2010| STATE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE
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
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
• 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
2009
2010
WHO ARE THE BLOGGERS?
• 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
• Professionals have an average of 3.5 blogs • 11% say blogging is their primary income
15
Average posts per month by Technora9 Authority
The Technorati Top 100 bloggers generate 500x more posts
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
• 81% use Facebook to promote their blog
• 64% use to interact with readers
• 45% say Facebook is a more effec9ve traffic driver than a year ago
• 15% of Hobbyists / 46% of Part Timers / 67% of Self Employed use Facebook to market their business
• Pros are more likely to have a separate Facebook page for their blog
17
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
All Hobbyist Part Timer Corporate Self Employed
Do you have a Facebook page for your blog separate from your personal account?
MICRO‐BLOGGING SOLIDIFIES HOLD ON BLOGOSPHERE
• 73% of Hobbyists / 88% of Pros use Twi>er
• More than half link Twi>er to their blog
• One third of TwiZer NON‐users say they prefer Facebook for short updates and posPng links
• 34% say Twi>er is a more effec9ve traffic driver than a year ago
18 0 50 100
Other
To interact with celebri9es
To interact with poli9cians
To make plans with friends/social groups
To interact with companies
To market my business
For research
To keep up with the events in my friends’ lives
To interact with readers of my blog
To keep up with news events
To understand what people are buzzing about
To bring interes9ng links to light
To promote my blog
Self Employed
Corporate
Part Timer
Hobbyist
All
OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA USE (NON‐FACEBOOK / TWITTER)
19
• A few other social media channels stand above the rest — LinkedIn has proven
the viability of business‐specific social networking
— YouTube & Flickr significantly outpace their compe9tors in the video and photo sharing spaces
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
None Other Lala
ASmallWorld Loopt
Friendster Orkut Yelp Plaxo
Myspace Last.fm Vimeo Tumblr
Foursquare Digg
Picasa Stumble Upon
Del.icio.us Flickr
YouTube LinkedIn
HOWEVER… IT’S JUST FACEBOOK & TWITTER FOR DRIVING TRAFFIC
20
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
None Other
ASmallWorld Del.icio.us Foursquare Friendster
Lala Last.fm Loopt
Myspace Orkut Picasa Plaxo Vimeo Yelp Digg
Tumblr Flickr
YouTube Stumble Upon
LinkedIn Twi>er
Social Media Traffic Drivers
OVERALL TRAFFIC DRIVERS
21
0 20 40 60 80 100
Pay for online adver9sing
Create a blog on a broader blog network
A>end conferences for bloggers
Digg
YouTube
Produce content for other blogs or websites
List on a blog directory
Search engine op9miza9on (SEO)
Link to other blogs in a blogroll
List on Google
Comment on other blogs and hope for reciprocity
List on Technora9
Twi>er
Tag blog posts
Self Employed
Corporate
Part Timer
Hobbyist
All
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
23
• 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
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
I blog about brands that I love (or hate)
I blog about company informa9on or gossip I hear
I blog about some of my everyday experiences in stores or with
customer care
I never talk about products or brands on my blog
I post product or brand reviews
Self Employed
Corporate
Part Timer
Hobbyist
All
BLOGGERS CARE DEEPLY ABOUT BRAND REPUTATION
• 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
26
Viral effect: Bloggers are most influenced by other bloggers.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Other
Podcasts I listen to
Radio programs I listen to
Web portals like Yahoo! or AOL
News aggregators like Drudge Report or Huffington Post
Television shows I watch
Conversa9ons with family
Social media accounts I follow
News websites like CNN.com or NYTimes.com
Conversa9ons with friends
Blogs I read
Self Employed
Corporate
Part Timer
Hobbyist
All
MONETIZATION AND REVENUE • 1 in 4 blogs with adverPsing now use an ad network
– 1 in 5 in 2009 – 7% have a dedicated sales force (31% of Corporate)
• 54% increase in number blogs with ad tags from 2009 to 2010 – 2008 67% of ad tags were Google – 2009 47% of ad tags were Google – 2010 44% of ad tags are
• Types of adver9sing: – Display ads 27% (40% in 2009, 28% in 2008) – Search ads 25% (39% in 2009) – Affiliate links 25% (36% in 2009)
– Paid pos9ngs 6% (8% in 2009) • Best performing ads: 38% say standard display ads perform best on blogs
– 47% allow rich media
– 33% allow paid advertorial posts
Data supplied by
WHAT DO CONSUMERS SAY ABOUT BLOGS?
• 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
28 Source: TechnoraE Media and Crowd Science
CONSUMERS: TRUST BRAND INFO
29
Which sources do you trust for brand, product, or service informa9on?
Source: TechnoraE Media and Crowd Science
CONSUMERS: RECOMMEND PRODUCTS & SERVICES
30
What is your likelihood to recommend a brand, product, or service from these informa9on sources?
Source: TechnoraE Media and Crowd Science
CONSUMERS: PURCHASE INTENT
31
What is your likelihood to purchase a brand, product, or service from these informa9on sources?
Source: TechnoraE Media and Crowd Science
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