Global Blogger Survey 2009: Finland

Blogger Survey 2009 FINLAND June 2009

Survey Methodology • Text 100 conducted the survey based predominantly on relationships with technology, news and lifestyle bloggers across 21 countries. This is the report for Finland; • Text 100 was responsible for respondent identification and recruiting, while Aha! Research programmed and collected responses via an online survey, analyzed, and reported the results; • A total of 24 surveys were analyzed. • Note that for some questions the sample size is small and should be interpreted with care; • All surveys were offered in English; • Survey period: April 6 to May 11, 2009. 2

Bloggers’ interest in contact with PR people Bloggers generally welcome contact from PR firms or a corporation to provide information, comments, and suggestions. Bloggers in APAC are slightly more welcoming than their counterparts in the USA and Europe 93 % 87 % 89 % (2008: 66%) APAC EURO USA Q.1: Do you welcome any contact from Public Relations (PR) firms or any corporation to provide information, offer comment or suggest people you might be interested in talking to? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 3

Bloggers’ past contact with PR people Bloggers report that contact initiated by a PR firm or corporation varies from 70% in APAC to 100% in the USA 100 % 86 % 70 % (2008: 66%) APAC EURO USA Q.2a: Have you been contacted by any Public Relations (PR) firms or corporations in the past 6 months about areas you have been focused on or are interested in? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 4

Bloggers’ interest and past contact with PR people (Finland) Welcome any contact from PR firm? All except two of the bloggers in this survey welcome contact from PR firms or corporations to provide information, comments, and suggestions. No 8% Past 6 months contact? Yes No 92 % 33 % 67% of respondents Yes have been contacted 67 % in the past 6 months Q.1: Do you welcome any contact from Public Relations (PR) firms or any corporation to provide information, offer comment or suggest people you might be interested in talking to? (n=24) Q.2a: Have you been contacted by any Public Relations (PR) firms or corporations in the past 6 months about areas you have been focused on or are interested in? (n=24) 5

Frequency of contact 100 % 4% 7% 7% 90 % 21% 8% 80 % 15% Almost all surveyed Less than once every two months 18% bloggers (96%) in the USA 13% Once every two months 70 % get contacted by PR firms 11% Once a month or corporations once a 60 % Once a week 13% week or more often. In More than once a week Europe (65%) and Asia 50 % 31% (36%) bloggers get Daily contacted once a week or 40 % 23% More than once a day more often 30 % 63% 12% 10% Once 20 % a 14% week 10 % or 19% 4% more 6% often 0% APAC EURO USA Q.2b: How frequently have you been contacted any Public Relations (PR) firms or corporations in the past 6 months? (n= APAC:163, EURO:163, USA:27) 6

Frequency of contact (Finland) 19% (n=3) got contacted more than once a week 100 % Past 6 months contact? 90 % 19 % More than once a day 80 % Daily 70 % No 38 % More than once a week 60 % 33 % 50 % Once a week Yes 67 % 40 % Once a month 30 % 38 % Once every two months 20 % 10 % Less than once every two months 6% 0% Q.2b: How frequently have you been contacted by any Public Relations (PR) firms or corporations in the past 6 months? (n=16) 7

Preferred means of contact 6,3 Email Mean score 6,0 5,7 on 7-point scale 3,6 Face-to-face 4,1 4,5 Email is the most preferred means of About half of bloggers in APAC 3,0 Comment on blog 4,1 contact with bloggers, and Europe indicate their 4,3 preferred means of contact on while SMS and IM are their blog 3,0 least preferred. APAC Micro-blogging 3,8 4,1 bloggers seem to be 57 % 52 % 3,0 more flexible in their Social networking invitation 3,3 preferred means of 4,1 contact 30 % 3,0 Telephone 2,8 3,9 USA 1,9 EURO Instant Messaging (IM) 2,4 3,8 APAC APAC EURO USA 1,6 SMS 1,7 3,4 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 7,0 7-point scale where 1=“Very Low preference” and 7=“Very high preference” Q.3a: Please indicate to what extent you prefer each of the following means of contact from PR firms or corporations on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is “Very low preference” and 7 is “Very high preference” (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) Q4: Do you indicate your most preferred form of contact on your blog? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 8

