CASRO Forms Social Media Research Task Force
Industry Experts Charged With Vetting Ethical, Methodological Issues

To address the many ethical and methodological issues developing in the wake of social media research's emergence, CASRO has established a task force charged with defining salient topics and soliciting industry-wide commentary with an eye toward crafting guidelines that may be included eventually within The CASRO Code of Standards & Ethics.

"More and more companies are seeking to extract sentiment and market the data culled from social networks and other Internet posts, and with these activities come numerous issues regarding privacy, disclosure, and the proper handling of data," noted Jeff Resnick, Global Managing Director at Opinion Research Corporation and chair of the CASRO Social Media Research Task Force.

In addition to Resnick, the task force includes at present: Duane Berlin, Lev & Berlin, P.C. and CASRO General Counsel, Jeffrey Henning, Founder and Vice President of Strategy at Vovici Corporation, Susan McDonald, CEO of National Analysts Worldwide and 2011 CASRO Board Chair, and Annie Pettit, Chief Research Officer at Conversition and Peter Milla, CASRO's Technology Consultant. The group has outlined the scope of its work and has begun formalizing plans to solicit feedback from the industry.

"We recently revised the section on Internet research standards in our Code, but social media research is a sector that features unique and complex issues, which we need to specifically address to define boundaries and protocols that protect everyone - internet users and the research community," commented McDonald. "There also are specific implications for pharmaceutical market research vis-a-vis adverse event reporting."

"Ensuring that the lines between marketing and research are clearly defined and understanding the concerns and expectations of online 'conversants' regarding how their conversations will be used are among the critical topics we are discussing," added Henning.

"CASRO's founding and continuing objective is to ensure our industry's self regulation, and we have minimized external regulation, in large measure, through risk analysis and proactive guidance on research business activities," commented Diane K. Bowers, CASRO President. "It is CASRO's mandate to provide our members and their clients with guidelines and standards in this quickly evolving arena."

CASRO welcomes thoughtful and constructive contributions from all industry representatives. A "Town Hall Meeting" on the subject will be held on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at CASRO's 35th Annual Conference in North San Diego. Comments may be sent to smr@casro.org. Other venues for discussion will soon be announced.

About CASRO
Founded in 1975, CASRO represents 330 research organizations in the U.S. and abroad, all of which annually reaffirm their adherence to the CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research, an internationally respected code of business and professional standards. CASRO's member benefits include a strong government and public affairs program, industry surveys and superb staff training and networking opportunities at workshops and conferences held throughout the year.