I finally got around to digesting Technorati’s new 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report (I’m glad they are back with the new numbers), and here are the less sexy stats that I found most interesting in the recent report.
I don’t get too excited about the size the community numbers as much as I do about the more insightful data. The devil in this industry is all in the details. So here’s the ones that caught my attention:
- 80% of bloggers say they have written about brands and products (companies beware);
- Nearly 40% indicate they have been quoted in mainstream media (15 minutes of fame?);
- Majority of bloggers have full-time jobs (they must be great at time management);
- 12% are blogging on behalf of their companies (that’s higher than I would have imagined);
- Two-thirds of bloggers reveal their identifies online (I expect that number to decrease over time);
- 33% of them have received free products (I wonder how many have returned them); and,
- “News” was the the most popular tag used by bloggers (does everyone think they are a journalist?).
Mike Spataro
Yesterday I conducted a webcast featuring Peter Kim from Forrester Research and Marty Collins from Microsoft. We had great attendance and shared some of the latest findings from Forrester and how Microsoft is implementing a comprehensive framework and strategy for listening, learning, engaging and measuring efforts in social media.
We asked a polling question of the audience and got some interesting stats that I thought I would share. The question to attendees was “How would you rate your organization’s level of social media engagement?
Attendees answered as follows:
a. Not quite ready – no current social media plans (6%)
b. Information gathering – learning more about this new marketing channel ( 21%)
c. Getting started - monitoring blogs and other online conversations ( 19%)
d. Formal program/initiative – dedicated efforts, processes and resources in place
to collect social media data and learn from it ( 13%)
e. Comprehensive program – a complete process for monitoring, learning, participating
and evaluating social media engagement and results ( 8%)
f. No Answer ( 34%)
Of the attendee’s that participated in the polling question (thank you) I found the break down encouraging around the number of marketers who are getting started, have formal or comprehensive programs - 40% of attendees. That is much higher then recent data gathered (a bit more informally) at some recent speaking and round tables I have conducted.
Appreciate everyone’s attendance and participation.
Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies
