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State of The Blogosphere Presentation 2010
State of The Blogosphere Presentation 2010
Presented To: ad:tech
Presented By: Richard Jalichandra
CEO, Technora9 Media
Wendy Hu>er
SVP, Penn Schoen Berland
Date: November, 2010
THE STATE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE IS…
WHO ARE THE PROFESSIONAL BLOGGERS
AND
JUST HOW PROFESSIONAL ARE THEY?
HOW ARE BLOGGERS USING SOCIAL MEDIA?
WHAT ARE BLOGGERS SAYING ABOUT
YOUR BRAND?
WHAT’S ADVERTISING’S ROLE
IN THE BLOGOSHPERE?
WHAT DO CONSUMERS THINK OF BLOGS?
WHAT’S UP WITH THE WOMEN’S
MOVEMENT – THE “MOMMY BLOGGERS”?
AND LASTLY, THE QUESTION I GET ASKED MOST…
HOW CAN I…
…BECOME A FAMOUS BLOGGER?!
2009: WHAT WE LEARNED
• The rising class of professional bloggers was even more ac9ve and
prolific in 2009
• Professional bloggers invest vastly more 9me and resources into
their blogs
• The majority of bloggers blog about brands
• We interviewed 20 superstar bloggers including Arianna Huffington
and Michael Arrington. The most common piece of advice?
BE PASSIONATE
11
2010: WHAT WE’RE LOOKING AT NOW
• The rela9onship between brands & bloggers
• The convergence of blogging and other social media
• The impacts of new technology on blogging
• Consumers’ trust & abtudes toward blogs & other media
• How women and mommy bloggers are influencing brands,
the blogosphere, and mainstream media
• Our largest blogger survey ever: 7,200 bloggers
– Conducted by Penn Schoen Berland
• Addi9onal consumer survey of 1,000+
– Conducted by Technora9 Media and Crowd Science
• Interviews & profiles of leading women bloggers
• Technora9 index data
12
KEY FINDINGS FOR 2010
2010
WHO ARE THE BLOGGERS?
• Hobbyists
– blog for fun
– do not report any income from blogging
– measure success by personal sa9sfac9on
• PROFESSIONAL Part‐Timers
– blog to supplement their income or as part of their job
– 1 in 3 update their blog at least 1x a day
– Measure success by traffic
2009
• PROFESSIONAL Corporate
– blog full‐9me for a company
– blog to share their exper9se
– most likely to have worked in tradi9onal media
• PROFESSIONAL Self‐Employed
– blog full or part 9me for their own company
– 57% own a company and have a blog related to their business
– 19% say their blog is their company
14
WHO ARE THE BLOGGERS?
Average posts per month by
Technora9 Authority
• Two‐thirds are male
• 65% are 18‐44
• More affluent and educated than the
general populaPon
– 79% have college degrees / 43% have
graduate degrees
– 1/3 have a household income of $75K+
– 1/4 have a household income of $100K+
• 81% have been blogging more than 2 years
• Professionals blog 10+ hours/week
The Technorati Top 100
• Professionals have an average of 3.5 blogs bloggers generate 500x
• 11% say blogging is their primary income more posts
15
BLOGGERS AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA
• 33% of bloggers have worked within tradiPonal media
– Half of Corporate bloggers have worked within tradi9onal media
– .06% of the US labor force were employed as journalists in 2009
• 27% are s9ll employed by the tradi9onal media
– 3 percent of all respondents blog for their tradi9onal media employer
– 24% blog separately
• 65% agree that blogs are gebng taken more seriously
• 48% agree most people will get news & info from blogs in next 5 years
– 35% already do so now
– 27% believe that newspapers will
not survive in the next ten years
16
PROS ARE MORE SOPHISTICATED IN USE OF FACEBOOK
• 87% of all bloggers use Facebook Do you have a Facebook page for your blog separate
• 81% use Facebook to promote from your personal account?
70
their blog
60
• 64% use to interact with readers 50
• 45% say Facebook is a more 40
30
effec9ve traffic driver than a year 20
ago 10
• 15% of Hobbyists / 46% of Part 0
All Hobbyist Part Timer Corporate Self
Timers / 67% of Self Employed Employed
use Facebook to market their
business
• Pros are more likely to have
a separate Facebook page
for their blog
17
MICRO‐BLOGGING SOLIDIFIES HOLD ON BLOGOSPHERE
To promote my blog
• 73% of Hobbyists /
To bring interes9ng links to light
88% of Pros use Twi>er
To understand what people are buzzing
• More than half link about
Twi>er to their blog To keep up with news events
• One third of TwiZer To interact with readers of my blog
Self Employed
NON‐users say they To keep up with the events in my
friends’ lives Corporate
prefer Facebook for For research Part Timer
short updates and Hobbyist
To market my business
posPng links All
To interact with companies
• 34% say Twi>er is a To make plans with friends/social
more effec9ve traffic groups
driver than a year ago To interact with poli9cians
To interact with celebri9es
Other
0 50 100
18
OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA USE (NON‐FACEBOOK / TWITTER)
• A few other social media LinkedIn
YouTube
channels stand above the Flickr
rest Del.icio.us
Stumble Upon
— LinkedIn has proven Picasa
the viability of Digg
business‐specific social Foursquare
networking Tumblr
Vimeo
— YouTube & Flickr Last.fm
significantly outpace Myspace
their compe9tors in Plaxo
Yelp
the video and photo Orkut
sharing spaces Friendster
Loopt
ASmallWorld
Lala
Other
None
20
OVERALL TRAFFIC DRIVERS
Tag blog posts
Twi>er
Facebook
List on Technora9
