A few weeks ago I invited my readers to participate in a craft blogger survey.  The survey was designed to evaluate the experiences of craft bloggers who participated in the fourth annual Knit Crochet Blog Week, hosted by Eskimimmakes blog. The survey included 10 questions:

• 5 questions asking about self-efficacy/confidence
• 5 questions asking about perceived gains from participation in blog week

I make no particular claims on the scientific validity of the scales I used. I threw them together in just a few minutes, without much of the testing and review that normally goes into surveys. In fact, a test of internal consistency showed that the self-efficacy scale had a pretty poor level of reliability (0.517). The perceived gains scale, by contrast, had a good reliability score (0.816).  Oh well. The data are still interesting.

This first post will focus on the results of the Self-Efficacy survey. The next post will present the results of the Perceived Gains survey.

Results

Self-Efficacy

It looks like my fellow craft bloggers are pretty confident using cameras to upload blog content. Nearly 90% of people who responded agreed with the statement. Only about 2% of people who responded indicated slight disagreement.  I’m not surprised. Half the fun of craft blogging is sharing images of what I’ve created. I’m sure others feel that way too and cultivate those skills.

Results were much more mixed on the subject of shooting and using video on craft blogs. Only about one-third of people who responded indicated “agree” or “slightly agree” on this item. The vast majority are neutral of indicated “disagree” or “slightly disagree.”

Shooting video certainly takes more effort than shooting photos. And fewer people have experience or practice doing it.  I just shot my first crafting video a couple of weeks ago. I had to redo it four or five times, and I wasn’t even trying to achieve something of high quality.

And then, of course, there’s the issue of preoccupations and anxiety. I bet there are a lot of other craft bloggers out there who are a bit afraid of video. I was convinced my voice would sound weird or my fingers would look hag-like.  It’s going to be a long time before I can convince myself to put my face in front of a camera. I’m not ready.

In addition, I think there are fewer useful opportunities to apply video in craft blogging. It comes in handy when demonstrating a crafting technique but I , for one, am not all that interested in watching someone fumble around while sitting on their couch, showing off their latest afghan.  That’s what photos are for.

I’m sort of surprised by these results. I expected a lower level of self-efficacy with regard to specialized equipment. When people say they feel confident, I wonder what type of equipment they are comfortable with? The question is a bit complex. Since Survey Monkey only lets you ask 10 questions on the free version of their software, I had to compress about 5 questions into one big question. Grrr.

Software: I bet lots of people know how to use iPhoto or similar programs to improve the look of their photos.

Lighting, etc…: I’ve been known to open the blinds or turn on a lamp when taking photos, but I’ve never used a reflector or other fancy stuff.  I am very curious to know what other people do.

It looks like people are extremely confident publishing blog posts and commenting on other people’s blogs. Not all that surprising given that this was a survey of bloggers participating in a blog carnival.

I’m not surprised by these results either. People seem  pretty confident in using their chosen blogging platforms. I would  be interested to dig into this question further. Are people confident in using the basic tools? What about more advanced features? I know there are lots of WordPress capabilities that I’ve never touched.

So that’s it for now. I welcome your comments and thoughts on this first set of results. More to come soon.

Related articles

• 4KCBWDAY5: You’re Invited to Participate in a Craft Blogger Survey (all-she-wants-to-do-is-knit.com)
• What Kind of Blogger Are You? 7 Different Blogger Types Explained. (zemanta.com)
• An Experiment in My Knitting Technique (all-she-wants-to-do-is-knit.com)