Preferred means of contact (Finland) Email is by far the most preferred means of contact among bloggers By email 6,0 Any indication of preferred means of Comment on your blog 4,9 contact shown on By face-to-face meeting 4,6 their blogs? By micro-blogging platform 3,6 Mean score By social networking invitation 3,5 on 7-point 62% of bloggers indicate scale their most preferred form By telephone 3,3 of contact on their blogs By instant messaging 2,5 By SMS 1,9 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 7,0 7-point scale where 1=“Very Low preference” and 7=“Very high preference” Q.3a: Please indicate to what extent you prefer each of the following means of contact from PR firms or corporations on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is “Very low preference” and 7 is “Very high preference” (n=24) Q4: Do you indicate your most preferred form of contact on your blog? (n=24) 9

Contact required before information distribution? In APAC, 88% prefer an introduction before Introductory face-to-face meetings with new receiving information from a PR firm or contacts are more important in APAC than in corporation with whom they have not had prior Europe or the USA contact, compared with only 41% in the USA 88 % 4,1 77 % 3,0 2,8 41 % APAC EURO USA APAC EURO USA Q.5: If a PR firm or corporation with whom you had no prior contact wants to send you their press releases or other information, do you prefer them to contact you first to introduce themselves, or just send you their information without an introduction? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) Q.6: How important you feel it is to have a face-to-face meeting before receiving information from a PR agency or corporation with whom you have not worked with before? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 10

Contact required before information distribution? (Finland) 83% of bloggers prefer to be introduced before receiving information from a PR firm or corporation How important is a face-to- with whom they have not had prior contact face introduction meeting? Opinions among bloggers Prefers no are fairly neutral though some feel introductio n strongly that it is not important to them 17 % On a 7-point „importance scale‟, the Prefers mean is 3.42 which indicates that the introductio n average opinion is neutral 83 % Q.5: If a PR firm or corporation with whom you had no prior contact wants to send you their press releases or other information, do you prefer them to contact you first to introduce themselves, or just send you their information without an introduction? (n=24) Q.6: How important you feel it is to have a face-to-face meeting before receiving information from a PR agency or corporation with whom you have not worked with before? (n=24) 11

Interest in selected types of content 6,0 Research, insights, new product development news 5,6 5,3 5,0 Opinionated responses to your blog posts 5,2 Mean score 5,5 on 7-point 5,0 Products to review 5,4 The most preferred content by scale 5,0 bloggers is news of new product 5,6 Interviews with key people 5,0 5,2 development and products for review, as well as feedback from 4,7 Market trend and forecast/analysis 4,7 4,8 USA readers and interviews with key people. 5,2 EURO Product announcements 4,8 4,4 APAC 4,3 Bloggers show the least interest Competitive product analysis 4,2 4,7 in corporate news 4,3 announcements Event announcements 4,3 4,6 Long-term and strategic related content about 3,8 3,9 corporations 4,4 3,5 Corporate news announcements 3,1 3,5 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 7,0 7-point scale where 1=“Not interested at all” and 7=“Very interested” Q.8a: Now let‟s talk about your preferred content for your blog. For each of the following types of content, please use this scale where 1 means you are not interested at all and 7 means you are very interested in this content. (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 12

Interest in selected types of content (Finland) Opinionated responses, products to review, and interviews, are the most sought after content type while corporate news announcements is of least interest Opinionated responses to your blog posts 5,6 Products to review 5,6 Interviews with key people 5,5 Research, insights, new product development news 5,1 Market trend and forecast/analysis 4,7 Product announcements 4,4 Competitive product analysis 4,3 Mean score on 7-point Event announcements 4,1 scale Long-term and strategic related content about corporations 4,0 Corporate news announcements 3,4 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 7,0 7-point scale where 1=“Not interested at all” and 7=“Very interested” Q.8a: Now let‟s talk about your preferred content for your blog. For each of the following types of content, please use this scale where 1 means you are not interested at all and 7 means you are very interested in this content. (n=24) 13

Content format: Frequency of usage 74 % Photographs 88 % 88 % 37 % Charts and graphs 44 % Photographs are the most 41 % frequently used content forms while podcasts are least USA 37 % frequently used Video streaming 43 % EURO 34 % APAC 15 % Video podcast 26 % 16 % % who used 15 % “a few times a Audio podcast 13 % month” or more 15 % frequently Q.9: How frequently have you used each of the following content formats on your blog over the past 6 months? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 14

