Blogger survey results in by Technorati / Edelman
Results from the Edelman/Technorati blog survey have just been emailed to me via Richard Edelman himself, according the email address .I was one study respondees and opted-in for a ping when they went live).
The study was targeted at bloggers (remember, Technorati is one of the sponsors, the other is PR firm Edelman)...I've not had a chance to study in detail (821 responses), but at first sight the data points seem interesting.
According to this question, 34% of respondees want to interact with employees who blog at the company when researching products / services, whereas only 19% would want to interact with the senior execs. I think this is fascinating. Of course, bear in mind it is bloggers responding, so this data would be highly skewed compared to non-bloggers:
(Update: as Edleman notes:
"We're seeing an inversion of the traditional pyramid of influence - the top-down approach to communications: Senior company executives who blog (yes, that includes me) are only half as believable (19%) as company employees who blog (35%)." )
One thought: as Richard Edelman points out, he is a senior manager (CEO) AND a company employee who blogs. Is he trusted more because he is a CEO that blogs, or trusted less because he is 'corporate blogger' who is a CEO?
Question 13: When you are seeking information about a company or its products, do you prefer to interact with: (mouseover to see percent and totals)
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The following two questions are around trust of contact. Bloggers are a cynical bunch. Don't give the PR agency the job of contacting bloggers is the message here, get your employees to do the job. I wonder how this would compare to non-blogger?...:
Question 9: If you know a message is sent to you from a PR firm, how much are you likely to trust it on a scale between 1 and 10, where “1” is "not at all" and “10” is "complete trust"?
Answer Count Percent 1 93 11.32 % 2 70 8.52 % 3 106 12.91 % 4 94 11.44 % 5 208 25.33 % 6 81 9.86 % 7 81 9.86 % 8 55 6.69 % 9 17 2.07 % 10 16 1.94 % Question 10: If you receive a message directly from a company how much do you trust it on a scale between 1 and 10, where “1” is "not at all" and “10” is "complete trust"?
Answer Count Percent 1 61 7.42 % 2 35 4.26 % 3 63 7.67 % 4 68 8.28 % 5 187 22.77 % 6 114 13.88 % 7 114 13.88 % 8 116 14.12 % 9 36 4.38 % 10 27 3.2
More thoughts later....
Comments
- Anonymous
October 06, 2005
Saw your post. Had a panel this morning on this research. Dan Gillmor found it interesting that bloggers prefer to speak with employee bloggers over CEOs and senior execs. Other areas of discussion--are bloggers actually new media or customers; can't use journalism rules like embargo; interplay between traditional and new media
Thanks for reading our study and posting your views