Wikimedia Blog/Research/2015 Survey

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The Wikimedia Foundation's Communications team manages and edits the Wikimedia Blog, an online publication that serves the Wikimedia movement.

To learn what our users think of the blog, we ran a blog survey in February-March 2015, asking a variety of questions about its content, features -- and suggestions for improvement.

Survey responses from 410 participants show that a majority find the Wikimedia Blog useful, but that they only visit it about once a month -- relying on emails, social media and web links to draw them in. Wikimedia contributors tend to find the blog slightly more useful than readers or developers.

Participants prefer content quality over quantity, with more depth and relevance. Popular topics include technology, community and movement news, as well as human-interest profiles. Respondents would like to see more reports from community members, translated in more languages. They want easier ways to find stories they are interested in -- and more visibility on popular sites where they are active, from wiki projects to social networks.

This full survey report was originally posted here on April 30, 2015; this shorter report was posted on the Wikimedia blog.

Fabrice Florin, Movement Communications Manager, Wikimedia Foundation

Overview[edit]

Goals[edit]

Here were our goals for this survey:

  • understand who our current blog users are
  • find out what they like / don't like, by user group
  • identify content and feature improvements
  • inform our content strategy for communications

Methodology[edit]

For this survey, we reached out to various user groups from February 24 to April 24, 2015, through a wide range of channels: about half of survey responses came from email invitations (e.g. mailing lists such as Wikimedia-l, Wikitech-l and Wmf-l, as well as direct emails to donors and readers); a third came from the blog (e.g.: special blog post, call to action in sidebar); and the rest from social media posts (e.g.: Facebook, Twitter).

Respondents were asked to complete a short online questionnaire powered by Survey Monkey (see survey form below). Their responses were also analyzed in Survey Monkey (see results dashboard), as well as in this online spreadsheet. The survey was conducted in English.

We collected 410 responses during this survey. From this total, 266 people completed the survey, including a question on how they participate on Wikimedia: this is the sample we used to calculate most numbers cited in this report; no weights were applied to the results and no data cleaning was done. Respondents represented a wide range of perspectives, including readers, donors, contributors, active community members, developers and foundation staff.

Key Findings[edit]

Here are highlights from the survey's quantitative and qualitative results.


Visits Graph from the 2015 Blog Survey Report

Visits[edit]

A majority of respondents say they visit the blog at least once a month (78%). About a third of respondents visit once a week, and another fifth visit once a day. Wikipedia readers participating in the survey tend to visit the blog less often (75% monthly visits) than contributors (80%) or developers (88%).

Many respondents said they do not visit frequently: they are usually prompted to visit by an email, a social media post or a web link. This response from one user is typical of what we heard from many others: "Good articles, but I never remember to check regularly".


Usefulness Graph from the 2015 Blog Survey Report

Usefulness[edit]

Overall, the majority of respondents find the Wikimedia blog useful. About half find it very useful or mostly useful; another third find it moderately useful. This corresponds to a 3.5 average satisfaction rating, on a scale of 1 to 5. Respondents who identify as female find the blog more useful than male users. And Wikimedia contributors tend to find the blog slightly more useful than readers or developers.

Comments[edit]

Respondents were invited to comment on what they thought of the blog. About a third left comments: they tended to be more positive (17%) than negative (4%), with many constructive suggestions for improvement, as shown in this slide. Overall, contributors and developers left more comments than readers. Each comment was hand-coded with different categories -- and we have featured some the most frequent requests below.


Content Preferences Graph from the 2015 Blog Survey Report

Quality over Quantity[edit]

A majority of respondents would like better content, with a focus on quality (65%) -- as opposed to more frequent content (14%). This view was surfaced both through a multiple choice question -- as well as in unprompted comments, such as this one: "Maybe less frequent, but more high-impact/interest posts could keep it more relevant."


Content Topics Graph from the 2015 Blog Survey Report

Popular topics[edit]

When asked what they would like to read more on the blog, participants pointed to these popular topics: tech / product updates (59%), movement-wide issues (58%), community news (54%) and human-interest profiles (40%). Though there was wide interest in these topics across user groups, developers were more interested in tech / product updates, contributors preferred movement and community news, and readers or donors responded more favorably to human-interest profiles.


New Content Graph from the 2015 Blog Survey Report

New content[edit]

When asked which new content ideas they were most interested in, respondents picked these favorites, from a multiple-choice question:

  • Tech reports - stories on new software / hardware developments (53%)
  • Wikipedia highlights - new or trending articles and images (52%)
  • How-to's - short videos with tips on how to use Wikipedia (42%)
  • In the news - roundups of articles on top news stories (34%)

Other community suggestions included more news from wiki projects around the world, interviews with WMF team members and more data-driven research reports.

