Swim Lesson 3 Give Me Quality Content.Key

Lesson #3 Give Me Quality Content (For Free?) Information Exchange in a Blogospheric Age

What are blogs?

web + log = blog

A website usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other materials such as graphics or videos. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse- chronological order.

What are blogs? • Spontaneous expression of instant thought • Links to references and sources • Exposition of personality 5

What is the blogosphere?

The blogosphere is the collective community of all blogs. Since all blogs are on the Internet by deﬁnition, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked. Discussions in the blogosphere have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues.

“The blogosphere is not just a place where people write about the day-to-day events of their own lives--it also acts as a forum for people to share their opinions and thoughts on things that are occurring in the world. The inﬂuence of these bloggers is far-reaching, whether it is sharing their opinion on an upcoming movie launch or a devastating ﬂu epidemic, they are talking and people are listening.” Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president, digital strategic services, Nielsen Online

What does the blogosphere look like? • 27.9 million U.S. Internet users have a blog they update at least once per month • By 2013, 37.6 million users will update their blogs at least monthly • This year, 96.6 million U.S. Internet users will read a blog at least once per month • By 2013, 128.2 million people, or 58% of all U.S. users will read a blog at least once per month 9

What does the blogosphere look like? • 57% male; 43% female • 42% 18-34 years old; 58% 35+ years old • 26% single • 51% have household income over $75,000 • Three out of four are college graduates • Spend 2x as much time online as U.S. adults 18-49 10

Why are people blogging? • Personal expression • Two-way conversations • Compilation and ﬁlter of daily news • Instant information • Solipsism • Your own private wikipedia • No editorial oversight • Need for perspective • Form of instant and global self-publishing • Sharing expertise • Career advancement • Networking • Activism • Book publicity • Personal satisfaction • Self promotion • Share a passion • To become known as an expert 11

What role are blogs playing? • 95% of the top 100 U.S. newspapers have reporter blogs • Breaking news - Drudge (Lewinsky) - FreeRepublic.com (Bush’s National Guard record) • A survey of Congressional ofﬁce employees regarding the relationship between bloggers and the mainstream media: 64% said that blogs act as a watchdog over the mainstream media 12

What role are blogs playing? • Opportunity for marketers to monitor and inﬂuence conversations relevant to their business. - Four in ﬁve bloggers post brand or product reviews, with 37% of them posting frequently - 41.4% of all blog coverage of select national retailers was positive; nearly 31% was neutral and 27.8% was negative - One-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates. 13

“Understanding what is currently important to bloggers is essential to marketers since we know that highly blogged about topics are important indicators of conversational sustainability and impact. Moreover, those topics with high blog links tend to embed themselves prominently in search results.” Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president, digital strategic services, Nielsen Online

Top 10 Blogged Topics April 2009 Flu Outbreak Easter Somali Pirates 2009 NFL Draft Democratic Party Nuclear Weapons Bea Arthur Hugo Chavez X-Men Origins: Wolverine Carrie Prejean

What issues are blogs raising? • Faux intimacy of the Web experience seeps through in exchange between blogger and reader • More colloquial type of writing/tone • Bloggers believe that blogs are being taken more seriously as information sources: - One in ﬁve bloggers don’t believe that newspapers will survive the next 10 years. - Half believe blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next ﬁve years. • Free content? 16

What are the results of blogging? • 37% of bloggers have been quoted in traditional media based on a blog post. • 8 bloggers have secured book deals to be published this year. 17

What does the Arkansas blogosphere look like?

Arkansas Bloggers Survey Questions 1. How often do you post entries to your blog(s)? 2. How many topics do you write about per blog? 3. What topics do you write about on your blog(s)? 4. How many hours per week do you spend blogging? 5. How do you measure success for you blog? 6. What tools do you use on your blog? 7. How many blogs do you author? 8. How many other ARKANSAS blogs do you read? 9. How many NATIONAL blogs do you read? 10. Why do you blog? 11. Male/female? 12. Age? 19

Arkansas Bloggers Survey How often do you post entries to your blog? 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1x/day 2-5x/day 6+x/day 2-5x/week 6+x/week 2-5x/month 20

Arkansas Bloggers Survey How many topics do you write about per blog? 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2 3 4 5+ 21

Arkansas Bloggers Survey What topics do you write about on your blog? 70% 52.5% 35% 17.5% 0% Ntl News AR News Social Media Ntl Politics AR Politics Mrktg Bus. 22

Arkansas Bloggers Survey How many hours per week do you spend blogging? 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% >1hr 1-3 hrs 3-5 hrs 5-10 hrs 10-20 hrs 20+ hrs 23

Arkansas Bloggers Survey How do you measure success for your blog? Personal Satisfaction 78.6% Number of Unique Visitors 78.6% Number of Links to My Blog from Other Sites 46.4% Accolades from Other Media 35.7% Number of Posts or Comments on My Blog 25% Revenue 17.9% Number of People “Favoriting” You 10.7% Number & Quality of New Business Leads 10.7% Number of RSS Subscribers 7.1% Technorati Authority 0% 24

Arkansas Bloggers Survey What tools do you use on your blog? Archiving posts by date or category 92.9% Commenting system 71.4% Twitter/real-time updating apps 67.9% Search box 57.1% Widgets 50.0% Built-in syndication 46.4% Ability to assign entry to multiple categories 46.4% Photo hosting site 46.4% Mobile updating tools 39.3% Video hosting site 39.3% TrackBack implementation 39.3% Ability for multiple authors to contribute 39.3% Photoblog capabilities 32.1% 25

Arkansas Bloggers Survey How many blogs do you author? 2 blogs 14% 3 blogs 18% 1 blog 54% 4 blogs 5 blogs 11% 4% 26

Arkansas Bloggers Survey How many other ARKANSAS blogs do you read? 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2-5 6-10 11-15 16+ 27

Arkansas Bloggers Survey How many other NATIONAL blogs do you read? 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2-5 6-10 11-15 16+ 28

Arkansas Bloggers Survey Why do you blog? Corporate Personal 10.7% 89.3% Professional 64.3% 29

Arkansas Bloggers Survey It’s better to be To record my It is a way to I wanted life and the stay in touch on the cutting something that lives of my of I would want to with out-of-state edge than the children. read. friends and cutting board. family. To crush my Why enemies, see them To maintain a do favorable online driven before me, and As a check on identity/ to hear the corporate- you reputation. lamentation of their owned, bias- blog? women. tending media. Because writing To continue my To add to the A burning is my passion and explorations into so are my blog political desire to get AR and its discourse in the truth subjects, fashion unique features. and beauty. Arkansas. out. 30

Arkansas Bloggers Survey Springdale Demographics Texarkana Prairie Grove 18-24 7% 55-64 4% 65+ 45-54 4% Female 4% 25-34 36% 39% Sherwood Male 64% 35-44 43% Benton Fayetteville Little Rock North Little Rock 31

Why do we blog?

Questions? Emily Blake ereeves@stoneward.com brutherford@stoneward.com 501.772.6142 (text) 501.772.6108 (text) @reeves501 @blakerutherford

Swim Lesson 3 Give Me Quality Content.Key

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