Despite recent stories to the contrary both in online and offline publications, the popularity of blogging shows no sign of abating anytime soon. From its early days as an outlet for bedroom writers to share their personal thoughts to the power it holds today as a business tool, blogging’s popularity is, if anything, increasing.
A recent report from Technorati confirms that blogging is growing at a phenomenal rate. Hailed as the Blogger’s Bible, Technorati measures not only how popular blogs are individually, but also how many are currently being written worldwide. In their State of the Blogosphere Report 2008, Technorati shares some impressive figures:
- As of March 2008, there were 184 million blogs worldwide
- Blogs in the US enjoyed 77.7 million unique visitors, compared to 41 million visitors to Facebook and 75.1 million to MySpace
- 77% of all active Internet users read blogs
Apart from confirming that blogging as a pastime continues to find new fans, these figures from Technorati also act as a wake-up call for any businesses yet to have a corporate blog.
The Numbers Game
According to recent statistics, over half of all businesses in North America don’t have a blog, which means that just under half of all businesses do. If your business is in the half that doesn’t have a blog, you’re offering your competitors a major advantage over you – access to your target audience.
One of the reasons that blogs are so popular is that they offer an instant voice, both from the blogger and the reader. A personal blog can share the latest news or pictures of a newborn baby to family and friends in a different part of the world. A business blog works on the same premise.
Working on just some of the figures that Technorati provides, it’s easy to see why blogging should be a part of every business’s marketing or PR strategy:
- 46% of all bloggers are professional bloggers. This may mean that they’re writing a corporate blog, or simply writing about the industry that their company is in, while not necessarily mentioning their company at all.
- This equates to just over 84.5 million bloggers that are, in essence, business bloggers. If your company doesn’t have some kind of blog presence, that’s potentially 84.5 million businesses ahead of you when it comes to reaching your target audience.
- Online sales in 2007 totaled $260 billion. Blogs are known to increase awareness of new products and offers from companies. Less than half are utilizing this, which means that 1 out of 2 companies are losing a large part of $260 billion dollars of online income.
As the economy continues to waver and businesses tighten their belts, not using every tool at your disposal is akin to commercial suicide. The popularity of blogging and blog readers should be seen as one of the most cost-effective and essential business tools available.
9 comments:
I was pleased to give you a thumbs up on StumbleUpon for this article.
It's not difficult for me to think the future of blogging is bright of course given that I run eight of them myself. That's not unusual and it can throw off the stats a bit.
At least one of my blogs would, I think, make a great link swap here. That's What I See Out My Window. I hope you'll stop by, check it out and let me know what you think. There's an email in my profile where you can reach me.
Keep up the good work!
Great post. Totally agree. Blogs are not dead....I think they are evolving though and will continue to take on new forms. I love Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc., but they are just tools, like a blog, that alone aren't complete, but when all used together are very powerful.
Blogging isn't going to die soon because it's now ingrained in our culture - it feeds into our deep needs of self-expression and community-belonging. I think blogging is akin to the invention of the magazine.
Whilst I do agree that the blog is pretty safe for now, I think what a lot of people are forgetting is that it isn't so much the technology that's important; it's about ensuring that you are effectively connecting with the customer. Sure, it's important to make sure you are interacting with the customer using the tools which they value, but I think it is equally imperative that we don't get too hooked on contemporary tools; these are likely to change over the years(in particular, for the case of the social networks in my opinion). We need to keep our eyes open and anticipate customer demands before they make them. At the end of the day, it's a case of having a presence in the forums in which your customers expect you to be that will allow the greatest degree of social media efficiency.
TLR
An excellent posts. I've Twittered a link to it to my Twitter followers and have sent a copy of your post to all of my clients. This is the best read of the day. Great info. Thanks.
Michael
Ad Agency New Business Consultant
www.fuelingnewbusiness.com
Hi everyone. My apologies for not responding earlier, I've been tied up with some client projects.
@ Anthony. Wow, 8 blogs? I'm not sure if I could keep up with all of them! :) I will certainly keep in mind the link offer as my blog grows.
@ rhett. I agree - while I think that the likes of Twitter are excellent for building contacts, blogs are where the contacts can go for the "meat" of the networking. Of course, trying to ensure relevant content is important too! :)
@ pastorcox. I agree - if you look at the current state of the traditional print industry, journalists are realizing they have to move with the times and get into the blogging scene if they want to stay relevant.
@ thelovable rogue - I agree completely, and I believe this is where the content will win through. It's all very well having a lot of contacts and networks, but if you don't entertain I feel you'll lose any advantage you have.
@ Michael - thank you so much for your kind words. I'm really touched that you liked the blog enough to share with your Twitter contacts - it's always nice to connect with my readers.
Thank you all for commenting and hopefully you'll keep stopping by. :)
It agree, your idea simply excellent
my God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.
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Hi, I can’t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please :)
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