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.