世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2]

Over four days at the end of November and start of December last year, goo Research carried out a closed internet-based survey of 2,207 businesspeople to find out about the use of intra-company communication tools and blogs, and other related matters.

Note that this survey was carried out before probably the most famous Japanese blogging CEO became an ex-president and an ex-blogger, so I wonder how the answers to the questions in this second half would change if this survey were repeated today.

One thing I noticed from the company I worked for’s attempt to introduce a community was that a cheerleader or evangelist is needed to help get the ball rolling. Although the next survey question suggests that over half the people want to see management backing, the backing in itself is not the key, I don’t think, it is that the bosses should also be in the vanguard, otherwise there may be a tendency for the whole think to just fizzle out.

Q8: In what situations would you participate in a company-internal information-sharing blog? (Sample size=1,145, wanting to blog people in Q7, multiple answer)

Easy to use	67.8%
Can freely participate	63.8%
Boss’s understanding or backing from management	54.3%
Can create a team, group or project blog	47.0%
Blog evangelist to take the lead in writing to blogs, etc	41.7%
Can create personal blog	18.5%
Pleasing on the eye design	11.4%
Other	1.9%

Q9: What are your opinions on keyword searching? (Sample size=1,743, non-blogging tool users in Q1, multiple answer)

Like to use if desired information could be readily found	51.5%
Definitely use if I thought it was useful	24.6%
Don’t think I’d use if I thought it would be quicker to ask someone nearby	19.7%
Don’t think I’d use if the correctness of contributed information was unclear	19.0%
Other	2.3%

Q10: Do you know about “Presidents’ blogs”, the blog of a director of a company? (Sample size=1,865, tool users)

Yes (to Q11)	45.8%
No (to Q15)	54.2%

Q11: Does your own company president have a “President’s blog”? (Sample size=855, from Q10)

Writes a blog only available on the company intranet (to Q12)	8.9%
Writes a blog viewable on the internet (to Q12)	4.3%
Does not have a blog (to Q13)	86.8%

Looking at the breakdown by company size, almost a fifth of those employed by companies larger than 1,000 people have a president who blogs on their intranet; on the other hand, just over 10% of the smallest companies have an external-facing president’s blog, which perhaps suggests that the small companies use their blogs as another advertising channel. I wonder how many of the respondents to this question are in fact the company president themselves!

Q12: Do you read your own company’s “President’s blog”? (Sample size=113)

Read it every time it is updated	41.6%
Don’t read it every time, but regularly catch up with the latest entries	24.8%
Don’t regularly read; only when something catches my eye	24.8%
I’ve glanced at the page but almost never read it	4.4%
Never read it at all	4.4%

A breakdown of the readership pattern by company size followed in the original report, but as the sample size is very small, I don’t think anything useful can be drawn from that data.

Q13: Do you read other companies’ “President’s blog”? (Sample size=855)

Read every time updated	4.6%
Don’t read every time, but regularly catch up with the latest entries	10.1%
Don’t regularly read; only when something catches my eye	31.1%
I’ve glanced at pages but almost never read	33.3%
Never read at all	20.9%

I’m not sure how people who have read more than one other company blog are supposed to answer the above question.

Q14: When reading a “President’s blog”, to what degree to you understand the company’s vision? (Sample size=701, those who have read either their own or other companies’ blogs)

Extremely deeply	5.4%
To some degree of depth	38.7%
Not very deeply	40.5%
Not deeply at all	13.7%
Other	1.7%

Q15: What is your opinion on your own company president transmitting information by blog? (Sample size=1,602, those with non-blogging directors)

Want to regularly read	30.5%
In favour, but won’t regularly read	44.1%
Current method of information transmission is sufficient	22.9%
Other	2.8%

[part 1] [part 2]