Blogger survey results in by Technorati / Edelman

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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)
Answer Count Percent
Mid-level employees who work on research and development 174 21.19 %
Company employees that blog 281 34.22 %
Company executives 153 18.63 %
Product or brand managers 213 25.94 %

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....