Among different kinds of focus group present is an online focus group panel. It is basically a sub-set of different online research methods. As a procedure in online focus group panel, a moderator gets in touch with few respondents who would previously be screened and qualified enough to represent the target of interest in logging on to conference software and to participate in an online focus group at a pre-arranged time.
In the actual procedure within this focus group panel, the moderator will guide the discussion by involving a number of unscripted probes and predetermined questions. As in the case of face to face groups, in online focus group panels the respondents would interact with one another and in real time; to garner deeper insights on the given topic. It is typical for the discussion to last between sixty minutes to ninety minutes. There are instances where incentives are provided by researchers for participating in the online focus group panels. But, they could easily invite a volley of ethical questions.
Online focus group panels are suitable for political research, business to business research and consumer research. One bid advantage of interacting via online medium is that it can save a lot of travel expense. Also, in the matter of sensitive subjects participants tend to open up more that they would otherwise do in person. Interacting online also enables representatives from across the globe to participate and put forward their views. In typical online focus group panels, there exist eight to ten people participating simultaneously.
There is another advantage with this form of focus group panel, in that it can be accomplished much faster than a traditional group. A number of software options are available to choose from. Most of this software offer similar features but vary in price. The ability of the moderator, the knack of tying up results to reach objectives and recruitment standards is important to the final outcome of the process.
