Oct
20
2005
New corporate blogging survey grossly inflates percentage of companies that are blogging
Posted in the Category of ROI
Sorry, I can't let this one pass. As much as I'd like to believe the reported results of the iUpload and Guidewire Group Corporate Blogging Survey released this week, I can't. The survey reports that 89% of companies are blogging. And that corporate adoption of blogging is entering the hyper growth phase.
Addendum: here's another skeptical look at this survey. Along with a thoughtful response from Guidewire Group's founder Mike Sigal. (Mike, feel free to blast away at my take on the survey.) And a debunking of a corporate blogging boom from BusinessWeek's Blogspotting.net.
Here's the rub. The conclusions are based on 140 respondents. That's far too small a number from which to draw such a sweeping conclusion. In addition, the way the survey was conducted taints the results. Oh, and not so coincidentally, perhaps, iUpload (co-sponsor of the study) sells an enterprise blogging platform.
DoubleClick research director Rick Bruner spoke with Mike Sigal of Guidewire Group (the other author of the study) to find out more. Rick emailed me the following:
"I think the sample size is less of an issue than the sample recruitment methodology.
He [Mike] said they sent out invitations from some mailing list that should have been representative of the Fortune 500...
But they also put the word out to lots of [bloggers], who posted about the survey on their blogs. Meaning that a significant number of respondents were self-selected.
Hence, it's likely that companies who are particularly tuned into business blogs were more likely to respond."
Makes sense, doesn't it? I know I was one of the respondents who took the survey and I suspect every blogging "consultant" or expert also took it just to see what questions were being asked. Add up the number of non-corporate respondents to the survey and I wager you're well under 100 statistically valid responses.
In comparison, I got over 700 responses [PDF of results] to a survey I ran last summer on business blogging. The clearest result from that survey: Time is the top Fear Factor when it comes to corporate blogging. Other results: 55% of respondents said blogging will become a "must-have" corporate marketing tool. But it's not quite here yet. My survey was publicized to the 15,000-plus subscribers to my e-newsletter, WordBiz Report.
Download the survey
You can download the iUpload and Guidewire Group Corporate Blogging Survey here. Read with a grain of salt. Then do leave a comment below. Would love to hear your thoughts.
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Comments
Jim Turner said on October 20, 2005 at 09:37 PM
Thanks for posting this Debbie. I knew rioght away that the number stated was skewed, because I have asked a number of corporations if they are blogging, and less than half of them knew what a blog was in the first place.
I looked over all 500 of the Inc. Magazines top 500 companies and found that 1 of them was associated with a blog. 2 of them had online newsletters. I saw not a single RSS feed on any of their sites. I know that the survey results, albeit sound great for the blog consultants out there, they are less than accurate.
Yvonne DiVita said on October 22, 2005 at 02:41 PM
This is why we look to other bloggers, especially respected ones such as yourself, Debbie, for true answers to the hard questions.
There is no doubt (in my mind) that the biggest worry to corporate blogging is the time factor, and then, what to do about possible ‘bad’ comments.
Business Bloggers—corporate or otherwise—need a strategy. Without one, the blog will never achieve the results its writers want.
So, what’s the report on podcasting? Is it here to stay and, what really works: hour long podcasts, or five minute podcasts?
Debbie Weil said on October 22, 2005 at 03:56 PM
Yvonne,
Interesting question re podcasts. Still figuring it out myself. But this much seems obvious. If you’re using a podcast to “sell” your services (position yourself as an expert, for ex.) then it should be short. Less than 20 minutes and maybe shorter.
If you’re narrowcasting to an audience on a specific topic - and creating your own NPR - then up to an hour is fine. My initial thoughts… 
Yvonne DiVita said on October 22, 2005 at 07:03 PM
Debbie, your podcast reply seems right to me. I continue to think of podcasts as information I can download and listen to at my convenience. I think, as you note, that when positioning oneself as an expert, 10-20 minutes might be long. I’ve been reading where 5 minutes is tops.
Your opinion is always important to me, so thank you for helping me get my head around the possibilities for podcasts. I’m encouraged that you’re still figuring it out, also.
Rick Bruner said on October 23, 2005 at 09:38 PM
Debbie,
Your own survey has the exact same problem with self-selection as the BlogOn study does.
The best you can say about your survey results is that they are representative of your email list subscriber base. You certainly can’t say any of the conclusions in either study truly “represent the market” of all businesses or anything like that.
You’re reference to statistical significance is besides the point. The problem isn’t sample size, it’s sample recruitment methodology.
As I said in the email you quoted, I’m less concerned about the size of the sample than I am about the self-selection bias, and since you both have that, you can’t really say your study is more representative of businesses just because more businessed responded to your survey. All that proves is you have access to a more responsive audience than they do, but they’re both audiences that are biased in favor of business blogging, so niether one can be said to reflect norms for all of U.S. businesses.
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