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Purchase Recommendations From Blogs Highly Influential to Women

March 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

61% of women who are active blog users say they have made a purchase based on a recommendation from a blog, a proportion that rises to 87% among BlogHer network members, according to a March 2012 survey from the company, which polled a sample of women from the general population and a sample from its community. Recommendations from blogs compare favorably to popular social networks: among Facebook users just one-third of the general population sample (and 54% of BlogHer community respondents) report having made a purchase based on a recommendation from the network.

Meanwhile, Pinterest scores higher (47%) than Facebook among general population respondents who use the fast-growing network, but slightly lower among BlogHer community members (53%) who use it. Just 3 in 10 respondents from both groups who are active users of Twitter say they have made a purchase based on a recommendation from the site.

The study also notes that the influence of blogs is consistent across verticals: indeed, results from a BlogHer survey released in January 2012 indicated that general population respondents were 30% more likely to use advice from blogs than information or updates from a social network (69% vs. 53%) to help with a consumer electronics purchase, while BlogHer community respondents were 50% more likely to do so (84% vs. 56%).

Most Trust Info and Advice From Blogs

Meanwhile, according to BlogHer’s “Women and Social Media in 2012? report, blogs’ influence on women’s purchase decisions is likely related to the amount of trust they place in the information and advice they gather from this source. Among BlogHer network respondents that are active users of each of the following media sources, 98% trust the information they receive from blogs, ahead of Facebook (86%), Twitter (85%), and Pinterest (85%). Among general population respondents, blogs and Pinterest (both at 85%) are the most trusted, with Twitter (73%) and Facebook (67%) trailing.

Facebook More a Social Space

Facebook is possibly less trusted as an information source due to women seeing it more as a communal space rather than as an information source. Presented with various categories, general population respondents chose Facebook over blogs for staying up to date with friends and family (87% vs. 20%), having fun (77% vs. 41%), entertainment (69% vs. 50%), and contributing to a community (41% vs. 28%).

By contrast, women said blogs were better suited than Facebook to find out about new products (41% vs. 24%), seek advice and recommendations (39% vs. 35%), get product information (37% vs. 17%), and help make purchase decisions (36% vs. 17%).

Other Findings:

General population respondents indicated they were more likely to use Pinterest than Twitter to find out about new products (39% vs. 24%), to have fun (58% vs. 47%), and to get product information (26% vs. 18%).
Daily blog readers from the general population sample were 52.2% more likely than the overall general population sample to say that turning to an online or social media site is the first thing they do when they want to buy something (35% vs. 23%). They were also far less likely to say they do not go online or to social media for a shopping decision (19% vs. 41%). According to a white paper released in January 2012 by Fleishman-Hillard in partnership with Hearst Magazine, more women reported that information found online (40%) was a highly important decision factor to them than their parents (30%), friends (27%), and children (24%). Additionally, information found online was also more significant than information in magazines (17%), newspapers (17%), or on the TV (16%).
BlogHer network respondents were more likely than the general population sample to use Facebook (94% vs. 84%) and YouTube (75% vs. 62%), and less likely to watch TV (85% vs. 93%).

About the Data: The BlogHer survey fielded two samples online in February 2012. The results are based on the BlogHer network sample of 1,060 women, and the general population sample of 1,011 women. The general population survey was fielded by Vision Critical.

Filed Under: News, Research, Social Media Tagged With: blogging, networks, news, Research, Social Media

How Blogs Influence Purchases and Recommendations

November 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Bloggers comment on brands and post to social media, expanding reach

Bloggers, from hobbyists to professionals, often write about brands, and their growing influence should make brand representatives continually evaluate the relationships they have with these bloggers.

Most bloggers write about brands in some way or another. According to the “State of the Blogosphere 2011” report from blog directory website Technorati, 38% of all bloggers post about brands that they love or hate and 34% write product or service reviews. Professional full-time bloggers or part-time professional bloggers who write as a way to supplement their income are more likely to blog about brands than their hobbyist, corporate or entrepreneur counterparts.

Bloggers are increasing in their influence over readers and other bloggers. Last year’s Technorati “State of the Blogosphere” reported that 29% of bloggers are influenced by other blogs they read. This year, that number jumped to 68%.

As bloggers gain influence and write about brands, the relationships between blog writers and brand representatives are important for companies to focus on. Most bloggers have a good relationship with brand representatives. Nearly half of all bloggers (49%) characterized their interactions with such representatives as somewhat or very favorable. Only 3% said their interactions were not at all favorable. However, 40% of all bloggers said they didn’t know how to characterize their interactions with brand representatives.

This large group of unsure respondents could have mixed feelings about the communications they receive from these brand representatives, affecting their relationships with the reps and their brands. Of all bloggers, 17% said brand representatives had asked for things that would compromise the credibility or content standards of the blog. This is roughly the same percentage of those that said the representatives were knowledgeable about their blogs and content (14%), are genuinely interested in building a relationship (16%) and provide information that has value for readers (23%).

As bloggers continue to grow in influence, their coverage of brands and their interactions with brands’ products, services and employees will be of greater interest to companies. Brand representatives who connect with bloggers must be sure to work with these writers to keep the relationships thriving.

Filed Under: News, Research, Social Media Tagged With: blogging, Blogs, business, news, Research, Social Media

Corporate Blogging Goes Mainstream

October 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Becoming fully incorporated into media and marketing

Blogging has been around for well over a decade—an eternity in internet time. Whereas blogs used to be a thorn in the side of traditional journalism, today they’re an essential ingredient in the media mix. Hardly a news organization exists that does not have a blog where its journalists post updates to breaking stories, offer personal commentary and engage in a dialogue with readers and viewers.

Similarly, blogging has grown into a vital marketing tool for all types of companies, including Fortune 500 marketers and mom-and-pop retailers. eMarketer estimates that 34% of US companies will use a blog for marketing purposes this year, a proportion that will continue to grow to 43% by 2012.

“Businesses are increasingly using the blogosphere to further a variety of corporate functions, such as communications, lead generation, customer service and brand marketing,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report “Corporate Blogging: Media and Marketing Firms Drive Growth.”

While blogging still tends not to rate such high usage as newer forms of social media like Facebook and Twitter, it still has many strengths, including full control over branding and advertising, integration with all corporate web properties, no limits on post length and the existence of a full, easily searchable repository of information. And studies have noted blogging’s usefulness for lead generation.

In addition to marketing, blogs have also become more fully integrated into the world of communications. In the early days of blogging, the established media showed a definite distrust of such nontraditional publishing. By October 2009, according to a Cision-led study, nearly two-thirds of US journalists reported they used blogs to publish, promote and distribute what they wrote. And according to PRWeek and PR Newswire, about a third of journalists used corporate blogs as research sources in 2010, up from a quarter last year.

“This confluence between established and emerging media is making blogging an integral part of the news cycle,” said Verna. “As consumers assimilate blogs into their media consumption, they are less likely to distinguish between a blog and a traditional news outlet.”

Filed Under: News, Research, Social Media Tagged With: blogging, marketing, news, Research, Social Media

Companies Struggle to Keep Social Media Content On-Message

October 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Nearly three-quarters of blog posts don’t reflect corporate messaging

Marketers and other corporate communications professionals may sometimes feel they have a thankless task: carefully craft messages about their company’s thought leadership, social responsibility efforts and new product or service launches, only to find those messages distorted as they’re disseminated through the media.

PR and communications firm Burson-Marsteller analyzed more than 150 messages sent out by companies in the Financial Times Global 100 list of firms and discovered a large gap between the messages that went out and how they were covered on blogs.

Message distortion was highest for companies in Latin America and the US, with a global average of 69% of blog postings not reflecting the message companies were trying to send. According to the report, bloggers tended to include “opinions, personal experience, knowledge of competitors and products, and speculation.”

Distorted messages are not a new phenomenon; they have been a problem in mainstream media as well. Still, the message gap between companies and the traditional media is significantly smaller: Less than half of all messages in mainstream media failed to reflect company messages, and here the US performed above average.

But as blogs continue to grow in importance and become integrated in mainstream outlets, along with the growth of other forms of social media, the chances for message distortion are likely to be high.

One way companies can combat the message gap is to make the most of owned media. If companies create their own compelling content and distribute it across social networks, there is no room for such a gap. Bloggers are not likely to simply reprint such old-media items as press releases, but relevant branded content can attract links across Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social web.

According to the “2010 Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability” study from King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, 73% of US companies with a social media strategy were using branded content they created in their campaigns. Such original content was considered the most important part of a successful social campaign, with nearly half of respondents calling it “extremely important.”

Filed Under: News, Research, Social Media Tagged With: advertising, blogging, brand, business, Social Media