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Paul Gillin's Blog - Social Media and the Open Enterprise

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Survey says IT pros put their trust in social media

ITtoolbox and adverting agency PJA published the results of a survey that they say demonstrates that IT professionals spend more time on social media sites than reading traditional trade publications and trust the information they find there more than any other published source.

The results serve ITToolbox's interests and the .5% response rate makes them statistically irrelevant; still, the findings about trust are probably valid. IT managers have always said they trust each other more than any other source, probably because the other sources haven't done a very good job of being all that reliable.
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I question the survey's findings that executive decision-makers spend 3.5 hours a week on social media sites, but I have no doubt that the people who work further down in the organizations spend at least that much time. After all, Slashdot.org was probably the earliest successful group blog. It was Digg.com before there was a Digg.com.

¶ 2:41 PM

Comments:

Paul,
Thanks for commenting on the survey. I take your point about ITToolbox...survey respondents were pulled from the ranks of the community, so one can assume they are already inclined to know and trust social media. You could, by the way, say the same thing about the technology publishers, who produce IT purchase studies that invariably rate tech trade publications as a top purchase influencer. I think the point is to understand any inherent bias, but then to take what is interesting with your eyes open. And for me, the finding on trust was telling, as was the level of engagement in social media among executive decision-makers. Consumption by business audiences established the mean at 100; executives scored 121, or higher than any audience.

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Mike : 10:24 AM

Our research in a completely different market (biotech research instrumentation) confirms your skepticism about senior decision makers with purchaing authority relying on social media for advice and guidance. They generally do not have the time or generational inclincation to use such resources. On the other hand, we created an online forum for scientists to share experiences and recommendations and they do so with great enthusiasm, and such interactions are most definitely influential in what they recommend to those with power of the purse. At least in our market, I believe our clients need to understand how this information transaction occurs between those at the lab bench and those who write the check.

On a side note, in survey research response rate is less important than sample size and (as noted by a previous poster) sample bias. The 2,000 usable responses cited by the ITToolbox/PJA survey are definitely statistically significant.

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