Content format: Frequency of usage (Finland) Photographs are the most frequently used content type with 79% of bloggers using them a few times a month or more. Video or audio podcasts are used less than a few times in the past 6 months by most of these bloggers Daily Few times a week Few times a month Few times in past 6 months Less often Not at all Photographs 33 % 29 % 17 % 17 % 4% Charts and graphs 21 % 17 % 25 % 17 % 21 % Video streaming 4% 13 % 17 % 17 % 8% 42 % Video podcast 4% 8% 8% 4% 75 % Audio podcast 8% 17 % 75 % 0% 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % 100 % Q.9: How frequently have you used each of the following content formats on your blog over the past 6 months? (n=24) 15

Social Media Releases Among those aware of SMRs, effectiveness evaluation is on the positive side (7-point Social Media Releases (SMRs) have “effectiveness scale where highest awareness amongst APAC 7=Very effective) bloggers (48%) (note: small USA sample size) 5,3 48 % 4,8 5,0 38 % 26 % APAC EURO USA APAC EURO USA Q.10a: Have you ever heard of a Social Media Release (definition provided in the questionnaire? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) Q.10b: How effective do you think Social Media Releases are as a means to keep you updated on corporations? (7-point scale) (n= APAC:112, EURO:72, USA:7) 16

Social Media Releases Bloggers generally experienced an increase over the past year in the usage of SMRs by companies to communicate with them (note: small USA sample size) 68 % 63 % 57 % APAC EURO USA Q.10c: Compared with a year ago, to what extent are companies using Social Media Releases to communicate with you and other bloggers? (n= APAC:112, EURO:72, USA:7) 17

Social Media Releases (Finland) SMR Effectiveness Among those 3 bloggers who have heard of SMRs, 1 feels SMRs are a very effective means of keeping them updated on corporations Compared with a year ago, 2 of (note: small sample size) the 3 bloggers experienced an 12% (n=3) of the surveyed increase of SMR usage by bloggers are aware of companies wanting to Social Media Releases communicate with them (note: small sample size) Yes 12 % 35 % 33 % 33 % 33 % 30 % 25 % 20 % 15 % No 10 % 88 % 5% 0% 0% 0% Increased Increased Remained Decreased Decreased significantly somewhat unchanged somewhat significantly Q.10a: Have you ever heard of a Social Media Release (definition provided in the questionnaire? (n=24) Q.10b: How effective do you think Social Media Releases are as a means to keep you updated on corporations? (7-point scale) (n=3) Q.10c: Compared with a year ago, to what extent are companies using Social Media Releases to communicate with you and other bloggers? (n=3) 18

Use of SMR elements Usage of elements from SMRs in the Intention to use elements from past year is highest in APAC SMRs in the next year is high in (note: small USA sample size) both APAC and Europe (note: small USA sample size) Past year usage Next year intent to use (often / very often) (somewhat / significantly more often) 26 % 64 % 61 % 43 % 15 % 0% APAC EURO USA APAC EURO USA Q.10d: In the past year, how often have you taken elements (video, quotes, pictures, links) from a Social Media Releases to use in your own blog postings? Q.10e: In the next year, how often are you likely to use elements from a Social Media Release for use in your own blog postings? (n= APAC:112, EURO:72, USA:7) 19

Use of SMR elements (Finland) None of these 3 bloggers frequently took Two of the 3 bloggers said they will use elements such as videos, quotes, pictures and SMR elements more often in the links from SMRs to use in their own blogs. (note: small sample size) coming year, while 1 said less often (note: small sample size) 35 % 33 % 33 % 33 % 70 % 67 % 30 % Past year 60 % Next year intent 25 % usage 50 % to use 20 % 40 % 33 % 15 % 30 % 20 % 10 % 10 % 5% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% Significantly Somewhat Same as in Somewhat Significantly Always Very often Sometimes Rarely Never more often more often the past year less often less often Q.10d: In the past year, how often have you taken elements (video, quotes, pictures, links) from a Social Media Releases to use in your own blog postings? (n=3) Q.10e: In the next year, how often are you likely to use elements from a Social Media Release for use in your own blog postings? (n=3) 20

Popular blogging subjects “Computers”, “technology” and “Internet” are the most blogged about subjects APAC EUROPE USA Computers and technology 67 % Internet / Web 2.0 83 % Computers and technology 78 % Internet / Web 2.0 61 % Computers and technology 74 % Internet / Web 2.0 67 % Culture and Community 52 % Media 50 % Business and finance 52 % Entertainment / Arts/ Music 45 % Brands / marketing/ media 45 % Media 26 % Brands / marketing/ media 42 % Culture and Community 43 % Gaming 26 % Media 41 % Business and finance 31 % Brands / marketing/ media 22 % Current affairs 31 % Gaming 28 % Culture and Community 15 % General News 27 % Entertainment / Arts/ Music 27 % Entertainment / Arts/ Music 11 % Business and finance 27 % Science 23 % Current affairs 11 % Government & Politics 20 % Government & Politics 18 % Government & Politics 7% Gaming 16 % General News 17 % Science 4% Science 15 % Current affairs 17 % General News 4% Q.11: Which of the following subjects do you normally blog about? (Select all that apply) (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 21

