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	Phil's Blogservations Monday, September 26, 2005 Posted by philgomes 2:02 PM My Thoughts: The Edelman / Technorati Survey My Thoughts: The Edelman / Technorati Survey Richard Edelman and Technorati's Niall Kennedy have posted that the joint blogger survey is online. This has sparked a bit of discussion — some reactions are favorable, and some less-so — so I thought I'd weigh in. Take or leave what I have to say, considering the source, but know that (as I've said before) these are my thoughts and no one else's. (And I wouldn't have taken this job if it meant compromising my credibility or operating under prior restraint.) Primary reaction: While presuming to dissect and quantify the "average" blogger is a lot like pushing Sisyphus' rock up a Heisenberg hill, that's simply not the goal, intent, or spirit of this survey. I strongly believe there is a difference between what people intuitively know, what's held up as anecdotal evidence to support what they know, and what they can point to as the result of an honest research attempt. Perhaps before I started my studies at Annenberg, I was maybe more inclined to think that the first two were enough to get by day-to-day. Boy, was I wrong. One criticism of the survey's line of questioning — and, I'll grant, it's a very valid one when not rendered hysterically — is that anything that approaches the blogosphere with the same mindset used in the media relations trade doesn't work and even bespeaks of PR's infamous hammer-and-nail inertia when it comes to addressing new forms of communications. Longtime readers of this blog know that I agree. You see... You know this to be true, and I know this to be true. But what else can we point to in order to convince the uninitiated — those in the corporate world who live their lives outside of the blogosphere, looking in? Intuition? Anecdotes? The occassional posting? Pointing fingers, laughing, linking, and crowing about how so-and-so doesn't "get it?" (Incidentally, this is the topic of the podcast that's going up this afternoon and I'll thank Kevin Dugan again for bringing it up.) Sure you can point at this gaffe and that gaffe. You can even use your experiences to help craft your own PR-engagement policy, as I've had to do. If the survey results show — and I strongly suspect they will — that a blogger's trust in an agency representative is far lower than in credible (and blogging!) sources from within a corporation, then everyone will have something to point to that goes at least some way toward confirming their intuition. People who act contrary to any such findings do so at their own peril. If you want to get corporations to blog — doing so in a credible manner and achieving the level of desired transparency — then you know how to answer the survey. Another criticism is perhaps that the PR industry doesn't really need more data and that, instead, ensuring that PR people are actively blogging, commenting, linking, and so on is enough. I will grant that companies that have talked about their "blogging programs" while not showing any evidence of having ever blogged have gotten severely thwacked. But this participation is somehow a replacement for — not a complement to — study and research? So... Having honestly and exhaustively looked at the issue (NOT!) in a fast-changing world where research (and, yes, even this survey) has a limited shelf-life, engaging in discussion with peers and contacts is enough? Seriously... Would you want someone with that attitude working on your car? Your house? Your spleen? Patient: Have you read up on the latest techniques in abdominal surgery? Doctor: Well...Ummm... I have heard about them from a number of colleagues. Patient: And? Doctor: Um... Nurse? Anethesia please? Patient: Answer my quesssstttiiooo......* Doctor: Nurse... Hand me that newfangled really-sharp-knife thingy. Nurse: You mean the scalpel? Maybe those examples are too extreme, so... How about communicating to your stakeholders? Customers? Prospects? Industry observers? Your answer to any boss of yours cannot be "Who needs more data to support a recommendation? I've been in active conversation with my peers!" Sure, there have been oft-cited studies from comScore and the Pew folks that have some relevance to the PR trade. Useful stuff too, controversies aside. In closing... As an active and critical consumer of media myself, I would greatly fear a day when the media and bloggers are beholden to corporate interests and afraid to deliver the news. And, as a consumer, I also fear that those same parties will stop listening due to reactionary distrust. I don't want to speak out of turn, but: If the survey is deemed of value to all concerned — blogger, PR representative, company, and so on — then Edelman and Technorati can take the constructive criticisms of the survey and make a second, better one in a year's time. (The natural extension of Edelman's annual Trust Barometer.) Companies are looking for ways to coexist with the mediasphere and the blogosphere. Let's — together — just focus on moving the ball forward, ten yards at a time. Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated on this blog, though foul and wasteful writings will be deleted. | HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil's demented imagination. Hell, to be perfectly honest, even Phil disagrees with what he thinks sometimes. This site has virtually no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Clicking on a link doesn't automatically send a 1/2-cent donation to UNICEF. You can't buy, sell, auction, swap, find a date, win friends, influence people, cross the chasm, or decode the human genome using this site. You won't get free email. You won't win a free video game console. This site will not end world hunger, foster peace in the Middle East, help you smell better, teach you how to swing dance, or move the global economy from petroleum to hydrogen fuels. You'll learn a lot about this site's master, though, which amounts to a haphazard collection of strange and useless facts that pretty much won't help you at all.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This is the blog of Phil Gomes, SVP with Edelman Digital and senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research. This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. Phil currently resides in Chicago, IL. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes.com View my page on PROpenMic SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.