Whose Blogging and Why Should You Care?
In the early days of any technology or new product, there are a certain few people who just plain “get it.” According to the famous bell curve, these people are called “early adopters.”
The early days of blogging were no different; in fact if you look at the history of blogs and social media in general, they all seem to follow the bell curve. The early adopters of blogs were mostly techies who already knew the technology behind the blogs and could now use them to promote themselves and their techie interest.
How times have changed! Today there are blogs for just about everything under the sun — in fact, if you have a second, try this little obscure exercise: Go to Google Blog search or Technorati or another blog search engine and type in the most obscure topic you can think of. Did you find a blog about it…? In most cases the answer will be yes. According to a May 2008 report on the blogosphere put out by eMarketer,the number of people who are creating blogs will reach 34.7 million in the United States alone. That is over 16% of the population.
So who are all these people blogging about all these different topics? They are not just the techies anymore, that’s for sure. Today’s bloggers are coming from all walks of life. They include new moms who are blogging about their experiences, menopausal women looking for safe solutions to sleep deprivation, loss of libido and hot flashes men discussing their favorite sports teams or gear and, yes, grooming products, and even editors from major magazines reviewing the newest products and expanding on topics they mention in print.
The statistics of those who read these blogs is even more staggering. According to the eMarketer report, more than 145 million people in this country will be reading blogs at least once per month. This is approximately 67% of the entire population.
This statistic should answer the second part of the original question, “Why should you care?” With this large of a number, it means it’s increasingly critical to get your company or brand name onto these blogs, which can ultimately equate to sales.
Consumers today are not only reading these blogs for information, but reviews by other users and recommendations on well known sites are becoming increasingly influential in determining purchasing decisions. In a study put out by Deloitte, 62% of consumers said they read online product reviews, and of those 82% said the reviews they read influenced their purchase decision.
There are also countless stories about how companies were brought to their knees because they either didn’t pay attention to online chatter about their brand or they heard the chatter and just ignored it.
This is simply not an option anymore!!
Now that you know who the bloggers are and also why you should care what they say, keep reading Chatter for more tips on blogging and also the latest news in social media.