1. Continued Importance of Blogging
Although social media sites like Twitter and Facebook
have given users an alternate to blogging, experts predict
that blogs will continue to increase in use, readership and
importance over the coming years.
Twitter and Facebook offer a less intensive way to
communicate thoughts, feelings, ideas and information to
the world, and based on this many people have expected
to see the popularity and number of bloggers decrease.
In fact, the opposite is occurring, as the number of
people reading blogs is increasing.
eMarketer estimates, in their article The Continued Rise
of Blogging that more than half of web users will read
blogs at least monthly this year. eMarketer predicts that
by 2014 blog readership will rise to more than 150
million Americans (which includes at least 60% of the
internet population in the United States).
These trends show us that social media has not
negatively affected the world of blogging. The reasons
for this include that blogs:
• Continue to gain influence in mainstream media,
which validates them as a legitimate source of
information for internet readers
• Are becoming easier to write and use as a number of
personal platforms have been created to make the
experience more time efficient and user friendly

2. • Are becoming more comfortable for people to write
and read as they become more accepted as a form
of media
However, although readership is expected to increase it
seems certain that authorship is still a niche activity.
Currently, less than 12% of the online population will
update a blog at least monthly this year, which means
although the readership is up the number of writers has
not dramatically increased, nor is it expected to.
eMarketer suggests that by 2014 bloggers will increase to
13.3% of the total online population.
What do these trends mean? Certainly it shows us that
blogging is still important in the face of social media. If
60% of the internet population will be reading blogs
written by only 13.3%, those writers will hold a great
deal of influence. For businesses and marketers, it’s
important to publish a blog frequently. The readership is
there, as long as the content is relevant and informative
people will be directed to your site and are likely to read
the information you post. Thus, the SEO (search engine
optimization) impact is highly relevant. As a business
you want to get the most out of your website, which
plays a big role in your overall marketing strategy.
Ultimately, those who predicted that social sites like
Facebook and Twitter would trigger a decline in bloggers
and readership are certainly mistaken. Actually, bloggers
are currently read by more than half of the users on the
internet and you certainly want to try to direct some of
that audience to your own website. The more frequently
you write, update and add to your blog the bigger the

3. increase you will see in your search engine optimization.
Daily blogging is certainly an excellent way to increase
traffic to your website and improve your SEO.