By Ilan Chamovitz, teacher-tutor in FGV Online *

-  Originally published by  FGV 26-Nov-2013 at http://management.fgv.br/news/320/marketing-moderacao-foruns-internet

“Do you have a passion for consumer’s desires and for creating an online community? We are looking for a moderator with sharp vision to maintain and grow two of our consumer review sites online for local companies … Salary:. 18,000 pounds per year, plus benefits “ (Advertisement adapted from an English website on the Internet.)

I remember that around the year 2000, I was involved in a focus group research. The idea, then, would be to invite physicians to a convention center and lead them in an activity that would provide relevant information in the area of ​​Health.   Later that period, I also moderated, voluntarily, a virtual community of patients with a chronic disease but not yet realised the great potential for the tool we used – a discussion forum. At that moment, the Internet was not as accessible as today, there was no Orkut or Facebook – launched in 2004 – and even Twitter, released later, in 2008.

From 2002, I started to dedicate part of my time to study the use of forums. The research was conducted in GINAPE – Group of Informatics Applied to Education,  NCE / UFRJ (today it is called Tercio Pacitti Institute of Computer Applications and Research – INCE), comprised the study on the organization of forums and its application in distance education activities . In 2006, I initiated new studies on the forums on Production Engineering Programme, at COPPE / UFRJ, in order to evaluate the performance of groups of students through a fuzzy model, which resulted in a website ( http://api.adm. br / evalforum ). I kept focused on distance education courses and, at times, use the forum as a tool to support the implementation of information systems.

These studies on the use of forums resulted in several published works, and was followed by recommendations pointing the potential of the forum, the wealth of information produced, the intangible value of information incorporated to the forum, the importance of the results obtained, the advantages in having an expert participating in the discussions and the possible change in behavior of participants from the interaction conducted by a well-prepared moderator.

Figure 1. Forum Environment

Recently, in the second half of 2013, after presenting a paper at a conference, I had contact with marketing research using forums in communities. I realised that what  I have been studying as a communication tool,  for so long  is now being used to create and co-create value; collect information about specific groups, identify opinions, perceptions, expectations and even to learn from others experiences.

The demand for this position, “moderator”, begins to appear in job websites, especially in the area of ​​Marketing. From profile description for these position, they require people with experience in moderation, but often leave out some other skills extremely important. For example, the correction in writing, knowledge about the discussed  subject and  how to be neutral in certain situations.

Sometimes, after moderate activity, the result is achieved partially but it is considered quite successful. After all, the moderator who could moderate the participation of people in a group can even be considered successful,   right?

Not always. If the contractor is a marketing professional who wants to get information from participants, the moderator should use, besides the knowledge of content, other skills related to quality of the information from the process of communication, easy-understanding people, dealing with motivation and reactions to obtain the desired (and sometimes unexpected) information.

I believe that in studies that use the virtual interactive environment, Marketing companies will opt increasingly for  skilled moderators. And they be willing to pay more for quality. Recently I followed the replacement of moderators in a community organized by a business marketing team,  in Europe. After the change, as new moderator started, the quality of information improved in the forum. With this exchange, the skilled moderator   made the difference because he brought additional skills to communicate, he looked forward to understanding and to focusing on the objectives proposed by the organization who hired him.  For example, if it is a school, the focus can be on learning specific concepts or the exercise of a behavior;  if the aimed objective is understanding the consumer,  market or a service, the moderator must know how to motivate and assist each participant to express his/her feelings and wishes,  in relation to the service that is being discussed in the forum.

There are techniques and studies that can be used for the proper performance of the task of moderating. Thus, with the increased use of the forums and the increasing need for more skilled moderators, this opens a field in Marketing  for the use of knowledge retrieved from numerous areas. Some examples, not exclusive, are Psychology, Sociology, Communication, Pedagogy and Administration. Executives must choose the approach that connect industry to academia, directed to innovation and competitive intelligence.

It is important to understand that a moderator that offers only experience in exchanging messages may be sufficient for some activities, but there are other skills that will be very well received, depending on the purpose of the Forum and participants. And, critical for businesses and the moderator, is to know the process and structure of a discussion forum. This knowledge is obtained by the moderator quite time before sending his first message.

* Dr. Chamovitz researches the use of virtual forums since 2002. He is a lecturer and a tutor at FGV Online and works as a systems analyst to the Ministry of Health (Datasus).  Currently he is a post doctoral fellow at Manchester Business School (MBS), England.