How to get mobile qual recruitment right

Recruitment for your online + mobile projects is even more important than it is for online projects. Whilst the mobile app itself is really easy to use, the reality is that there are:

• Lots of different phones
• Lots of different operating systems
• Challenges in going mobile e.g changing signal strength

This does increase the important of finding people with the right kit and the right know-how to respond using the app.

However, with Liveminds there is no need to ensure everyone has a smartphone to participate in an online + mobile project. This gives you the freedom to focus on recruiting exactly the sample you need, rather than worrying about people’s technical know-how.

If a potentially great participant doesn’t have smartphone, there’s no need to leave them out of your project, they can simply reply to those same activities on the website instead.

This means you get the best possible participants, able to express themselves in the way they feel most comfortable with.

Mobile technology

With both iPhone and Android versions of the app available to your participants, you have a huge percentage of smartphone users covered – now 81% of smartphones bought in the US and 86% in the main 5 European markets. (Kantar Worldpanel)

The Liveminds mobile app runs on all versions of Android and Apple’s iOS released in the last 3 years, so you’ve basically got access to all the people who really know how to use their smartphone. However, we also recommend reiterating to your recruiters the other smartphone platforms that it won’t work on as well, to ensure there is no room for confusion.

Experience using smartphones

Owning a smartphone does not mean that you necessarily know how to use it. The Liveminds mobile app is designed to be as effortless as the online platform, but there are still some very basic requirements, like being able to install an app and take a picture.

If you want video responses, then it is advisable to insist that they have uploaded videos to another social platform like Facebook or YouTube before. This means they are aware of technical considerations which are beyond our control, such as the time it can take to do this and the impact of things like changing signal strength.

Smartphone bills

It’s also important to get their confirmation that they are either happy to upload content under the terms of their contract, or can do it regularly and easily via Wi-Fi.

There are a million and one types of mobile contracts in the world, so in the Liveminds mobile app, participants can choose upfront to sync their content via Wi-Fi only if they prefer. However, if they do it via 3G, then they need to know they are responsible for any charges that could incur. This is very clear in the app itself, but is well worth stating in the screener too.

If your participants might be travelling overseas during the course of your project then this becomes very important.

Recruiter’s experience

Ask your recruitment agency if they have experience of working on mobile projects. If they haven’t, it’s worth really double-checking that they are following the our guidelines closely. We’ve seen situations where agencies have misrepresented their understanding of the subject and it’s impacted on the success of the projects. This can easily be avoided but if you want help with the recruitment on your next mobile project, do get in touch.