Screen Grab: 85-WGAN-TV Virtual Tour Super-Heroes at Your Service: How Business communities Inspire Creativity to Mitigate Crisis with Texas Tech University Marketing PH.D. Candidate Kelley Cours Anderson, M.S. (@kcoursa)| Wednesday, 18 November 2020


Reprinted with permission of Researcher Kelley Anderson, M.S., PH.D. Candidate at Texas Tech University.
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Free WGAN-TV Training U Course: Virtual Tour Super-Heroes at Your Service: How Business Communities Inspire Creativity to Mitigate Crisis with Texas Tech University Marketing PH.D. Candidate Kelley Anderson, M.S.

Hi All,

If you are a Matterport Service Provider, you are a Super-Hero and it's likely that your virtual tour business has increased as a result of COVID-19, concludes a survey of WGAN Forum Members conducted by Researchers Kelley Anderson, M.S., PH.D. Candidate and Ashley Hass, MBA, PH.D. Student at Texas Tech University.

71 percent of WGAN Forum Members saw their virtual tour business increase, according to the research paper. While ALL services - photography, video, drone, 360 imagery, Virtual Tours - increased - virtual tours increased the most. 90 percent of those surveyed anticipate that virtual tours will be more essential following COVID-19 too.

In this free WGAN-TV Training U course recorded live on Wednesday, 18 November 2020, I interviewed Researcher Kelley Anderson, M.S., PH.D. Candidate at Texas Tech University

✓ Virtual Tour Super-Heroes at Your Service: How Business Communities Inspire Creativity to Mitigate Crisis with Texas Tech University Marketing PH.D. Candidate Kelley Anderson, M.S.[/b]

WGAN Forum Members are Super-Heroes according to the Summary of the research paper titled:

✓ Super-Heroes at Your Service: How Business Communities Inspire Creativity to Mitigate Crisis

"[WGAN Forum Members took on] a new identity of a ‘super-hero,’ where they assist to bring normalcy and sustain the market while keeping others safe," according to the study's authors that researched the impact of COVID-19:

1) How do [virtual tour photographers] react and modify strategies to maintain services during a crisis?
2) How [does the We Get Around Network Forum] influence strategic changes?

"76% participated in [the WGAN Forum] because of information exchange is beneficial for them and their businesses, concludes the researchers.

The researchers methodology also included content analysis of the We Get Around Network Forum: "1001 total posts; 221 discussions from [WGAN Forum was] scrapped (NVivo NCapture January to June 2020)," according to the Summary Report.

The 14-page Summary Report - Super-Heroes at Your Service - is available free to WGAN Forum Members. (When you join the WGAN Forum, you automatically receive a link to this Summary. Or, Private Message me - @DanSmigrod - with the Subject Line: Super-Heroes at Your Service

Among the quotes from the WGAN Forum included in the 14-page Summary Report:

Ambiguity and Role Conflict - I live in a state that has a stay at home order....but.... Real Estate is considered critical...Photos/VR-tours are very important right now, under the circumstances. I’m just not sure if they are legally "essential" since Realtors can, technically, do them without a professional photographer. One of my clients thinks this is the exact time that you NEED professional help. (WGAN Forum post)

Creative Community-Driven New Identity Practices - feel like people in the neighborhood look at me wearing a mask and going into the house. They know that I'm a service provider, and they respect that. Some of them even wave at me. ... It's nice. And it's also respecting their community because I don't want to be the guy that brings the virus to their community where they live, where their kids are... (WGAN Member interview)

Outcomes of a ‘Super-Hero’ (or Villain?) Identity - ... Before the coronavirus, VR-tours were seen predominantly as a cool gimmick that many companies could live without. But since the virus started getting out of hand, and nation-wide quarantines began, VR-tours have become essential to businesses, which gives us VR-tour makers plenty to be optimistic about. (WGAN Forum post)

This virus is beyond any global research and is evolving faster than any testing against it. It is self-weaponizing. The United States is now the largest carrier and sufferer. No money nor business acumen will stop it unless people stop spreading it. Stop scanning. Stay home. Save lives. (WGAN Forum response)

And, this from the Study's section titled:

Implications

● This study helps to answer calls for how [virtual tour photographers] can help others cope with the crisis and support the economy (Pantano et al. 2020).
● We find specifically that online business communities [WGAN Forum] can build creativity to manage a crisis and that there is an opportunity for business [virtual tour photographers] innovation to be a positive result emerging from COVID-19.

Stakeholder Implications

● [virtual tour photographers] engage in [the WGAN Forum] to gain creative inspiration to pursue productivity
● Collaborative networks - there is a more significant role beyond information-offering, including prompting creative strategies
● Policy makers - play a greater role in protecting our service ‘super-heroes’ as they protect our community and the marketplace

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It's sweet to have independent researchers do a deep-dive into WGAN Forum posts and reach out to WGAN Forum Members to speak to at length.

In an email to schedule her WGAN-TV Live at 5 appearance, Kelley wrote, in part:

"... I wanted to let you know that the paper we presented this week was the piece where we used the “data” that came from your amazing Forum. It is de-identified purposely to maintain anonymity for the conference until this is accepted as a publication."

"We’re still working to get this published formally in an academic journal, but I wanted to let you know of this progress. It received amazing feedback: This working paper won the best services paper for the conference – an amazing honor and a testament to the importance of your communities’ work! So thank you again for all of your support on this project. I will be adding a proceedings paper to my website in a week or two, but don’t want to do so before sharing some of the managerially important insights with the Forum as we agreed."

"Again – I am still excited to share insights of this and any other insights related to this research stream with the community via the WGAN-TV Live at 5. Nonetheless, I would like to share a report summary ahead of this. I’ve attached a report that you can share with the WGAN community. If you have any questions or suggestions related to this report, let me know. This report from the working paper should only be shared with your WGAN Community (and not shared without prior approval from us)."

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Best,

Dan

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