Popular blogging subjects (Finland) The Internet is the most blogged about subject among these bloggers Internet / Web 2.0 79 % Media 50 % Culture and Community 42 % Computers and technology 42 % Brands / marketing/ media 42 % Business and finance 33 % Entertainment / Arts/ Music 29 % Gaming 21 % Science 17 % % who normally blogs about each subject Government & Politics 8% General News 8% Current affairs 8% 0% 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % Q.11: Which of the following subjects do you normally blog about? (Select all that apply) (n=24) 22

Importance of various information sources about corporations “Other bloggers”, “Corporate websites”, and “RSS feeds” are the surveyed bloggers‟ most important sources of corporate information. Traditional media is of less importance APAC EUROPE USA Other bloggers 5,4 Other bloggers 5,8 Corporation websites 5,4 RSS Feeds 4,9 RSS Feeds 5,3 Other bloggers 5,2 Corporation websites 4,9 Corporation websites 4,9 RSS Feeds 4,9 Social networks 4,8 Corporate bloggers 4,8 Newspapers 4,7 Corporate bloggers 4,8 Micro-blogging sites 4,6 Magazines 4,7 Micro-blogging sites 4,7 Social networks 4,4 Corporate bloggers 4,0 Newspapers 4,6 Newspapers 4,3 Social networks 3,6 Magazines 4,4 Magazines 3,9 Micro-blogging sites 3,4 Social bookmarking sites 4,1 Social bookmarking sites 3,9 Television 3,1 Television 4,0 Television 3,0 Social bookmarking sites 2,8 7-point scale where 1=“Not important at all” and 7=Very important” Q.12: Please indicate how important each of the following sources are for information about corporations? Please use this scale where 1 is “not important at all” and 7 is “very Important”. You may use any number from 1 to 7 (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 23

Importance of various information sources about corporations (Finland) “Other bloggers” is the most important source of information about corporations. Traditional media is of less importance. Other bloggers 6,0 Corporation websites 5,3 Corporate bloggers 5,0 Social networks 4,9 RSS Feeds 4,6 Micro-blogging sites 4,3 Mean scores on 7-point Newspapers 4,1 scale Social bookmarking sites 3,9 Magazines 3,8 Television 2,8 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0 5,0 6,0 7,0 7-point scale where 1=“Not important at all” and 7=Very important” Q.12: Please indicate how important each of the following sources are for information about corporations? Please use this scale where 1 is “not important at all” and 7 is “very Important”. You may use any number from 1 to 7 (n=24) 24

Time spent blogging APAC bloggers spend the least amount of time blogging while USA bloggers spend the most 7% 18% 9+ hrs / 21 % 24% week: 31 % 36% 41 % 30 % APAC 18% EURO USA 9+ hrs / week: 44% 35 % 13 % 40% 22 % 9+ hrs / week: 63% More than 16 hours 9 to 16 hours 4 to 8 hours Less than 4 hours Q.13: How much of your working week is spent blogging? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 25

Time spent blogging (Finland) 33% of the bloggers spend more than 9 hours of their working week blogging More than 16 hours 21 % 9+ hrs / Less than 4 hours week: 38 % 33% Finland 9 to 16 hours 13 % 4 to 8 hours 29 % Q.13: How much of your working week is spent blogging? (n=24) 26

Micro-blogging The impact of micro-blogging on 81% of bloggers in the USA and normal blogging is the highest in Europe use micro-blogging, compared APAC (29%) and Europe (27%) where with 76% in APAC bloggers reported to be blogging more as a result of their micro-blogging 81 % 81 % 76 % 29 % 27 % 18 % APAC EURO USA APAC EURO USA Q.14a: Micro-blogging sites such as twitter, Plurk and Fanfou are increasingly popular alternatives to blogging (and social networking). Do you use a micro-blogging site? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) Q.14b: IF YES: Since starting to use a micro-blogging site, has your blogging… (n= APAC:177, EURO:153, USA:22) 27

