Shared values: understanding the connecting tissue of the ‘social media generation’.

Insights into a generation of social media users

Our client, a multinational video and social media platform, wanted to better understand who their users are, what drives them, and how they relate to the outside world. To understand how their customers think, our client wanted to understand their core personal values and, more specifically, what social causes they support and how they use technology to foster their social networks. The research questions they needed answered were:

• What values best describe this generation?

• What causes are important to them?

• How do they use tech to build relationships and maintain well-being of self and others?

Identifying common values across an entire user generation requires a study design with strategic questions and advanced capabilities for synthesizing insights quickly. That’s why our client enlisted the help of the GroupSolver® team.

Building a GroupSolver® survey that feels like talking to a friend

For this research, we helped our client design a study that would uncover answers to these deeper value questions. Traditional surveys can be dry and not engaging. Our platform, however, is built to use respondents’ language to probe deeper, so the GroupSolver® survey experience felt more like talking to a friend. This format, together with framing open-ended questions in a simple and straight-forward way, encouraged honest and personal answers. We found the following results:

• “Compassionate” and “diverse” were the top two values this generation assigns to itself.

• Human rights, the fight against homelessness, and women’s rights were the top supported causes.

• Coupled with easy communication, sharing on social media was seen as a way of saying that you are thinking about your loved ones, which helps foster friendships and maintain well-being.

Clearer insights with smarter research

By using the GroupSolver® platform, and supported with a light touch from our research team, our client was able to build a study that answered questions fundamental to their business success. In a matter of a short few weeks, with data spanning several countries and multiple languages, this research helped better define a generation of their daily users. Armed with this knowledge, the client is now better positioned to build their product and cater its content for their users.