Blogging has become so pervasive and influential that the lines between blogging and the mainstream media have disappeared.
That is the main finding of a Technorati-sponsored survey of bloggers conducted in July and August 2008 by Decipher.
“Blogs are now mainstream media,” said Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati, in an interview with eMarketer. “We’ve certainly seen that with the number of professional, semiprofessional and passion/enthusiast bloggers who are creating real media experiences. At the same time, you’re also seeing mainstream media come the other direction to add blog content.”
comScore Media Metrix found that blogs had 77 million unique visitors in the US in August 2008, compared with 75.1 million unique visitors to MySpace and 41 million to Facebook. In July 2008, comScore’s ranking of the top 10 entertainment Websites included four blogs. Two of those, OMG and TMZ, were rated Nos. 1 and 2, respectively.
Among the Technorati survey’s own findings, one of the more eye-opening ones was a 2-to-1 male/female ratio among bloggers worldwide.
A closer look at the gender breakdown by geography shows that bloggers in Europe and Asia skewed even more heavily male (73% each), while US bloggers showed a less drastic gender split, with 57% males and 43% females.
Mr. Jalichandra acknowledged that the gender skew could be at least partially attributed to “the type of people that come to Technorati and register.” In other words, if Technorati’s user base leans male, then its survey data would naturally reflect that bias.
Another important caveat to the gender data is that the “State of the Blogosphere” report was limited to adults. Other surveys of blog use among US teenagers indicate that younger bloggers are predominantly female.
One-third of respondents had been contacted by a brand or agency to be a brand advocate.
That number correlates closely with the percentages of bloggers worldwide who frequently share personal experiences with companies or brands (34%) and frequently include product reviews (37%).
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