This technique is utilised by specific software. The respondent can log into especially design board messaging system and interact with moderator and other board members when the subject sensitive discussion will take place. Interaction means write and post comments and reply to discussion topics. The of moderator in such a case is to probe responses as well as present online stimulus material. The frequency of responding to questions might be set up twice a day or in any other agreed schedule in order to meet research criteria. Please find below some crucial elements of such conducted bulletin board focus group:

• Recruitment: usually provided by screening questionnaire, the same as it might be in case of online surveys. Furthermore the respondents can come in directly from online panels. Investzoom is also capable to provide ongoing and ad-hoc recruitment across Eastern Europe, using telephone interviews, emailing campaigns, or reaching respondents via forums and social networking sites; multisource of recruitment would guarantee meeting the screening questionnaire criteria and completion of required samples in relative short time; however, you should be aware of lower participation rate and higher dropouts for this type of study (which is natural for online surveys at all, the distraction rate is rather high, when respondent might be distracted by his job, business or private tasks over the bulletin board time);
• Once respondent is provided with the access login and password, he or she is able to join the board in agreed time and during the e.g. two days session take part into moderated assessment;
• The core discussion time and manner is research subject sensitive. Our research tools can be used for simple questioning and also for some group assessment on the subject (like tasks, group games, testing adverts or other visuals etc);
• Discussion via bulletin board has its own much more qualitative character than online survey, where very often (when you consider long and extended questionnaire) respondent is bored reading and answering long and repetitive questions; bulletin board might be some sort of challenge for respondent;
• Before the bulletin board is launched usually and together with the client we design the discussion guide in order to avoid some misinterpretation of exercises and discussed topics; in the guide we put the specific instruction to bulletin board moderator pacing some specific situation e.g. how to behave when respondent avoid giving some opinion directly, or in case if he or she would try to underestimate or overestimate his/her responses or the value of topic; the same as in case of traditional focus group the role of the moderator might be also the play of the ‘devil’s advocate’ in order to gather truly sounding opinions and reflections;
• The discussion guide should be loaded into the bulletin board software and fit the time frame and schedule of specific days when discussion sessions will take place;
• During the bulletin board session it is vital to be ensured that every time respondent is logged in the board he or she will give us as much relevant information as possible;
• The other advantage of bulletin board is that respondents can see the other board members responses (and moderator has influence which information is accessible to whom), and they have the opportunity to react, comment and dispute with the other board members, as during traditional focus group session;
• The moderator can also select the specific respondents and probe some questions with them in order to avoid any influence from the others (in some very delicate nature of questions, where there might be a risk of bias as the effect of respondent’s shyness or other personal or professional limitations);
• The significant advantage of bulleting focus groups is that the responses can be very easy transferred directly to survey software without any time waste with transcriptions; it is also easy to monitor and control this type of study by the client, who might have secured view of what is going on during the sessions;
• Due to its nature, this type of study is less expensive than providing traditional focus group, however it has also some limitations such as more difficulties in sample recruitment; it is also not eligible for any type of research subject, and you should be aware of this;

Feel free to contact us as market research agency for RFQ or further details of this market research aproach.