Blogging Research Methodology Archive

2.0 Summaries Of Blogger Statements In Relation To Blog Success Questions

posted: November 2, 2006 3:04 AM

We asked the following questions to understand what a company needs to do to develop a successful corporate blog:

  1. How does the set up of a blog contribute to a blog’s success?

  2. What is it about how you blog that makes the blog a success?

  3. What is it about the content on a blog that makes a blog success?  

To answer each of the three questions, we identified a number of practical tips or factors from the blogger interviews that describe the steps a company might take to develop a successful corporate blog. One or more blogger statements were excerpted from the blogger case studies to provide examples for each of the tips, and they were organized by the three questions.

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Appendix 4.0 Research Methodology

posted: October 28, 2006 5:43 PM

Late in the fall of 2005, Dr. Walter Carl of Northeastern University and John Cass of Backbone Media. started to discuss some ideas about what it takes to build a successful blog.  Dr. Carl had previously conducted word of mouth marketing research, and John Cass had been the lead author on the Backbone Corporate Blogging Survey of 2005, a survey and series of case studies on corporate blogs.  Both colleagues wanted to expand on their own research, yet answer a different set of questions while collaborating together in a new research project. Dr. Carl’s Advanced Organizational Communication spring class on corporate blogging was seen as the opportunity to ask some different questions about corporate blogging.  

The research team wanted to determine the reasons, conditions, and factors it takes to make a successful blog, and in the process help a company to determine if they should blog and how they should blog.  To this goal Dr. Carl's students interviewed 20 corporate bloggers with a view to determining how each person began blogging.  In addition, student interviewers would learn from the process of conducting the blogging success interviews for credit in Dr. Carl’s class, from helping to design the survey questions to conducting and transcribing the interviews. There were initial qualifying questions asked to determine whether the blogger would be included in the study.  We asked if the bloggers had been blogging for longer than one year, and if the blogger considered their blog a success.

Northeastern University’s Division of Research Integrity approved the study.

Participants for the study were recruited from the list of people who participated in the Backbone Media corporate blogging survey 2005 by email.  In addition, several study participants were recruited through announcements on blogs and by networking with bloggers directly.

The interviews for the surveys took place during April of 2006. Students contacted study participants to set up a time for an interview.  Students used the interview questionnaire to ask participants a series of questions.  The interviews were then recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for recurring themes.

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