Blogging the Enterprise, Guidewire Group 2005

8/15/2019 Blogging the Enterprise, Guidewire Group 2005

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Survey Sponsor

Executive Summary

Blogging in the Enterprise

A Guidewire Group Market Cycle Survey

October 2005


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The vast majorityof companies

(89%) are eitherblogging now orplanning to blogsoon.

Corporate Blogging Drives NextWave of Social Media Adoption

The next wave of adoption of social mediatools will be driven by corporations who areadopting blogs for both internal and externalcommunications at an increasing rate. This isthe primary finding of Guidewire GroupsBlogging in the Enterprise Survey .

Key Findings

Corporations of all sizes and across awide array of industries are adoptingblogging technologies and practices.89% of respondents are either bloggingnow or are planning to blog.

Corporate adoption of blogging isentering its hyper-growth phase. Morethan 50% of respondents have launchedone or more blogs in the last year. Lessthan 10% have been using blogs formore than 3 years.

Adoption is being driven by specificbusiness benefits from both internal-(improved internal communications 77.4%) and external- (improved brandrecognition 78%) facing deployments

Barriers to adoption exist, but they arelimited in scope compared to otheremerging technologies, and are notsignificantly related to technology issuesthemselves. Of corporations that do notyet blog, 57% say they are unsure of thebenefits, whereas 42% of those who doblog say that maintaining enthusiasm forthe blog deployment is the largestbarrier to success.


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53% ofcompanies areblogging.

Blogging haspenetratedvirtually everyindustry.

Who Is Blogging?

Smaller companies have been quicker to adoptblogging as a part of their communications strategies,followed by mid-sized. Guidewire Group suspectsthat the challenges of regulatory issues and policyhave slowed large company adoption to some degree.

< 10058%

100-100026%

> 100016%

Blogging Corporations by # of Employees

< $100M45%

NoAnswer

23%

$10-100M14%

> $100M16%

Blogging Corporations by Revenue

Respondents to the survey came from a cross-section of industries, including Advertising &Marketing (16%), Computers & ElectronicManufacturing (8%), and Professional Services(8%). Aerospace, Banking, Communications,Consumer Package Goods, Education, EnergyInsurance, were among other industriesrepresented.


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More than half ofall corporateblogs havestarted within the

last year.

No respondent

plans to scaleback or stopactivity.

70% of those notyet blogging planto start.

Blog Adoption IsRecent and Accelerating

A recent surge in corporate blogging,significant plans for expanding current bloggingactivities, and a large community of potentialcustomers suggest that corporate customers more so than traditional and new media outlets

will drive the future growth of the socialmedia market.

Less than 10% have used blogs for more than3 years. More than half of the organizationssurveyed had launched blogs only within thelast year, and the majority of those have beenstarted since June of this year.

pre-2002 2002 2003 2004 2005

Cumulative Corporate Respondents Blogging

The Market is poised for further rapid growth.Of those corporations currently blogging, 57%are planning to expand their activities,

Of those not currently blogging, the majority(70%) are positive they will add blogging totheir corporate communications mix. In fact,7% intend to start a blog immediately, and 13%intending to start a blog within a year. Half saidthey are studying the possibilities but did notstate a time line for blog adoption.


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55% ofcorporationshave adopted

blogs for bothinternal (91.4%)and external(96.6%)communications,and are findingsignificantbenefit to both

forms.

Solid Benefits Drive Adoption

The adoption rate of corporate blogging isclearly being driven by the benefits that haveaccrued to those who have embraced socialmedia technology.

Internal Blogging Uses and Benefits

Internal blogs are used for communicationwithin a company. Primary uses cited:

Knowledge-sharing (63%) Internal communications (44%) Project management (30%) Personal knowledge management (23%) Event logging (23%) Team management (20%)

The key benefits that respondents enjoyedfrom internal blogging include improvedinternal communications (77%), replacement ofother exiting work processes (41%), andreplacement of email (39%).

External Blogging Uses and Benefits

External blogs are mainly used forPR/marketing (61%) and demonstration ofthought leadership (61%). More than 40%reported they have a CEO blog and 35% useblogs for regular customer and partnercommunications.

The benefits of external blogs include improvedbrand recognition (78%) and externalcommunications (78%), as well as a vehicle forcustomer feedback (66%). A few respondentsare expecting blogs to generate income (20%),but many more are expecting this activity toimprove search engine position (58%).


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No respondentreportedlaunching a bloginitiative that wasfound to be

unsuccessful.

Barriers To Entry Are Manageable

While survey respondents detailed a variety ofbarriers to successful deployment of blogcommunications strategies, surprisingly,corporate cultural and policy issues surpassedtechnology concerns.

The biggest challenges faced by businessbloggers are maintaining enthusiasm for theblog project (42%) and encouraging adoption(36%) within the organization. Dealing withtechnological problems was a concern of only30% of respondents

While corporate policy and culture are oftenmentioned in dialog with those exploring theadoption of blogs, these survey respondentsdid not rate these challenges as overwhelming.Establishing editorial policy (14%) and dealingwith inappropriate comments or content (14%)are less challenging than enlistingmanagement support (18%), respondents said.

The primary reason (cited by 57% ofrespondents) for not having launched ablogging initiative is poor understanding of thebenefits blogging can deliver to theorganization. They also expressed uncertaintyabout issues such as measuring effectivenessor results (24%), fear of losing control of thecompany message (22%), and concern aboutwhat employees may write (22%).

Technology was not cited as a barrier toadoption for these non-blogging respondents.


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Methodology and Sample

The survey polled corporate marketing andcommunications professionals to gaugeadoption patterns, explore barriers to adoption,and discover new applications as businessestap the tools of social media to create newconversations with their customers, partners,and employees.

The BlogOn 2005 Social Media AdoptionSurvey was fielded for two weeks inSeptember 2005. The online survey was opento public participation, encouraged by directemail to a random sample of 5000 CMOMagazine readers, a press release announcingthe survey, and unsolicited postings in variousblogs and blog search engines. 140individuals responded to the survey.

Respondents represented a wide selection of job title, including C-level executives, President,Director, Marketing Manager, Student,Consultant, Professor and Systems Analyst.The vast majority of respondents are from theUSA (77%), with Canada, Western Europe andCentral/South America also represented.

Smaller companies were represented morethan larger ones, with 53% having a revenue of$10m, and 23% having a revenue of more than$100m; and 54% having less than 100employees and 19% having more than 1000.


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Guidewire Group600 Townsend StreetSuite 120eSan Francisco, CA 94103www.guidewiregroup.com

About Guidewire Group

Guidewire Group is a global research firmfocusing exclusively on emerging technologycompanies and markets. The company'sonline media, reports, and executive eventsbring the right people together at the right timewith the right information to accelerate marketdevelopment and business opportunity forentrepreneurs and those who support them.

Guidewire Group Research Services

For more information regarding GuidewireGroups research services, or to purchase acopy of the complete Blogging in the EnterpriseSurvey results, please contact Mike Sigal bytelephone (415-503-4066) or email([email protected])

About iUpload

iUpload is a leading content management andcorporate blogging software company whosesolutions help organizations optimize themarketing potential of their content. Whetheryou're an individual, a corporation or acommunity, iUpload provides a powerful one-stop solution for creating, managing anddistributing all of your content, while giving youa new social marketing platform that extendsyour corporate voice and strengthens yourbrand across multiple communities. Founded in1998, iUpload's headquarters are in Burlington,Ontario, Canada. For more information, visithttp://www.iupload.com.

Blogging the Enterprise, Guidewire Group 2005

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