• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, July 18, 2006

On the assumption that people are people, detailed recent use and demographic information in depth about French bloggers can be translated to media and marketing in the U.S. Outside the USA, France is one of the leading 'blogging' countries and its "blogosphere"(bloggers and/or blogs' creators)is growing fast. According to a recent exclusive crmmetrix study, 26.7% of the French online population visit a blog at least once a month.

In addition:

• 18.8% have posted a comment on a blog
• 8.1% have created their own blog
• 92.2% of onliners agree that blogs enable the greatest freedom of expression
• 81.3% are both reactive and interactive
• 75.7% say blogsd create a closest possible relationship between people
• 62.9% of blogs are considered more critical than any other source of information

Laurent Florès, CEO of crmmetrix, says "Thanks to blogs, the Internet has become a primary source of information for French Internet users... This marks a significant move from 'interruption marketing' to 'conversation marketing', where listening and conversing become critical for brands and organizations as a source of... learning from what people are saying about them."

Among French Internet users who consult blogs regularly:

• 74.4% of do so to get information
• 57% to share experiences
• 56.7% to look for advice
• 70.3% of 16-24 years olds and 40.5% of 35 years olds have visited a blog to get information

The top three subjects for French Internet users are "news" blogs, music blogs and liesure blogs.

The report shows that men and women are gravitating to different subjects.

• 44.6% of men and 17% of women to Sport blogs
• 32.8% of women and 11.7% of men to Medical blogs
• Music is especially interesting for the 16-24 years old (61.4%)
• less for the 50+ years old (27.4%)

Personal blogs are by far the most consulted (90%), followed by group and association blogs (46.3%) and media blogs (38.2%), while nearly one-third (29.9%) of French blog readers have visited a brand's blog. They see blogs as a great opportunity to open dialogue with the brand and engage with the brand on a new level.

Blogs : A blog is a personal web site that allows its author to express himself by creating written notes or audio / video contents (podcast type) that he submits to the other Internet users in a public or private way. These notes can be commented on by other internet users. On a blog, notes are archived by inversed chronological order and it is possible most of the time to subscribe thanks to RSS flow's technology.

For more, visit crmmetrix blog here.