With big name social platforms like Facebook & Twitter hogging the online spotlight, blogs seem to have wrongfully slipped by the buzz radar. According to a recent Neilsen report, the number of blogs has increased from 35 million to 181 million over the past 5 years with a 22% increase from 2010 to 2011. Neilson attributes the number of growing blogs to the increase in bloggers.
The State of the Blogosphere 2011: Part 1 report by Technorati sheds light on who is blogging. Most bloggers are reported to be between the ages of 25-44 with 2 – 4 years of blogging experience. The recent Neilsen report identifies a majority of bloggers as well-educated women between the ages of 18 and 34, 7 out of 10 of whom have attended college and a majority who went on to graduate.
According to Neilsen the top three preferred sites used by this active audience are Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr, based on the number of unique visitors. Blogger’s 46 million unique U.S. visitors in October make it second to Facebook with Tumblr ranking as the fastest growing.
When the bloggers in Technorati’s report were asked, “Why Are You Blogging More?” the top answer from Corporate bloggers was “It has proven to be valuable for promoting my business,” with a collective answer of, “I enjoy interacting with my audience,” between all blogger types.
In a Socialmediatoday article analyzing a 2011 Technorati report, Brian Stolis stated, “Blogs are underrated and largely underestimated. Not only are they platforms for self expression, shared and observations, they are becoming a live index of history in the making as told by people for the people.”
We have seen a shift in blog recognition through the growing popularity of Pinterest, which reached 4.5 million unique U.S. visitors in October 2011. Not only is 80 percent of the audience female, Neilsen found that 92 percent of Pinterest’s audience also visited mass-merchandiser sites and are more likely to trust ads on social media than men. The defining difference between Pinterest and other blogs is the platform’s visual orientation, which is similar to Tumblr and alludes to blog audience interests.
What do trends in the blogosphere mean for you and your business? Not only does the Neilsen report confirm the blogging sector is indeed growing in numbers, but the Technorati report confirms that those who are blogging for business and corporate purposes are doing so because of strong results raising brand awareness. Another reason to utilize blogging for business success is to increase your website’s search engine visibility. Google confirmed the importance of blogging with their Freshness update in November, which favors recent content on websites. To take advantage of the benefits of your blog with the freshness update, link your blog to your site and be sure to update it regularly.
