State of the Blogosphere / 2008

Day 5: Brands Enter The Blogosphere

Previous reports: 2007, Index

Brands make up a major part of bloggers' online conversations. More than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews, and blog about brands they love or hate. Even day-to-day experiences with customer care or in a retail store are fodder for blog posts. Companies are already reaching out to bloggers: one-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates.

Bloggers believe that blogs are being taken more seriously as information sources. One in five bloggers don't think that newspapers will survive the next ten years. Half believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years.

Bloggers are most open to receiving marketing messages from other blogs. Even non-blog web content is more influential among this group than traditional media sources for brand information.

As early adopters, bloggers spend twice as much time online as U.S. adults 18-49, and spend only one-third as much time watching television. While they are online, bloggers are participating in an average of five “Web 2.0” activities such as RSS and Twitter. Bloggers are important to watch, as they are generally the first ones to use new web applications, and are highly influential in speeding adoption.

BLOGGER PROFILE

Beth Terry

Oakland, California

Blog:
fakeplasticfish.com (an experiment in living without plastic)
Age:
43
What I do:
CFO, Bay Area home care agency
Me at home:
Married and live simply, without a car, try not to buy new things, concentrate on experiences rather than accumulating stuff
On making money / supplementing income:
I am choosy about what advertisers I will accept. [Also] companies send me free products to review. If a product can help reduce waste, I'm happy to be the guinea pig to try it out!
Blog-bits:
- Monthly Visitors*: 11,400
- Site Revenue: Less than $1000 per year
- Number of tools used on site: 9
- Number of widgets on site: 2
* Source: Quantcast, July 2008

BLOGGER PROFILE

Brian Ward

Melbourne, Australia

Blog:
indolentdandy.net/fitzroyalty/
Age:
36
What I do:
Community manager at www.streetadvisor.com
Me at home:
In a relationship and live alone
My blog:
Hyperlocal blog for Melbourne's first suburb: Fitzroy 3065
Why blogging:
Apart from novels to read on the beach, print is dead, and that's why I only work on online content now.
The future of blogging:
Smart relevance engines — contextual, geographical, chronological, thematic. Subtler and more sophisticated recommendations. More transparency in communications and transactions.
Blog-bits:
- Number of tools used on site: 8
- Number of widgets on site: 5

Brands enter the blogosphere

Discussion and opinions about brands are a major part of the blogosphere.

Do you talk about products or brands on your blog?	Frequently	Occasionally	Never
I post product or brand reviews	37%	45%	18%
I post about brands that I love (or hate)	41	48	11
I blog about company information or gossip that I hear about	31	32	37
I blog about some of my every-day experiences in stores or with customer care	34	45	21

More than eight in ten bloggers post product or brand reviews, and almost nine in ten blog about brands that they love (or hate). Interestingly, men and women are equally likely to blog about products or services. Marketers are catching on that the blogosphere is an important place to be — one in three bloggers has been approached to be a brand advocate. Of those, more than six in ten were offered payments of some kind.

Bloggers are gaining credibility

There is a general sense that blogs are being taken more seriously as information sources.

Perceptions of Blogs & Traditional Media

37% of bloggers have been quoted in traditional media based on a blog post. Half of bloggers believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years. Bloggers are less bullish on the prospects for traditional media — one in five bloggers don't think that newspapers will survive the next ten years.

The time that bloggers spend with various types of media is radically different from the average U.S. consumer

U.S. bloggers spend almost 3.5 times as long on the Internet as they do watching television.

Time U.S. Bloggers vs. U.S. Adults* Spend with Media (hours/week)

U.S. bloggers spend nearly twice as much time online as U.S. adults 18-49, and one-third as much time watching television.

Bloggers are active Web 2.0 participants

While they are online, bloggers are participating in a variety of Web 2.0 activities.

Blogger Participation in Web 2.0 Activities

Bloggers are generally the first to learn about new web technologies and applications, such as RSS and Twitter. On average, bloggers participate in five of the ten Web 2.0 activities listed, with one-third regularly conducting more than seven Web 2.0 activities.

Among bloggers, other blogs are the most influential form of brand messaging

Even non-blog web content is more influential among this group than traditional media sources.

Types of Advertising and Content that Entice Bloggers to
learn more about Products and Services

Twice as many bloggers look to other blogs compared to TV, print, or outdoor advertising.

The future of blogging

Bloggers peer into their crystal balls and prognosticate:

“Andy Warhol said that in the future, everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. His point was that we would shift from having a few famous people for a long time to many famous people for a short time. I think the number of blogs will grow, but the average life span of a blog will shorten.”

Scott Sheppard

labs.blogs.com

“There will be more blogs used in education, particularly among K-12 students and teachers. Bookmarks will merge with blogs for those of us who use our blogs as note-pads or filing cabinets. Blog archives will be viewed as a rich source of cultural history. Blogs will be a means for more collaborative team work. People will expect businesses, media, and print organizations, even government organizations, to have some form of blog, in order to promote communication. Blogging will also help to provide insight to businesses about their consumers.”

Lynn Marentette

interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com

“This is just the beginning for blogging. People are getting better and better at this skill set, quality is improving, and we will soon have millions of people generating great content around the clock.”

Brett Bumeter

softduit.com

“There’s a lot of sploggage out there now, and tons of “make money” type bloggers which glut the playing field. It makes the searching and finding of good content difficult. I think the individual or group blog or blogging group networks will simply be a part of the warp and woof of the Internet. There’s no better way to communicate with a large number of people than blogging.”

Amos Dettonville

mostbloggers.blogspot.com

“Blogs will eventually morph — some will break off into hybridized news sites, others into password-protected ‘personal diaries,’ with others going on to offer products and services (home businesses).”

Dave Lucas

dave-lucas.blogspot.com

“I’ve loved watching how some of the Big Dog corporate bloggers adopt the characteristics that make the best personal blogs so effective: personality, passion, smarts, usefulness, humor. ÊBlogging and other forms of social media are changing corporate-think and driving a revolution in how companies do business.”

Debbie Weil

Blogger and author of The Corporate Blogging Book

debbieweil.com

Day 4
Blogging For Profit

State of the Blogosphere / 2008