More diversity[edit]

Another popular request from open-ended comments was a desire for more diverse voices (21% of comments) and more posts about community initiatives (20%). Respondents asked for "more participation of individual members of the community", and suggested we "get a few regular editors as contributors."

A number of respondents asked for "less fluff/promotion/feel-good" posts (9% of comments), with more "focus on significant achievements, tools, or issues." Some comments requested "less WMF-propaganda", pointing to "self-promoting" blog posts by foundation staff.

More languages[edit]

Many participants would like to see blog content in more languages, both in response to a multiple-choice question (40%) and in open-ended comments (8%). And one respondent suggested the "ability for volunteers to add translations of the blog posts." Several respondents also asked for "more global" content (5%), representing "different cultures all over the world," not just the blog's "dominant western, anglo-saxon voice". It's likely that these numbers would have been even higher if the survey had been conducted in languages other than English.

Better discovery[edit]

Some respondents asked for easier ways to find the content they were interested in (10% of comments). As this participant points out: "there is no real categorisation of blog posts, which makes it a bit confusing." Another one says: "It's not always obvious which one will have information that I care about."

A number of people requested more categories (8%) -- which suggests that current categories could be made more visible (the navigation bar for the 4 main themes is hard to see, and there is no easy access to the dozens of other categories we support). Several comments stated that "it's not just *one* blog, it's a whole bunch of different ones", with one proposal that the site be "be split into a public/reader-facing and a communities/editor-facing blog."

More visibility[edit]

Some participants thought the blog should be integrated with other, more popular sites (9% of comments). As one respondent put it: "More visibility! I would love if readers and donors knew better where to find it." Some users suggested "a much bigger presence on social media", while others recommended "a more prominent link to the blog" from the wikis, or that the blog posts "be featured in relevant wiki project pages."


Notifications Graph from the 2015 Blog Survey Report

Notifications[edit]

Nearly half of respondents would like to be notified when new content is posted on the blog. One participant says: "I forget to go to the blog", and another chimes in: "I need to be reminded it exists." The most popular notification methods include Facebook (34%), Twitter (31%) a blog email list (30%) and on user talk pages (22%). Other channels suggested by participants included RSS (12%) and Echo notifications (1%) -- along with more requests for direct email notifications (with a preference for weekly digests).

More multimedia[edit]

About a third of respondents wanted more multimedia content (e.g.: "more pics, more material in different formats eg short video interviews"), suggesting a preference for more audio-visual experiences.

Shorter posts[edit]

About a third of respondents wanted shorter posts, reflecting a general trend on the Internet for more granular, short-form content.

Recommendations[edit]

Based on these key findings, here are some action items to consider for the blog:

  • focus on quality, aiming to publish stories with more depth and relevance
  • concentrate on popular topics: technology, community and movement news and profiles
  • experiment with new ideas, such as Wikipedia highlights, how-to's or research studies
  • engage more community members as blog authors, with more diverse backgrounds
  • translate blog posts in more languages, working with volunteers for a more global reach
  • clearly label content categories, so people can find stories that match their interests
  • increase the blog's visibility on popular sites, from wiki projects to social networks
  • send email notifications when new content is posted on the blog, on an opt-in basis
  • feature more multimedia content and shorter posts

These recommendations will inform our content strategy and next steps for the blog. In coming weeks, we will discuss their their feasibility with team members, then aim to gradually develop the most promising and cost-effective suggestions.

We are very grateful to all the community and team members who took the time to share their experience with the blog and suggest practical improvements. And special thanks to the WMF team members who helped us plan, implement and analyze this survey. This collaborative research work is key to making informed decisions about the content we publish -- and we look forward to sharing more findings on the blog in coming weeks. Onward!

Detailed Findings[edit]

Here is a breakdown of other information we learned from this blog survey.

Respondents[edit]

Respondents can be broken down into these user groups, as shown on this graph (links for each group point to their respective survey dashboards):

(Note that many respondents identified with more than one user group, which is why numbers above exceed 100%).

