Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research

Craig A. Hill, PhD, is Senior Vice President for the Survey, Computing, and Statistical Sciences at RTI International. He has more than thirty years of experience in survey research, having directed survey research projects for a wide variety of federal, academic, and commercial clients.Elizabeth Dean, MA, is a Survey Methodologist at RTI International. She specializes in the development and testing of innovative applications of survey methodology, such as designing surveys for various social media platforms, investigating the use of virtual worlds to increase survey privacy, and adapting cognitive pretesting methods for use with emerging technologies.Joe Murphy, MA, is a Survey Methodologist at RTI International. His research focus includes the implementation of new data collection processes and analytic techniques to maximize data quality, increase response, and reduce costs, as well as the role of new technologies and social media in the collection and analysis of social data.

“This book is a must read for any researcher who wants to make use of social media data; it is incisive, instructive, easy to read and, above all, fascinating.”  (Social Research Association, 1 June 2014)

• List of Figures xiiiList of Tables xviiContributors xixPreface xxiAcknowledgments xxv1. Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research 1Joe Murphy, Craig A. Hill, and Elizabeth DeanWhat Is Social Media? 2Social Media Origins 6Social Networking Sites and Platforms 6Blogs 8Twitter 8Facebook 9LinkedIn 9Second Life 9Other Social Networking Platforms and Functionalities 10Why Should Survey Researchers Be Interested in Social Media? 11The Current State of Survey Research 11Falling Response Rates 11Frame Coverage Errors 13The Coming Age of Ubiquity 14Public vs. Private Data 17Social Media Interaction: Next Wave (or Subwave)? 18Adding Social Media to the Survey Research Toolbox 21Toward Using the Concept of Sociality in Survey Research of the Future 22How Can Survey Researchers Use Social Media Data? 26References 282. Sentiment Analysis: Providing Categorical Insight into Unstructured Textual Data 35Carol HaneyDescribing Emotional or Subjective Feeling in Textual Data 36Definition of Machine-Augmented Sentiment Analysis 37How Sentiment Analysis Is Used with Text Data 38Different Ways of Representing Sentiment 42Ordinal Scales 42Nominal Emotion Classification 43Neutral Sentiment 44Techniques for Determining Sentiment 44Precursors to Analysis 44Harvesting 46Structure and Understand 50Approaches to Determining Sentiment 51Machine-Coded Sentiment Analysis 51Human-Coded Sentiment Analysis 53Sentiment Analysis as a Subset of Text Analytics 54Current Limitations of Sentiment Analysis 57References 593. Can Tweets Replace Polls? A U.S. Health-Care Reform Case Study 61Annice Kim, Joe Murphy, Ashley Richards, Heather Hansen, Rebecca Powell, and Carol HaneyMethods 64Twitter Data 64Public Opinion About Health-Care Reform: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll 70Analysis 70Results 71RQ1: To What Extent Was Health-Care Reform Discussed on Twitter? 71RQ2: What Is the Distribution of Sentiment of Health-Care Reform Tweets? 74RQ3. Do Trends in the Sentiment of Tweets About Health-Care Reform Correlate with Observed Trendsin Public Opinion About Health-Care Reform from Nationally Representative Probability-Based Surveys? 75KFF Trends 75Comparison 77RQ4. What Are the Key Topics Discussed in Health-Care Reform Tweets? 78Discussion 80Conclusions 84References 854. The Facebook Platform and the Future of Social Research 87Adam SageThe Changing Web: From Searchable to Social 88Digital and Digitized Data 93The Case for Facebook Integration 94Data and the Graph API 97Facebook Applications 99Social Plugins 103The Future, Mobile Apps, and the Ever Increasing Complexity of the Social Graph 104 References 1045. Virtual Cognitive Interviewing Using Skype and Second Life 107Elizabeth Dean, Brian Head, and Jodi SwicegoodBrief Background on Cognitive Interviews 108Cognitive Interviewing Current Practice 109Practitioners’ Techniques 109Cognitive Interviews in Practice: Present and Future 112Second Life for Survey Research 114Methods 115Recruitment 115Screening 117Incentive 118Think-Aloud and Probes 118Results 118Overall Participant Characteristics 118Feasibility of Pilot Study 120Quality of Cognitive Interviews by Mode 121Participant Disengagement 122Nonverbal Cues 125Total Problems 126Type and Severity of Problems 126Conclusions 127Discussion and Future Research 128References 1296. Second Life as a Survey Lab: Exploring the Randomized Response Technique in a Virtual Setting 133Ashley Richards and Elizabeth DeanOverview of Second Life 134Research in Second Life 134The Randomized Response Technique 136Study Design 137Results 142Discussion 144References 1467. Decisions, Observations, and Considerations for Developing a Mobile Survey App and Panel 149David Roe, Yuying Zhang, and Michael KeatingImpact of the Evolution of Technology on Data Collection 150Telephone Interviewing 151Web Interviewing 151Cell Phones 152Smartphones 153Building an App 156Goals 157Preliminary Findings 168Recruitment 170Respondent Communication 170Survey Topics 172Respondent Impressions on Incentives, Survey Length, and Frequency 175Next Steps 175References 1768. Crowdsourcing: A Flexible Method for Innovation, Data Collection, and Analysis in Social Science Research 179Michael Keating, Bryan Rhodes, and Ashley RichardsWhat Is Crowdsourcing? 180Open Innovation 181Cisco Systems I-Prize Challenge 182RTI International’s 2012 Research Challenge 183Options for Hosting Your Own Challenges 185Legal Considerations 186Data Collection 187Crowdsourcing Survey Response on Mechanical Turk 187Targeted Data Collection 190Cost Considerations 194MyHeartMap Challenge 195Analysis by Crowdsourcing 197Sentiment Analysis 197Challenge-Based Data Analysis 198Conclusion 199References 2009. Collecting Diary Data on Twitter 203Ashley Richards, Elizabeth Dean, and Sarah CookBackground 204Twitter 204Diaries 204Methods 206Recruitment 208Data Collection 210Results 211Nonresponse 212Data Quality 216Incentive Preference 221Participant Feedback 222Discussion 227References 22910. Recruiting Participants with Chronic Conditions in Second Life 231Saira N. Haque and Jodi SwicegoodBackground 233Methods 234Instrument Development 235Recruitment Methods 235Survey Administration 244Results 244Discussion 247Communities 247Using Existing Second Life Resources 248Other Effective Methods 249The Importance of the Recruitment Avatar 249Conclusion 250References 25111. Gamification of Market Research 253Jon PulestonSignificance of Gamification in Market Research 254Apply Gamification to Market Research 256Gamification in Survey Design 259Apply Rules to Question Design 265Add the Competitive Element 269Add Reward Mechanics 271Give Feedback 272Make Tasks More Involving 273Ensure the Challenge Can Be Accomplished 275How to Design Questions To Be More Game-Like 275Common Questions About Gamification 284Who Responds to Gamification? 284What Impact Does Gamification Have on the Data? 285How Do These Techniques Work in Different Cultures? 289Conclusions 291References 29212. The Future of Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research 295Craig A. Hill and Jill DeverStatistical Challenges with Social Media Data 296Quality and Representativeness 297Sampling from Social Media Sources 298Population Estimation from Social Media Data 303Future Opportunities 306What Does the Future Hold? 307Sociality Hierarchy Level 1: Broadcast 308Sociality Hierarchy Level 2: Conversation 311Sociality Hierarchy Level 3: Community 312Final Thoughts 314References 315Index 319