Blogs And Mainstream Media Intersect
There have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the Blogosphere, says the report, yielding disparate estimates, but all studies agree that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream. Reports in 2008 include these estimates:
comScore MediaMetrix reports: (August 2008)
- Blogs... 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
- Facebook... 41.0 million
- MySpace... 75.1 million
- Total internet audience... 188.9 million
eMarketer says: (May 2008)
- 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)
- 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12% of Internet users)
Universal McCann finds: (March 2008)
- 184 million world wide have started a blog
- 346 million world wide read blogs
- 77% of active Internet users read blogs
Wikipedia defines the Blogosphere as the collective community of all blogs. interconnected and socially networked. While discussions in the Blogosphere have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion, Technorati isolates the Active Blogosphere as the ecosystem of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers at the convergence of journalism and conversation.
But, says the study, as the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear. Larger blogs are taking on more characteristics of mainstream sites and mainstream sites are incorporating styles and formats from the Blogosphere. In fact, 95% of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs.
Technorati tracked blogs in 81 languages in June 2008, and bloggers from 66 countries across six continents, finding that Bloggers have been at it an average of three years and are collectively creating close to one million posts every day. Blogs have representation in top-10 web site lists across all key categories, and have become integral to the media ecosystem.
The key findings included such things as:
- Personal, professional, and corporate bloggers all have differing goals and cover an average of five topics within each blog
- They use five different techniques to drive traffic to their blog.
- They're using an average of seven publishing tools on their blog and four distinct metrics for measuring success
- Bloggers ae receiving speaking or publishing opportunities, career advancement, and personal satisfaction
- Bloggers are using self serve tools for search, display, and affiliate advertising, and are increasingly turning to ad and blog networks.
- Four in five bloggers post brand or product reviews, with 37% posting them frequently
- 90% of bloggers say they post about the brands, music, movies and books that they love (or hate)
- Company information or gossip and everyday retail experiences are fodder for the majority of bloggers
- One-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates
| Global Snapshot of Bloggers | |||
|
| U.S. Bloggers | European Bloggers | Asian Bloggers |
| Male | 57% | 73% | 73% |
| Age |
|
|
|
| 18-34 years old | 42% | 48% | 73% |
| 35+ | 58% | 52% | 27% |
| Single | 26% | 31% | 57% |
| Employed full-time | 56% | 53% | 45% |
| Household income >$75,000 | 51% | 34% | 9% |
| College graduate | 74% | 67% | 69% |
| Average blogging tenure (months) | 35 | 33 | 30 |
| Median Annual Investment | $80 | $15 | $30 |
| Median Annual Revenue | $200 | $200 | $120 |
| % Blogs with advertising | 52% | 50% | 60% |
| Average Monthly Unique Visitors | 18,000 | 24,000 | 26,000 |
| Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008 | |||
| Segment Snapshot of Bloggers | |||||
|
| Personal | Corporate | Professional | With Advertising | No Advertising |
| Male | 64% | 70% | 72% | 66% | 66% |
| Age |
|
|
|
|
|
| 18-34 years old | 52% | 45% | 48% | 53% | 45% |
| 35+ | 48% | 55% | 52% | 47% | 55% |
| Single | 36% | 24% | 31% | 34% | 34% |
| Employed full-time | 52% | 51% | 55% | 49% | 56% |
| Household income>$75k | 37% | 49% | 42% | 40% | 37% |
| College graduate | 70% | 74% | 74% | 69% | 72% |
| Average blogging tenure (months) | 35 | 35 | 38 | 35 | 33 |
| Median Annual Investment | $100 | $200 | $150 | $100 | 0 |
| Median Annual Revenue | $120 | $250 | $300 | $200 | 0 |
| % Blogs with Advertising | 53% | 64% | 59% | 100% | 0% |
| Average Monthly Unique Visitors | 12,000 | 39,000 | 44,000 | 46,000 | 4,000 |
| Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008 | |||||
| Global Bloggers by Gender | ||
|
| Female | Male |
| Personal Blog | 83% | 76% |
| Professional Blog | 38% | 50% |
| Age |
|
|
| 18-24 years old | 9% | 15% |
| 25+ | 91% | 85% |
| Single | 29% | 36% |
| Employed full-time | 44% | 56% |
| Median Annual Investment | $30 | $60 |
| Median Annual Revenue | $100 | $200 |
| % Blogs with advertising | 53% | 54% |
| Sell Through a Blog ad Network* | 16% | 7% |
| Have Affiliate ads* | 41% | 32% |
| Have Contextual ads* | 61% | 73% |
| Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008 (*Among those with advertising on their blogs) | ||
In 2004 when Technorati started, says the report, the typical reaction to the word ‘blog' was ‘huh?' Today... the blog has forever changed the way publishing works... anyone can be a publisher. The issue is no longer distribution, it's relevance.
For additional information, please visit Technorati here.
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JACK LOECHNER
Center for Media Research
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Given that only about a tenth of Fortune 500 companies maintain official blogs, it seems they are missing a big opportunity. This survey shows that the blogger demographic is educated, affluent and influential.
I guess the big companies just don't get that when they have their own blogs or engage with bloggers, that they are becoming part of the conversation: getting that most valuable goal of marketing -- to talk one-on-one with customers.
Nice report - but I have a few questions. First, it says that a majority of bloggers surveyed (how many were surveyed?) have advertising on their blogs. Since the majority of bloggers (99%) haven't updated in the last 7 days, how many readers could they really have??
http://tinyurl.com/5xkv3e
TO'B
Tom and Roger raise important questions and I have a few of my own:
1. How many unemployed, laid off, workers utilize blogging as a tool in their job search, as a new entrepreneurial endeavor, or as a marketing tool for their own new small business?
2. The biggest challenge I face is being able to accurately measure the traffic of entrepreneurs who claim to be SEO or Social Media "experts." If I can not find anything more accurate than sampling services like Alexa or Quantcast (missing info and skewed) then how am I to understand the validity of the statistics presented in this article?
@TO'B
We surveyed roughly 1300 bloggers. These bloggers were randomly selected from a pool of about 1mm blogs.
As for the question pertaining to the readership of sites that haven’t posted in the last 7 days, that’s a difficult long tail question to answer and frankly, I don't know if there is a right or wrong answer...
In my personally opinion, I believe that great communities and ‘audience’ exist deep into the long tail where readers and authors can have a truly transparent and authentic relationship. It’s more personal. Something which is hard to find in the head and neck of the tail. Plus content tends to get more granular and endemic which should perk the brow of any advertiser having a hard time finding their niche.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Drey
This is a very interesting survey. I would of really liked to have seen the numbers that would of been produced from a survey of about 5,000 to 10,000 bloggers. I think it would be pretty easy to find 5,000 bloggers who update their blog at least twice a week or at least 100 times per year.
I agree with Roger in that I think the big companies are missing the boat to engage with their customers and become a part of the discussion.