Thursday, May 12, 2005
The Business of Blogging: "Published: May 12, 2005
When it comes to business, are blogs the wave of the future? Should your company invest time and resources in blogs or concentrate on the thousand-and-one other Internet initiatives that are on your plate?
eMarketer's new report, The Business of Blogging, focuses on the use of blogs in business, either as a corporate marketing or communications tool, as an advertising medium for marketers, or a publishing format for media companies.
An informal eMarketer survey finds that just 4% of major US corporations have blogs available to the public — and even fewer produce active sites with the link and feedback features that most readers associate with true blogs. Blogging by small businesses is probably even less common.
'Blogging is an explosively popular social phenomenon that is spilling into the business world,' says Ezra Palmer, eMarketer's editorial director, the author of the report. 'But thus far the financial and economic impact of blogging has been minimal.'
The sheer number of blogs is staggering, but many Americans still don't know what a blog is.
Nevertheless, the 2004 election cycle spurred big gains in blog readership, says Mr. Palmer. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that the percentage of Internet users who had read blogs jumped from 17% in February 2004 to 27% in November. (New figures released in May 2005, however, showed readership growth had stalled.)
The Pew data suggests that roughly 16% of the entire US adult population, or about 32 million adults, have read blogs. Pew found a significant number of regular readers: about 7% of the online population, or roughly 8.4 million people, said they had looked at a blog in the last 24 hours. Similarly, a Forrester Research poll found that 5% of online consumers said that they regularly read blogs.
Harris Interactive found a higher readership. It asked 2,630 online adults, 'About how often do you read political blogs?' Some 44% of respondents had read a political blog at least once.
Not surprisingly, older readers are less likely to have read blogs. Gallup, in a poll conducted with CNN and USA Today, found that nine of 10 adults over 65 had never read one. Forrester also found blog usage skewed young—respondents between 18 and 24 were more than twice as likely to be regular blog readers than the population as a whole.
A survey of blog readers by ad service company Blogads came up with an older age range. This may reflect that the survey started with a request for responses from some of the largest, most heavily trafficked blogs, a number of which were staple reading for politically active readers.
'Blog readership may have gotten an unsustainable boost from the unusually contentious 2004 election,' says Mr. Palmer. 'The latest Pew data and other anecdotal evidence suggest that blog readership has crested, at least temporarily. Blog readership growth probably will slow this year. It will take a significant amount of growth just to make up for the loss of short term political readers who logged off post election day.'"
When it comes to business, are blogs the wave of the future? Should your company invest time and resources in blogs or concentrate on the thousand-and-one other Internet initiatives that are on your plate?
eMarketer's new report, The Business of Blogging, focuses on the use of blogs in business, either as a corporate marketing or communications tool, as an advertising medium for marketers, or a publishing format for media companies.
An informal eMarketer survey finds that just 4% of major US corporations have blogs available to the public — and even fewer produce active sites with the link and feedback features that most readers associate with true blogs. Blogging by small businesses is probably even less common.
'Blogging is an explosively popular social phenomenon that is spilling into the business world,' says Ezra Palmer, eMarketer's editorial director, the author of the report. 'But thus far the financial and economic impact of blogging has been minimal.'
The sheer number of blogs is staggering, but many Americans still don't know what a blog is.
Nevertheless, the 2004 election cycle spurred big gains in blog readership, says Mr. Palmer. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that the percentage of Internet users who had read blogs jumped from 17% in February 2004 to 27% in November. (New figures released in May 2005, however, showed readership growth had stalled.)
The Pew data suggests that roughly 16% of the entire US adult population, or about 32 million adults, have read blogs. Pew found a significant number of regular readers: about 7% of the online population, or roughly 8.4 million people, said they had looked at a blog in the last 24 hours. Similarly, a Forrester Research poll found that 5% of online consumers said that they regularly read blogs.
Harris Interactive found a higher readership. It asked 2,630 online adults, 'About how often do you read political blogs?' Some 44% of respondents had read a political blog at least once.
Not surprisingly, older readers are less likely to have read blogs. Gallup, in a poll conducted with CNN and USA Today, found that nine of 10 adults over 65 had never read one. Forrester also found blog usage skewed young—respondents between 18 and 24 were more than twice as likely to be regular blog readers than the population as a whole.
A survey of blog readers by ad service company Blogads came up with an older age range. This may reflect that the survey started with a request for responses from some of the largest, most heavily trafficked blogs, a number of which were staple reading for politically active readers.
'Blog readership may have gotten an unsustainable boost from the unusually contentious 2004 election,' says Mr. Palmer. 'The latest Pew data and other anecdotal evidence suggest that blog readership has crested, at least temporarily. Blog readership growth probably will slow this year. It will take a significant amount of growth just to make up for the loss of short term political readers who logged off post election day.'"
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