Lockerz.com is about to kick your @$$, one question at a time.

This ain't your grandma's social network. And guess what? It's a market research site.

In their own wordz:

Lockerz is the place to go to buy the coolest stuff at the lowest prices, watch exclusive video, discover new music, play the hottest games, hang out with your friends - and get rewarded for just about EVERYTHING you do on the site.

Our mission is to be your daily habit, not a site for your parents or grandparents looking for their long-lost friends from Kindergarten.

All they ask in return is that you answer their daily question. Just one per day. Only on the days when you feel like it.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future of market research via online communities. There is still plenty of time for Lockerz to screw the pooch if they execute poorly, but my gut tells me the model is a winner. Here are some examples of what they're doing right:

• The days of social networks for the sake of social interaction are over. Anyone who wants to manage their social life online is doing it with Facebook. If you want to attract people to your community you better be ready to kick it up a notch. Deals on hot clothes and electronics, premium video content, free games and music are a good start.
• One size does not fit all. Know who your users are, know what they care about, know how they speak. Speak to them about the things they care about, in their own language. Don't fake it.
• Market research on a website has the same appeal as learning about sex from your parents did. So don't make the site about research. Make it about something your users like and care about. Give them something they value and hide the research as much as you can.
• An average 20-something web user's capacity for market research is one question long ... so make your research one question long.
• One question is plenty. Combine one question a day with a rich user profile and all the other data you passively collected as the user shops, consumes media, and interacts with other users on your site ... suddenly the possibilities are endless.

These are all things the MR industry will eventually figure out ... probably right around the time we enter the 14th b'ak'tun of the Maya calendar. This is what it will take to get access to the people who won't take your surveys. Why not do it now while everyone else is still scratching their heads?

Lockerz is led by Kathy Savitt. Her previous gig was CMO @ American Eagle, and before that she was a VP @ Amazon.

Lockerz is owned by Liberty Media. That's right y'all! The people who filmed The Men Who Stare at Goats, owners of the Atlanta Braves, the saviors of satellite radio... are building a market research website.

The question I'm stuck on is why? What's the engame? Is this a private research community for Liberty's companies? Are they going to sell data? I don't know.

So maybe it's too early to say Lockerz is going to kick you ass. There's no question they can if they want to.

Don't wait for them to make up their mind. Learn from their example and get to work on something of your own that will be cool enough to compete.

[later] Bonus points for humor. From the section of their Terms of Use that deals with cheating the PTZ system and hacking their infrastructure: "Remember, pigs get fat - hogs get slaughtered."