Commentary

What's A Blogger?

What's A Blogger?

Bloggers are younger and higher percentages are Hispanic & African American than the general population. A higher percentage of Democrats than of Republicans are blogging.

Now that Blogging might better be called a market segment rather than a market niche, it's useful with regard to positioning the marketing message to understand what a Blogger looks like, as distinguished from the rest of the population. According to the BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey, 26% of all adults say they regularly or occasionally blog. Of those:

  • 53.7% are male
  • 44.7% are married
  • 28.4% hold a professional or managerial position
  • 10.4% are students.

Bloggers tend to be younger, averaging 37.6 years old, compared to 44.8 for adults 18+ (the "general population"). Ethnically:

  • 69.7% of Bloggers are White/Caucasian (vs. 76.1%)
  • 12.2% are African American/Black (vs. 11.4%)
  • 3.7% are Asian (vs. 2.0%)
  • 20% of Bloggers are Hispanic, compared to 14.8% of adults 18+

In addition, Bloggers report a lower income ($55,819 vs. $56,811) and are better educated (14.3 years of education vs. 14.2).

Political blogs are becoming increasingly common, especially in this election year, where 24.6% of registered voters say they regularly or occasionally blog. Political affiliation of regular/occasional Bloggers look like this in 2008:

  • 37.6% of Libertarians regularly/occasionally blog
  • 26.9% of Democrats
  • 25.7% of Independents
  • 22.9% Republicans

Analysis of Bloggers shows that they are using most forms of new media significantly more than the average market.

Regular/Occasional New Media Usage (Top 5) 

 

% of Regular/Occasional Bloggers

% of Adults 18+

Cell Phone

93.0%

87.5%

Instant Messaging

75.3%

49.3%

Download/Access Video/TV Content

72.2%

45.0%

Video Gaming

66.9%

47.5%

Text Messaging 

65.5%

45.2%

Source: BIGresearch, January 2008, N=15,727

Although Bloggers are more likely to use new media, the analysis finds that more conventional forms of media trigger their Internet searches. Magazines, at 51.6%, rank highest, followed by:

  • 48.8% reading an article
  • 46.1% broadcast TV
  • 44.5% cable TV
  • 42.5% face-to-face communication
  • 39.7% newspaper

Gary Drenik, President of BIGresearch, concludes ?"Bloggers are a diverse group and not who you would expect..."

For more information, please visit BIGresearch here.

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