Day 5: Twitter, Global Impact and the Future Of Blogging - SOTB 2009

Author: sussman / Published: October 23, 2009 at 6:00 am

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On this, our final day of the study, we’ll examine two of the leading blogosphere trends for 2009. The use of Twitter, and the impact that bloggers had on political events in the US and around the world.

Twitter

Bloggers use Twitter much more than does the general population. In a poll conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates in May 2009 for The Wall Street Journa’s “All Things D” conference, just 14% of the general population used Twitter – but 73% of respondents in this survey do (including 83% of Corporates and 88% of Self-Employeds). Those who use Twitter say they do so to promote their blogs, bring interesting links to light, and to understand what people are buzzing about. 50% of Part Timers say they use Twitter to market their businesses. Other uses of Twitter, like interacting with companies (24%), politicians (11%), and celebrities (9%), are much less popular.

52% syndicate their blog posts to their Twitter Account, and 41% do so while also posting tweets that are not associated with their blogs. Twitter usage appears to be most pronounced among 18-24 (52%) and 25-34 (47%) year olds.

26% of bloggers who also use Twitter say that the service has eaten into the time they spend updating their traditional blogs – though 65% say it has had no effect.

Even among the technologically sophisticated audience of bloggers, 35% of those who do not use Twitter say it’s because they do not understand the point . And 54% report that they don’t feel the need to broadcast their life, despite the popularity of “personal musings” as a blog topic.

Twitter and Blogs

Lijit tells us that blogs with greater than 100 page views a day received on average .83% of their page views from Twitter referrals. This referral percentage was constant as the audience size of the blog increased.

The most common user generated content source included within a Lijit Search profile is Twitter. Twitter was also by far the fastest growing content source to be included by bloggers. Continued on the next page

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