Search & Social Media Survey Report

Greenlight, a digital marketing agency based in London, has created some buzz with its Search & Social Media Survey 2011/2012.  You can read the report from the survey at the link below.

From the Foreword:

Our annual Search & Social Media Survey 2011/2012, is based on questions we posed to 500 people from all over the world – students, law enforcement professionals, medical staff, accountants, lawyers, the unemployed, and everyone in between. We wanted to hear directly from them about how they engage with online advertising, search engines, and social networks, in the hope that we could gain some insight into how people engage with us as marketers today, and also help us formulate some views on what the future might hold.

For instance, our research found that, of 500 respondents, 5% would ‘definitely’ use a future Facebook search engine if the firm were to launch one to rival Google’s . The other extreme, those categorically saying that they simply would not use a future Facebook search engine, totalled 26% of all respondents. Those responding in the ‘definitely’ and ‘probably’ camps totalled 17%. Those responding ‘no’ and ‘probably not’, totalled 48%.

These stats therefore suggest that Facebook could capture around 22% of the global search market by simply launching its own search engine tomorrow morning (the ‘definitely’, ‘probably’, and half of the ‘don’t know’ respondents combined). It wouldn’t need to be a spectacular engine either, just well integrated into the Facebook experience and generally competent. This 22% market share would make Facebook the second most utilised search engine in every major market except for China, Japan, and Russia, where it would occupy an uncontested third place.

 Direct link to document (PDF; 2.5 MB)

AAPOR's Other Publications

We all know the American Association for Public Opinion's flagship journal, Public Opinion Quarterly, since 1937, available full text from OUP.  But you may not know about two other publications from AAPOR. Survey Practice, an e-journal with public opinion and survey research articles and commentary by and for practitioners. This bi-monthly blog of sorts is available on the AAPOR site going back to 2008.



Also on the site is the 7th edition of Standard Definitions, Final Dispositions of Case Codes and Outcome Rates for Surveys: RDD Telephone Surveys, In-Person Household Surveys, Mail Surveys of Specifically Named Persons, Internet Surveys of Specifically Named Persons (2011). 

Communication-Related Mental Measures

The National Communication Association has published a reference source on communication-related mental measures titled Directory of Communication Related Mental Measures: A Comprehensive Index of Research Scales, Questionnaires, Indices, Measures, and Instruments. Edited by Jason Wrench, Doreen Jowi, and Alan Goodboy, it features over 500 mental measures that have been published in communication journals. This volume will be useful to communication scholars including graduate students, applied researchers, and communication instructors. Divided into 27 chapters that cover a wide range of mental measures in various communication contexts and featuring a comprehensive index, this collection brings together important mental measures published in peer-reviewed academic journals in a singular volume.

More information and a table of contents can be found here.

The book is available in the Annenberg Library Reference, at P 91.3 D574 2010.

Pew Report on Generational Differences in Online Activity

Just released, Generations Online in 2009, from Pew Intenet & American Life Project. This report tracks internet use across generations.

From the Report's Overview:

"...the biggest online trend is that, while the very youngest and oldest cohorts may differ, certain key internet uses are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups. These online activities include seeking health information, purchasing products, making travel reservations, and downloading podcasts.

Even in areas that are still dominated by Millennials, older generations are making notable gains. While the youngest generations are still significantly more likely to use social network sites, the fastest growth has come from internet users 74 and older: social network site usage for this oldest cohort has quadrupled since 2008, from 4% to 16%.

The primary adult data in this report is based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans' use of the Internet. The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between April 29 and May 30, 2010, among a sample of 2,252 adults ages 18 and older, including 744 reached on a cell phone. Interviews were conducted in English."

New NCI Report on How Americans Obtain Information About Cancer

Cancer Communication: Health Information National Trends Survey 2003 and 2005, an 85 page report based on data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) conducted every other year and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is available at the NIH website. The NCI first conducted the study in 2003, surveying the U.S. civilian adult population to assess trends in the usage of health information over time and to study the links among cancer-related communication, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. From the press release: "The newly issued report provides a snapshot of how Americans are responding to changes in access to information and the abundance of health information. The data show a growing preference toward receiving health information -- whether cancer-related or other health information -- from a health care provider than from other sources, such as printed materials, friends and family, information specialists, and the Internet." About 12,000 responses (by random telephone calls) were recorded in both years combined.