Ethnography is a specialized type of research focused on producing descriptions of behavior, and therefore people, cultures, and communities. Digital ethnography is the application of this same purpose, but utilizing all of the behaviors publicly available on the Internet. We leverage the expertise of those with anthropology, sociology, and psychology backgrounds to explore your audiences and their behavior.
The online world is filled with behavior – from questions and answers to endorsements and conversations. The breadth and volume of discussion, connecting people down the street and a world away, far outweighs what a typical ethnographer could observe and describe. By applying ethnographic techniques in an online space (including social media of the largest channel type and those of more niche corners) we are able to not only describe what we see, but analyze it into a larger context.
Digital Ethnography can then be used to understand what archetypes, characteristics, trends, preferences, and more arise from the behavior of your target audiences. We describe the behavior we see, collect examples, and analyze it to pull out the most coherent and useful insights. Even the absence of activity is important to note (or as we say, “zero is a data point”) and allows us to utilize our social scientists to posit why there is a lack of activity.
In some ways, it can be the world’s largest focus group – providing insights unique to market research. In fact digital ethnography can be even more powerful when combined with other research. What a focus group or survey says when prompted can be very different from what those same people may say among peers online.
Our clients have used Digital Ethnography to build brands, increase sales, identify new audiences, research their competitors, test campaigns and much more. If you’re interested in learning more about your audiences, reach out and we can customize a research plan and approach that works for you: Dean @ discoverfeedback.com
