Blogs Fail To Crack Flaks, PR Pros Remains Indifferent To Web Log Spin

Marketers beware. You'd better tread carefully in your dealings with bloggers, or you could wind up with egg on your face. This was one of the findings of yet another blogging study, this one conducted by BlogSearchEngine.com.

The study mostly surveyed big picture issues, such as the amount of time bloggers spend merrily blogging away and the number of blogs most bloggers own. But the results also yielded a handful of data from which marketers might glean a lesson or two - even if they're not exactly lining up to hawk their wares on a site featuring, say, stream-of-consciousness ramblings about rotisserie football.

Not surprisingly, most of the 610 respondents (90.7 percent) have yet to be contacted by PR minions hoping to convince them to blog about a specific product or service. This, the survey's planners suggest, may be because the PR business has not yet given much attention to bloggers. Alternatively, it could be because many bloggers haven't yet generated enough of an audience - or enough credibility - to make targeting them worth the effort.

Nonetheless, nearly 74 percent of respondents said they'd be amenable to receiving information from PR pros, with a caveat: nearly half say they would post a negative review if they don't like the product or service being pushed. What this means, the survey's planners say, is that PR practitioners should tread warily, attempting to discern a blogger's likes and dislikes before targeting him or her. Similarly, all pitches to bloggers should be carefully customized.

A mere 13.4 percent of respondents run ads in their blogs, while 50.6 percent are not open to doing so. Of those who don't carry ads, 43.5 percent said they simply "don't want to." However, 15.7 percent of respondents noted that they "want to, but... do not know how" - trumping the number of bloggers who believe that blogs and advertising don't mix (15 percent).

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