Who’s Reading The Agitator?
Regular readers know we conducted an online survey last month of Agitator readers.
Here are the results we promised.
Experienced group: 85% have been in their current field more than five years; 65% more than ten years.
Nice balance: about 55% work for nonprofits, 30% with for-profits/service providers, and 15% are self-employed. Of the nonprofit folks, most work in direct marketing, followed by web/online strategy and general management.
Knowledge: readers report knowing a lot more about the “substance” of their organizations' work (e.g., external macro-trends, trends/concerns in their particular issue area) than they do about the “mechanics” that affect their work (e.g., relevance of new media, new technologies, even best practices).
For example, 73% give themselves top ratings (4/5 on scale to 5) on knowledge of trends in their orgs' issue area; 65% on knowledge of best practices in fundraising; 51% on knowledge of relevance of new media to their work; 49% on knowledge of new technologies that affect their work.
Not surprisingly then, only 30% rate their organizations either a 4 or 5 with respect to effectiveness at using new technologies to advance their work.
Info sources: 64% get their trade info “mostly online”; 10% “mostly print”; 26% “about even”. Virtually every respondent subscribes to an online newsletter in their field. About 56% subscribe to a regular blog feed (fewer to RSS feeds). And about 78% regularly scan work-relevant websites at their own initiative.
Finally, when our readers are stumped and need a breakthrough idea, the most frequent strategem is to brainstorm with others within their organizations (Hmmm! That sounds a bit insular). Second most likely course is browsing the web for ideas (OK, that's better). Third most likely is confering with a colleague in a similar organization.
So, does all this sound like you?
PS: Don't forget to take our “Transparency vs. Privacy” survey. Just go to the Survey box at top right of blog, or click here. Just takes 3 minutes!
Behavioral Science Q & A
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