online research) blew away the barriers of entry and benefits of economies of scale in market research, social networks now may do the same thing for professional organizations.
Last month I was asked to give the keynote at one such organizations annual event (BAQMaR’s). For those of you not yet familiar with BAQMaR, the acronym stands for the Belgian Association for Quantitative & Qualitative Marketing Research. However, they are quickly becoming known among market researchers all of Europe and the entire web/world.
BAQMaR has an extremely lofty, possibly impossible mission to achieve, “to make marketing research COOL again”. I’m not sure about making market research “cool again” because I don’t know how cool it’s ever been in the first place. However, I think I’m on the same page with BAQMaR in that I agree that the new ‘next generation’ market research techniques some of us are embracing such as text analytics, link analysis etc. are indeed very cool, at least to geeks like myself.
So, what’s so special about BAQMaR? Well, it really ties back to the spirit of social media I mentioned earlier. BAQMaR started among students and alumni of a market research graduate program at a university in Belgium. They believe membership should be free!
They are just about as active offline as online. This past event for instance drew around 150 attendees from Belgium and elsewhere in Europe (including attendees from ESOMAR in Amsterdam), who braved one of the largest snowstorms/cold spells in recent history to make it to the event. While BAQMaR events are costly to produce, the leadership feels that event registration fees need to be as modest as possible and therefore charge only between 30€- 75€/pp compared to other industry events which can approach 2,000€.
How do they keep costs so low? Corporations are allowed to sponsor BAQMaR events. In return they receive exactly 60 seconds of microphone time. Should anyone go over they are literally gonged off the stage as the audience laughs. It was interesting to see what happened when the SPSS-IBM rep tried to get extra mic time at the event 
BAQMaR is also very active online in various social network channels, on their website and blog, which now aggregates select stories from 31 different market research blogs from around the world including this one. Several researchers who blog are now requesting to be featured in BAQmaR.
While perhaps one of the most interesting, BAQMaR is only one of many among this new breed of professional organizations which have sprung up thanks to social media. Next Gen Market Research (NGMR) which I originally started on LinkedIn in 2007 is yet another example, one that offers a place to discuss marketing issues and network with over 7,000 savvy market research professionals (a far greater number than present in MR trade orgs.). Others like MRB and MRGA are providing other services, such as supplier directories and advertising, previously only offered by mr trade orgs and publications. The Foundation for Transparency in Offshoring is yet another variation of these grass roots organizations, the FTO specifically dedicated to an area the brick and mortar trade orgs have neglected for various reasons (the growing trend in undisclosed offshoring among suppliers).
Should the traditional brick and mortar trade orgs worry about BAQMaR, and these other ‘next gen’ professional orgs? Why or Why Not? Curious to hear your opinions.
A few shots from BAQMaR annual Conference below:
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.tomhcanderson.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter-big1.png){kind=icon}
7 responses so far ↓
1 Tom H C Anderson // Jan 13, 2010 at 6:24 pm
PS.
I do think there should be cooperation between the brick and mortar trades and these new groups. It seems that some are more open to this than others. I think those that do embrace the open spirit of collaboration have a lot to gain. I believe the others may eventually become irrelevant.
Plan to blog more about specifics in the near future…
2 Eric Bell // Jan 13, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Nice summary Tom!
It’s definitely interesting to watch and hear reactions on whether or not groups like ours cause any sort of major threat to special interest groups.
My overall goal has never ever been to be a directory or seller of advertising - in fact http://www.mrgasn.com is completely ad FREE. We did however announce today our ad :: chatter network for those that want to sponsor the MRGA, we now have a platform to do it on without compromising the integrity or goal of the social networking aspect of group, primarily driven around new membership acquisition - in fact we are doing it in co-sponsorship with the biggest and most trusted market research directory on the planet. Letting them be the experts at what they do and letting us be the experts at what we do.
My thoughts on special interest groups have simply always been to aggregate - partner and cooperate and give those organizations free access and help them promote their groups in a win win environment that will drive membership and participation like never before.
In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the groups like NextGen, MRB, MRGA etc. figured out a way to unify and get the collective concepts out to the research industry that benefits everyone. We all seem to take different approaches - you, Jon and I have very different talents that prove there are many different slants a group can take and be very successful.
I think we are still in the early stages of the Market Research Social Networking among our profession and are still simply pioneering.
The goal for me is to make it less annoying and more interactive for membership, and of course the goal with the MRGA to always drive trusted relationships among our membership base.
3 Venugopal Chepur // Jan 13, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Dear Tom,
Fantastic futuristic thought and a forewarning!
Social media will sure make a dent as more or more consumers and organizations participate. Allocations are increasing by the year in marketing budgets – about 86% of companies plan to spend more money on social media in 2010. This is definitely a trend that these orgs would want to check. But, the market balance and outlook may stay sometime in a holding pattern just as it stayed between the ‘Print Word’ and the more advanced media (TV, Kindle); and between Brick & mortar shops and Online shopping had been during the past decade.
In spite of so much (hype and real) influence, social media is yet to overcome a huge delta between real participants and curious visitors, onlookers and the distanced. So it may be a few years for such a disruption to render some irrelevant.
You are right. Collaborations outside comfort zones may help some.
4 bjorn // Jan 14, 2010 at 3:09 am
Hi Tom,
I agree with you: fear is never a good advisor. Idon’t think they will become irrelevant. Maybe they will have another function (whatever that may be). For 80% we are bringing the same content but in a different (more fancy, more accesible) format… . In the other 20% we try to be different ;-). I think it is mainly an attitude, a way of thinking…
5 FOYER // Jan 14, 2010 at 4:08 am
To my point of view BAQMaR is a very very good initiative and organization and I like their spirit. And I also appreciate bringing back “coolness” to our industry.
Just let me add that since the end of October 2009, my colleague Bettina Wagner and I deliver a platform for blogging, discussing and networking especially for German market researchers. http://www.mafo-foyer.de
FOYER dedicated to back up the development of market-research in the rapidly changing environment.
We just started, still way to go thus …
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