Bloggers – the new internet story tellers? Which stories are missing?
July 21, 2006
A study conducted by The Pew Internet and American Life Project finds that bloggers are the new internet story tellers.
A telephone survey of a nationally-representative sample of bloggers has found that blogging is inspiring a new group of writers and creators to share their voices with the world. Some 54% of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44% say they have published elsewhere. While generally youthful, these writers otherwise represent a broad demographic spectrum of people who cite a variety of topics and motives for their blogging. Eight percent of internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Thirtynine percent of internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs – a significant increase since the fall of 2005.
Obviously this is an American study and they didn’t call me! but I wonder where this leaves the story tellers from the business sector? I was chatting about this with Damien yesterday in relation to Ireland. I am not sure how many Irish business blogs there currently are. If you take out the tech blogs (which straddle a few areas but are largely industry specific) then the ones I’m aware of are Darina Loakman – a Work at Home Mother, Kevin Thornton, Piaras (are you personal or professional Piaras?) Advanced Technology Products, Ask Direct, Roam 4 Free, Bubble Brothers (the Champagne people), Ice Cream Ireland and I know I’m leaving lots of others out. If there’s a chocolate manufacturer out there who’s interested in blogging then I would like to settle down in the company of them, the ice cream and bubbly people (I mean, you can’t get much better company than all of those can you?). I’m sure Damien will be announcing a new category in next year’s Irish Blog Awards – Best Business Blog and then the gloves will really be off. It seems to me that the Irish blog scene has exploded in the last year (is anyone counting?) but still, the Irish business world is sadly lagging behind in getting those stories online. A new Business Blog Award might change the profile of that.
For more information on the results of the study mentioned above you can dowload the full report (33 pages) by clicking here or see the summary below.
Edit: Interesting observation in that table that tackles the old chestnut of why more women aren’t blogging..according to this study it’s 50/50!
I’m no expert on biz blogging, but… I saw another write-up on this study that said that only 11% of blogs are political, which floored me. Why does the mainstream media spend so much time hyping a corner of the blogosphere that is so tiny?
There’ll definitely be a Business Blog section next year.
That’s great news Damien 🙂
Lori – I imagine the political blogs are the ones consistently referencing the “main stream media” so there’s a bit of mutual back slapping going on? And then there’s the snobbery of course that’s attached to the sorts of blogs that are “personal” or that aren’t perceived to be “serious enough” etc..maybe others have more lucid interpretations?
A better question for businesses might be, “Do you use blogs?” You don’t have to run a blog to use a blog. I know several Irish MDs who read newsfeeds from blogs. You don’t have to blog to interact with blogs as readers and commentators.
A Dublin business that sells web intelligence incorporates the chatter from 10 or 12 prominent Irish bloggers. Ministers read that news aggregation. If you’re on the aggreagated reading list, you can see staff members from every political party reading through blog posts by checking your referrer logs.
Yeah think I’m going to call mine a business blog at this rate.
First, thanks for the link! It would be fun to get business bloggers together. I really think it’s a interesting way to connect with customers or possible customers. Of course we have the connection through our shops, but it’s hard, especially this time of year to always find out what people think!
Hi Kieran – that’s a great idea..Although only if there is shameless product placing 🙂 Seriously though…why don’t we posit the idea on our blogs and see what the takers are – maybe some time in the autumn?
Hi Annette, thanks for the link! Didn’t realise anyone was reading it 😉