Stop Surveying. Start Listening. An entrepreneur friend was just quoted $40,000 for a customer survey. Save your money. The best audience research comes by listening > asking. It's happening right now in public conversations across the internet. Traditional market research is backwards. It interrupts people to ask questions. It creates artificial environments. It forces structured responses. Then it pretends those answers reflect reality. Modern audience research means finding where natural conversations already happen. Forums. Review sections. Social media threads. Professional communities. These spaces contain raw, unfiltered truth about what people actually think. We built SparkToro because I got tired of expensive research telling me less than an hour of careful listening could reveal. Every major insight I've had about audiences came from observation, not surveys. The future belongs to listeners, not surveyors.
The quote "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see" is an appropriate adage for this undeniable situation. Little bit of history, this adage is often attributed to Edgar Allan Poe. However, there is some debate about its exact origins, and it may not be a direct quote from his works. The phrase reflects a general skepticism about information and perception, The quote "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see" is often attributed to Edgar Allan Poe. However, there is some debate about its exact origins, and it may not be a direct quote from his works. The phrase reflects a general skepticism about information and perception, which is a theme that appears in various forms in literature and philosophy. various forms in literature and philosophy.
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I help organisations grow with evidence-based website improvements
5moAbsolutely, I spoke DrupalCamp England on Saturday about how the father you get from the customer, the harder it is to hear them. Drop the clever behavior analysis tools and just speak to customers directly. Takes a bit more time, a bit more courage, but that's where the gold of improvement ideas lie.