Comment on other blogs and hope for reciprocity
List on Google Self Employed
Link to other blogs in a blogroll Corporate
Search engine op9miza9on (SEO) Part Timer
List on a blog directory Hobbyist
Produce content for other blogs or websites All
YouTube
Digg
A>end conferences for bloggers
Create a blog on a broader blog network
Pay for online adver9sing
0 20 40 60 80 100
21
MOBILE PLATFORMS ARE CHANGING BLOGGING STYLE
• 39% say tablets and smartphones have impacted their blogging style
– 70% are wri9ng shorter posts
– 54% are pos9ng more spontaneously
– 50% are pos9ng photos taken with their smartphone; 15% pos9ng videos
– 24% are using shorter posts or photos to make their blog more appealing to
mobile users
– 15% are using less Flash, and 7% are using HTML 5 more oxen
• 24% blog from a tablet or smartphone, up 4 points from 2009
– 88% of mobile playorm users are on their smartphone, 21% on tablet
– 61% are blogging more from tablets or smartphones than last year
• Bloggers spend an average of 27.3 hours a week consuming and sharing
media from tablets or smartphones , up from 20 hours in 2009
22
BRANDS IN THE BLOGOSPHERE
• Nearly half of non‐corporate pro bloggers write about brands
• 1/4 bloggers overall post product or brand reviews monthly
• 1/5 bloggers post weekly
• 20% of corporate bloggers post daily about products & services
I post product or brand reviews
I never talk about products or
brands on my blog
Self Employed
I blog about some of my everyday
Corporate
experiences in stores or with
customer care Part Timer
I blog about company informa9on Hobbyist
or gossip I hear All
I blog about brands that I love (or
hate)
• 71% only write about brands & products whose reputaPons they approve of
• 1 in 3 boyco> products
– 1 in 5 write about their boyco>s & why
– They also advocate others boyco> products from those companies too
• 90% say it’s important that adverPsing on their sites aligns with their values
• 1/3 of hobbyists and more than half of Pros say that a brand’s overall
reputa9on influences their willingness to write about it
24
BLOGGERS DESIRE PROFESSIONAL‐LEVEL INTERACTION
• 1/2 of Pros & 1/4 of Hobbyists have been approached by a company to
write about their brand or products
• 64% of bloggers say they are treated less professionally by brand
representaPves than are the tradiPonal media
– Just 20% characterize their interac9ons with brand representa9ves as posi9ve
• The majority of bloggers (55%) are aware of the FTC’s ruling on
disclosure, with a higher awareness among pro segments (up to 70%)
– Two thirds say the ruling has had no effect
– One third say they are more likely to disclose rela9onships with a brand
– Bloggers are offended by brands asking them to cross the line
25
INFLUENCING THE INFLUENCERS
Blogs I read
Conversa9ons with friends
News websites like CNN.com or
NYTimes.com
Social media accounts I follow
Viral effect:
Conversa9ons with family Self Employed
Bloggers are most
influenced by other Corporate
Television shows I watch
Part Timer
bloggers. News aggregators like Drudge
Report or Huffington Post Hobbyist
All
Web portals like Yahoo! or AOL
Radio programs I listen to
Podcasts I listen to
Other
• 46% trust tradiPonal media less than they did 5 years ago
• 34% say blogs are gefng taken more seriously as sources of informaPon
• 19% say Blogs are oxen be>er wri>en than tradi9onal media
• 39% say more people will be gefng their news and entertainment from
blogs than from tradiPonal media in the next 5 years
– 37% say Newspapers will not be able to survive in the next ten years
• 29% say Facebook is gebng taken more seriously as a source of
informa9on
• 18% say Twi>er is gebng taken more seriously as a source of informa9on
Source: TechnoraE Media and Crowd Science 28
CONSUMERS: TRUST BRAND INFO
Which sources do
you trust for brand,
product, or service
informa9on?
Source: TechnoraE Media and Crowd Science 29
CONSUMERS: RECOMMEND PRODUCTS & SERVICES
What is your
likelihood to
recommend a brand,
product, or service
from these
informa9on sources?
Source: TechnoraE Media and Crowd Science 30
CONSUMERS: PURCHASE INTENT
What is your
likelihood to
purchase a brand,
product, or service
from these
informa9on sources?
Source: TechnoraE Media and Crowd Science 31
WOMEN BLOGGERS ARE MORE THAN MOMMY BLOGGERS
• Moms who blog about parenPng are about 5% of all bloggers
– Only 13% of this group say they PRIMARILY blog about parenPng
– Leading topics are Entertainment, Health, Travel, Technology and News
• 81% update their blogs at least once a week
• 20% blog from tablet or smartphone – 66% do so more frequently than 2009
• 92% use Facebook & 75% use Twi>er to promote their blog
• They are the most likely of all bloggers to blog about brands
– 55% follow brands on social media
– 54% have been approached by a brand
– Half say that a brand’s reputa9on influences their willingness to write about it
• 28% have worked as a journalist; 33% are s9ll employed by in media
• 72% of mom bloggers report blogs are taken more seriously as info sources
32
THE SUM OF ALL THE PARTS:
THE BLOGOSPHERE IS GROWING INTO A
MATURE MEDIA CHANNEL
33
SO……..
HOW DO I TOO BECOME A FAMOUS BLOGGER?!
35
THANK YOU
RICHARD JALICHANDRA
WWW.JALICHANDRA.COM
TWITTER.COM/JALICHANDRA
WENDY HUTTER
WWW.PSBRESEARCH.COM
TWITTER.COM/PSBRESEARCH