There’s an elephant in the corner. And here lately, he’s gotten bigger.

Interactive marketing agencies have long been packaging and distributing ‘online personality types’ by use of online surveys. Media-Screen recently joined in with their Netpop | Portraits research program. Five broadband ‘personality types’ were born out of an analysis of 4,000+ survey responses.

The Netpop | Portraits survey reached thousands of broadband users, a noteworthy accomplishment. But there’s something that interactive agencies often don’t mention about this type of research – and it’s a big problem that’s really hard to ignore. These types of research programs are not studies of broadband users. They are studies of broadband users who are willing to respond to online surveys. And there’s quite a difference.

If we really want to explain and predict online user behavior, it’s going to take more than an online survey to get what we’re looking for. Surveys are great at reaching thousands of users. But we don’t just need numbers, we need to reach the right kinds of people. What are the characteristics and behaviors of users who don’t complete online surveys? How would these things, if known, impact the Media-Screen ‘online personality’ findings?

While pioneers like Media-Screen have published exciting findings, I am of the opinion that the greatest discoveries in ‘online personality types’ remain to be seen. We are largely uninformed about a critical portion of the online population – users who abandon online surveys. And users who abandon online surveys may very well be the same type of people who abandon prior to conversion in so many other realms – making them perhaps the most worthy of study, at least in the conversion industry.

Surveys are a powerful method of assessing broadband user behavior. But alone, they are not enough. Complementary methods of data collection are essential if we want a holistic view of online user behavior. Let’s compliment our survey findings with studies of survey abandonment rates, to quantify the portion of users that we don’t account for. Let’s investigate where the people who abandon our surveys come from, where they abandon and where they go next. If we don’t, I’m afraid the elephant in the corner will only get bigger, at least for me. If we don’t, I’m afraid we will continue to sit in Plato’s cave – talking, writing and dreaming about shadows on the wall.