Shani Higgins Presents Business Blogging Stats at PR Summit

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:19 — 38.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | RSS

Blogging statistics, including counts on blog readership and blog traffic, were presented by Technorati CEO Shani Higgins to public relations agency leaders at the PR Summit in San Francisco.

Much of the data she shared was a preview of the blogging stats to be included this fall in the Technorati State of the Blogosphere Report.

These blogger statistics revealed provide critical insight into best practices for pitching stories ideas to blogs.

Business Blogging Statistics  

• 71% of bloggers only write about brands they think are reputable
• Mommy bloggers get 500 pitches a day
• Only 20% of bloggers like the pitches they get

Blog accuracy perception continues to rise, the credibility of mainstream news outlines continues to erode, mommy bloggers are the toughest to pitch, more brands are compensating bloggers and brands like Vogue, Samsung and Ebay are all more invested in blogger outreach programs than they were a year ago.

Professional bloggers are broken down into three groups:

• Corporate Bloggers
• Part-Timer Bloggers
• Self-Employed Professional Bloggers

For brand marketers, the most important earned media mentions come from Self-Employed Professional Bloggers, since they have more at stake.

Business Blog Usage Statistics

• 33% have worked within traditional media
• 27% are still employed by traditional media
• 3% blog for their traditional media employer
• 65% say blogs are being taken more seriously

  8:16 Bloggers are heavy users of social media.

Statistics on How Bloggers use Social Media

• 87% of all bloggers use Facebook
• 81% use Facebook to promote their blog
• 64% use Facebook to interact with readers
• 45% say Facebook drives more traffic to their blog than it did a year ago
• 73% of hobbyists and 88% of professional bloggers still use Twitter
• More than half of all bloggers link Twitter to their blog
• 34% of bloggers say Twitter is a more effective traffic source than it was a year ago

10:19 Bloggers are Talking about Brands – Nearly half of non-corporate bloggers write about brands. One-fourth of bloggers overall post products or brand reviews monthly, and one-fifth post weekly. 20% of corporate bloggers post daily about products and services.   Brand Reputation Matters to Bloggers – Bloggers care deeply about brand reputation so brand acceptance is required if companies want bloggers to write about them. 

Statistics on Brands that Blog

• 42% of bloggers say they blog about brands they love (or hate)
• 34% say they never talk about products or brands on their blogs
• Among respondents who say they do blog about brands, 51% said they rarely review brands, services or products among companies
• Among respondents who say they do blog about brands, 48% say they post reviews weekly
• 33% of hobbyist and more than 50% of professional bloggers look at reputation when determining what to write about
• 64% of bloggers say brand representatives treat them less professionally than they’d like

13:16 Mommy Bloggers talk about Brands More – Even though women only represent 5% of bloggers, they are the most coveted blogging segment by brands because they blog more about brands.

Mommy Bloggers Statistics

• 92% use Facebook to promote their blog
• 75% use Twitter to promote their blog
• 55% follow brands on social media sites like Facebook
• 54% have been approached by a brand
• Half say a brand’s reputation influences their decision to write about it
• 72% of mom bloggers are being taken more seriously than they were a year ago

15:44 Blog reliability and blog accuracy, as perceived by readers is on the rise.

Statistics on Blog Trustworthiness 

• 46% trust traditional media less than they did 5 years ago
• 35% believe blogs are taken more seriously
• 19% believe blogs are written better than traditional media sources

17:35 Blog pitching success increases dramatically when you know how to identify the most influential bloggers who cover your topic.  Understanding how to research and select bloggers, though is not discussed in this podcast, but can certainly be attained through social media training.

21:02 Bloggers are looking for audience value in a blog pitch. Investing in the quality of the news pitch, customizing high-quality of content and offering the blogger recognition never goes out of style.

23:44 Blog Trends – The level of professionalism among bloggers is on the rise, as is giving bloggers opportunities to become true brand advocates. Bloggers are also becoming more savvy about compensation and are well aware of how they are helping brands achieve goals. More brands are establishing brand ambassador programs that compensate bloggers to attend conferences and amplify their brand messages through blogs and social media.

25:13 Shani Higgins included several interesting Blogger Relations Case Studies, including:

• Walmart and Vogue brand ambassador blogger outreach programs
• Samsung Galaxy S product review blogger outreach program
• Ebay Inside Source website online traffic generation blogger outreach program

30:30 For bloggers, expanding reach is essential. The focus should be on the quality of the writing and integration into social networking platforms. Writing frequently and entertaining opportunities from brands will help to increase reach.

Conclusion

You can’t track progress without benchmarks comparing these statistics. These historical statistics on blogging provide an excellent framework to compare current blogging stats against.