Here in New York at ad:tech, Technorati President and CEO Richard Jalichandra gave his annual "State of the Blogosphere" address. This has historically been a chance to reflect upon the Blogosphere’s impact on the world, and that impact is just as great as it’s ever been. That’s obvious up front.
9 out of 10 bloggers are reportedly talking about brands. Obviously that is important to consider in a time where opinions are easily swayed and conveyed (and shared) on the web through blogs and social media.
The State of the Blogosphere has been analyzing blogging growth and trends for 6 years. This year, the study specifically looks at brands in the Blogosphere, professional blogging activities, how bloggers are making money, the importance of Facebook vs. Google to bloggers, and the impact of market trends (like smartphones) on the blogosphere.
So how are the top bloggers gaining new audiences? What’s the best way to monetize? How should brands go about targeting and engaging bloggers? These are a few of the questions the report aims to answer. He said the number one question he gets asked is ‘how do i become a famous blogger?’ As for the state of the Blogosphere, "It’s never been stronger," he declared.
Accompanying him on stage was Wendy Hutter, Senior VP and New York Managing Director at Penn Schoen Berland, which contributed to the report – the largest blogger survey ever – 7,200 bloggers with an additional consumer survey of over 1,000 people.
Some interesting stats from the presentation as presented by Wendy:
– a third of bloggers have worked in traditional media.
– 87% of all bloggers use Facebook.
– 81% use Facebook to promote their blog.
– 64% use to interact with readers.
– 45% say FB is a more effective traffic driver than a year ago.
– Pros are more likely to have a separate FB Page for their blog.
– 73% of hobbyists/88% of pros use Twitter
– more than half link Twitter to their blog.
– One third of twitter nn-isers say they prefer fb for short updates and posting links
– 34% say Twitter is a more effective traffic driver than a year ago.
– 33% say tablets an d smartphones have impacted their blogging style
– 15% are using less flash and 7% are using html5 more often
More Brand and Revenue stats from Jalichandra:
– Half of non-corporate pro bloggers write about brands
– a fourth of bloggers overall, post pdouct or brand reviews monthly
– a fifth of bloggers post weekly
– 71 percent only write about brands and products whose reputations they approve of.
– a third boycott products.
– 1 in 5 not only blog about them but advocate their audience to boycott products as well
– half of pros and a fourth of hobbyists have been approached by a company to write about their brand or products
– 64% of bloggers say they are treated less professionaly by those brand reps than are the traditional media
– one in four blogs with ads now use an ad network. that’s up from one in 5 in ’09 and one in 8 in ’08
– 54% increase in number blogs with ad tags from ’09 to ’10
– Display ads 27%, search ads 25%, affiliate links 25%, paid postings 6%
– Best-performing ads: 38% say standard display ads perfom best on blogs
– 47% allow rich media, 33% allow paid advertorial posts
"Bloggers are most influenced by other bloggers," Jalichandra said. Check out Technorati for the full report, which includes a lot more info. They’ll be releasing three articles and a dozen interviews with prominent women bloggers.
Staty tuned to WebProNews for more ad:tech coverage.