Gender[edit]

Here is the gender breakdown of respondents who completed the survey:

  • Male (72% identified as male)
  • Female (22% identified as female)
  • Decline to state /other (6%)

Age[edit]

Here is the age breakdown of respondents who completed the survey:

  • Under 18 (1%)
  • 18-24 (20%)
  • 25-34 (39%)
  • 35-49 (24%)
  • 50-64 (8%)
  • 65 or more (4%)
  • Decline to state (2%)

Previous survey[edit]

The Wikimedia Foundation ran a previous blog survey in January 2013, with findings outlined in this 2013 blog survey report. That survey received about 250 responses (versus 410 for the recent survey), reached mostly through the blog and social media announcements. Many of its findings were similar to the latest survey. For example, a majority of respondents were readers (75%) and technology reports were considered the most important content. However, many more contributors participated in that survey (60% vs. 40%), as well as a few more men (80% vs. 72%). That survey did not ask how often respondents visited the blog, nor how useful they found it -- so no comparison can be made on these important measures of interest. It's also worth noting that 73% of that survey's respondents wanted to log into the blog with their Wikimedia account -- a question which was not asked in this survey.

Survey Form[edit]

Here is the questionnaire form we used for this blog survey.

We'd like your feedback about the Wikimedia Blog. This short survey takes 3-5 minutes to complete. Your response will help the Wikimedia Foundation improve the blog in coming months.

1. How often do you visit the Wikimedia Blog?

  • Once a day or more
  • Once a week
  • Once a month
  • Once a year
  • Never


2. Is the Wikimedia Blog useful to you?

  • Very useful
  • Mostly usefull
  • Moderately useful
  • Somewhat useful
  • Not useful at all


3. What do you think about the Wikimedia Blog? How could it be improved?

[blank text field]


4. What would you prefer to see on the blog?
(check all that apply)

  • Better content, with focus on quality
  • More content, with focus on quantity
  • General-interest stories, with broader appeal
  • Special-interest stories, with deeper focus


5. Which topics would you like to read more on the blog?
(check all that apply)

  • Community news
  • Foundation reports
  • Tech / product updates
  • Movement-wide issues
  • Human-interest stories
  • Other (add your ideas)


6. How would you like this content to be presented?
(check all that apply)

  • Shorter posts
  • More frequent posts
  • More languages
  • More multimedia
  • More shareable
  • Other (add your ideas)


7. Which of these new content ideas interest you the most?
(select up to four ideas)

  • Community picks - favorite articles or images on a given theme (e.g. 'love')
  • How-to's - short videos with tips on how to use Wikipedia
  • Insights - inspiring quotes and images from our users
  • In the news - roundups of articles on top news stories
  • Social roundups - popular posts from Facebook and Twitter
  • Tech reports - stories on new software / hardware developments
  • Wikipedia highlights - new or trending articles and images
  • Other (add your ideas)


8. Would you like to be notified when new content is posted on the blog?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Not sure


9. How do you prefer to be notified?
(check all that apply - only for people who check 'Yes' or 'Not sure')

  • Blog mailing list
  • Wikimedia-l mailing list
  • Wikipedia-l mailing list
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google +
  • Wikimedia.org
  • My home wiki
  • Signpost
  • Other (add your ideas)


10. How do you participate on Wikipedia / Wikimedia? (check all that apply)

  • I read Wikipedia or Wikimedia sites
  • I have edited a few articles and/or contributed images
  • I frequently edit articles and/or contribute images
  • I participate actively in the Wikimedia community
  • I help develop software for Wikimedia or other projects
  • I have donated to support Wikipedia
  • I work for the Wikimedia Foundation
  • I do not participate in any Wikimedia projects


11. What type of software do you work on?
(optional question for people who say they develop software)

  • MediaWiki software
  • Free open software unrelated to MediaWiki
  • Other types of software (that's not free or open)


12. How can the blog better support your work?
(optional question for people who work for the Foundation)

[blank text field]


13. What is your age?

  • Under 18
  • 18-34
  • 35-49
  • 50-64
  • 65 or more
  • decline to state


14. What gender do you identify with?

  • Female
  • Male
  • Decline to state
  • Other (fill in)

You agree your responses may be used in accordance with these terms. This survey is powered by Survey Monkey and their use of your information is governed by their privacy policy.

[Submit]

(Clicking on Submit goes to the Thank you page if they answered required questions. If not, it shows an 'Answer required' prompt.)


Thank you!

Thanks for sharing your feedback! Your comments are important to us. We will improve the blog in coming months, based on what you and others tell us.

More feedback?
May we contact you with more questions about your experience?

If so, please add your email address below (optional).

Your email: [ blank text field ]

Your email will be kept private, in accordance with our Privacy Policy, and will only be used by the Wikimedia Foundation to communicate with you and send you updates on your feedback.

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