A useless survey
Cision, an analytical institute, has come out with a report claiming that 55 % of Danish bloggers are essentially for sale if someone would offer them money or something else to write about a specific product.
It seems like a lot - and perhaps a bit surprising. But the truth is that the survey is so deeply flawed that it’s really useless. But there are a couple of things at least Cision can learn from it. And perhaps a note for bloggers too.
So why is it flawed? Basically because only 72 bloggers out of 220 approached decided to respond. You could argue that 220 was not that representative anyway, but 72 certainly isn’t. As Ernst Poulsen mentions here there is amble reason to suspect that the vast majority of the bloggers declining to participate actually did that because they hate the very concept of being reached out to this way.
So there is no way that Cision with any confidence can claim that the 55 % will hold up in court. It’s more like 18 % by the numbers. And the little report that was sent to participants and which I too received (yes, I participated in the survey) bears every mark of being something done because it was promised, not because Cision wanted to.
So what’s the real learning for Cision here? I think it is that if you want to get people to respond, you make very sure that you communicate what it is that you’ll be using it for. It wasn’t really clear whether participants would start receiving pitches from Cision’s clients in the hope that they would get mentioned on the blogs in question, and I think that put many people off.
On the other hand, there’s also a lesson for the non-participating bloggers here: If you’re serious about openness, conversation, dialogue and all the other nice things, we talk about when we meet, you should participate. Sitting back with arms crossed is not going to develop an understanding or even provide a meaningful overview of the market and how it develops.
UPDATE: As Kristine from Cision notes below there is an inaccuracy in the number. 220 - not 500 - were reached out to. I have corrected the numbers above. Of course that changes the math. But it still doesn’t make it representative and thus still quite useless.
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7 comments
Hi Mads!
If any of your readers understand Danish, they should check out the debate at http://detlevendeord.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/de-fromme-bloggere/ and http://medieblogger.dk/2008/07/31/er-cisions-blogunders%C3%B8gelse-spredt-som-spam/ about the study by Cision.
Sincerely,
Jesper
Thanks for the link, Jesper. I checked both of them out - Mediebloggers I even participated in myself. It’s fun to see how oppinions clash in this particular case. Very interesting.
For the record I answered ‘No’ to almost all the questions in the questionaire. I am not particular keen to be reached out to. I would much rather discover things for myself and then write about them, if I find them somewhat meaningful (or just plain stupid which can also warrant a post once in a while). I think that’s most authentic, and since my blog is me and my thoughts, I would like it to remain so.
As I just mentioned on Ernst Poulsens blog, the numbers aren’t correct. We used the top 500 list of the most linked to Danish blogs but we only contacted 220 which means that 1/3 of the bloggers responded.
But otherwise good points abouts the lessons for both Cision and the non-participating bloggers. I totally agree. And though our survey is not scientific research (and I am sorry you didn’t like the report…!), I still do believe in the effort of finding data on some of the issues we often discuss but don’t really know much about.
Kristine, thanks for clarifying. I have changed the numbers in my post. Having said that I’m all for finding data. And I’m also for sharing with the people, you get the data from. And that’s where I was disappointed in the report. Because I have a strong feeling you had more to share, than what you chose to. The report was just a little to thin for me. But maybe that was the best that could be done given the data available.
“If you’re serious about openness, conversation, dialogue and all the other nice things, we talk about when we meet, you should participate.”
Excuse me but in my opinion it is the same as advising me to respond to all Nigeria mails with an open heart
My point is that I really don’t believe these “researches” care one bit about conversation or dialogue with bloggers - The way I see it they just want to know whether or not they can expect to make a huge amount of money on selling access to blogs like mine to their clients in the near future!
If you feel that giving them free advice on this matter is right for you - and if you trust their intentions - by all means feel free to participate - but please don’t tell me what to do, when I receive spam from a PR company!
Trine-Maria, difference of oppinion noted :-).
I honestly don’t see what you loose by participating with the message “Get lost”, as was my answer to them, as opposed to just ignoring it. I don’t think of it as free advice, and I think you’re way down a wrong track comparing this to Nigeria mails.
I believe in trying to understand the currents of the market through participation - even in dialogue with adversaries who want the opposite of what I do. Isn’t that what’s called a “critical dialogue” :-).
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