Micro-blogging (Finland) About 1 in 4 (23%) of these bloggers think that micro-blogging has increased their normal blogging 75% of bloggers use a micro- blogging service such as twitter 23% 39% 45 % 39 % 40 % 35 % 33 % 30 % No 25 % 25 % 20 % 17 % n=18 15 % Yes 10 % 75 % 6% 6% 5% 0% Significantly Somewhat Neither Somewhat Significantly increased increased increased nor decreased decreased decreased Q.14a: Micro-blogging sites such as twitter and are increasingly popular alternatives to blogging (and social networking). Do you use a micro-blogging site? (n=24) Q.14b: IF YES: Since starting to use a micro-blogging site, has your blogging… (n=18) 28

Honoring an embargo All bloggers (100%) in the USA would honor the terms of an embargo placed on a story idea or announcement, compared to only 90% in Europe 100 % 97 % 90 % APAC EURO USA Q.15: If offered a story idea or announcement under embargo (that is, the material is sent to you in advance of when the organization wants it in the public arena, and advise a time and date after which it can be used), would you honor the terms of the embargo? (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 29

Honoring an embargo (Finland) No 8% All except 2 of these bloggers would honor the terms of an embargo placed on a story idea or announcement Yes 92 % Q.15: If offered a story idea or announcement under embargo (that is, the material is sent to you in advance of when the organization wants it in the public arena, and advise a time and date after which it can be used), would you honor the terms of the embargo? (n=24) 30

Acknowledging sponsorships Bloggers in the USA are more likely to agree that they should acknowledge that their blog or post is „supported‟ when making positive posts in return for some sort of compensation Product reviews Advertorials Posts that support a blogs advertisers Incentives or gifting to report 100,0% 89 % 89 % 90,0% 85 % 85 % 81 % 80 % 80 % 80,0% 74 % 71 % 68 % 70,0% 64 % 60,0% 58 % 50,0% 40,0% 30,0% 20,0% 10,0% 0,0% APAC EURO USA Q.16: There has been some discussion in the blogosphere regarding bloggers making positive posts in return for some sort of compensation. Some say that ethically, bloggers should acknowledge that their blog or post is „supported‟, while others disagree. Do you agree, or disagree, that bloggers should acknowledge corporate sponsorship for: (n= APAC:233, EURO:189, USA:27) 31

Acknowledging sponsorships (Finland) These bloggers generally agree that they should acknowledge that their blog or post is „supported‟ when making positive posts in return for some sort of compensation Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither disagree nor agree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Incentives or gifting to report 50 % 29 % 13 % 4% 4% Posts that support a blogs advertisers 46 % 33 % 13 % 8% Product reviews 54 % 21 % 4% 8% 13 % Advertorials 50 % 21 % 25 % 4% 0% 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % 100 % Q.16: There has been some discussion in the blogosphere regarding bloggers making positive posts in return for some sort of compensation. Some say that ethically, bloggers should acknowledge that their blog or post is „supported‟, while others disagree. Do you agree, or disagree, that bloggers should acknowledge corporate sponsorship for: (n=24) 32

Indication of association with blogged about entity Agreement is highest in the USA that bloggers should always clearly state their employer or association if blogging on issues or topics that relate to their businesses 96 % 87 % 75 % APAC EURO USA Q.17: there has been some discussion in the blogosphere regarding corporate bloggers that don‟t clearly indicate their association with an enterprise or organization. To what extent do you agree, or disagree, that “bloggers should always clearly state their employer or association if blogging on issues or topics that relate to their businesses?” (n=449) 33

Indication of association with blogged about entity (Finland) Most (84%) agree that bloggers should always clearly state their employer or association if blogging on issues or topics that relate to their businesses 70 % 63 % 60 % 50 % 84% 40 % 30 % 21 % 20 % 13 % 10 % 4% 0% 0% Strongly agree Somewhat Neither Somewhat Strongly agree disagree nor disagree disagree agree Q.17: there has been some discussion in the blogosphere regarding corporate bloggers that don‟t clearly indicate their association with an enterprise or organization. To what extent do you agree, or disagree, that “bloggers should always clearly state their employer or association if blogging on issues or topics that relate to their businesses?” (n=24) 34

Blogger Survey 2009 FINLAND June 2009 Lisätietoja: Kimmo Kuokka Text 100 Conexio kimmo.kuokka@conexio.fi gsm +35840 574 1532

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Global Blogger Survey 2009: Finland

by Kimmo Kuokka on Jun 26, 2009

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