Social Media Strategy | Online PR | Proactive Report | Sally Falkow

The Proactive Reports is a blog about social media strategy, shifts in media consumption and online PR trends

Sally Falkow - Social Media Strategist

Behaviors of the blogosphere

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Blogs and PR – some must read info on who is reading blogs and why they do it

If you’re still not sure whether blogs should be a part of your PR strategy – should you advise your top management on the value of blogging, put bloggers on your media relations list, the need to monitor blogs for mentions of your company, execs or products, spend a couple of hours digging into comScore’s recent report on blog audiences and behavior.

Because many web users visit blogs without knowing they are blogs, surveys won’t give you the true blog use. comScore  used their permission-based research panel that measures the online activity of more that 2 million global participants to get a more accurate score.  They  examined the behavior of consumers who visited the 400 top weblogs and hosting services durng the first three monhths of 2005 and found that

  • 50 million Internet users visited blogs
  • That’s almost 30% of all Internet users and 1 in 6 of the total US population
  • Of the 400 top blogs observed, political blogs were the most popular
  • Next come lifestyle blogs, tech blogs and blogs authored by women (Go Blog Her!)
  • Blog readers are more likely to be younger, live in a wealthier household and have a broadband connection
  • They visit more web pages and are more likely to shop online

While we may all be aware that blog readership is growing every day, we may not have realized the extent of the jump –  45% from Q1 2004 to Q1 2005.

While it’s difficult to define where the threshold lies for ‘mainstream media’  one could argue that with approximately 30% of the US Internet audience visiting blogs, this medium is fast approaching that status.

The top four blog hosts now boast more visitors than any mainstream media site. Blogspot.com  reachers more visitors than the NYTimes.com and WashingtonPost.com – clear evidence says this report that consumer generated media can draw an audience on a par with traditional online publishers.

If you have not yet reserved your seat at the Bulldog Reporter Revolution in PR Technology: How Blogs, RSS, Wikis and Podcasting Are Transforming Corporate Communications NYC on September 9 or San Francisco on September 16, get over there right now.

This is stuff you need to know.

 

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