4. Before we start, what is a blog? Web 2.0?
• How many of you know what a blog is?
• How many of you read blogs?
• How many of you post blogs?
• How many have heard of web 2.0?
A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled
web log) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of
periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order)
Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of services
available on the World Wide Web that let people collaborate,
and share information online.
Source: Wikipedia
5. “Blog of Mouth”… the definite tool?
• This presentation is on:
Blogs
Word of Mouth
• “Blog of mouth”
Proud of what I thought was my definition.
But check any search engine (such as
www.ask,com) and the concept has already been
used many times
Is “blog of mouth” the definite tool for word of
mouth?
6. The Blogosphere
• Searching for blogs in www.ask.com gives you
over 49.9 million results.
• The Blogosphere is currently estimated at over 35
million blogs…
The total number of articles in each blog are not
even estimated!
• Every second there is a new blog published…
• and every 5-6 months the blogosphere doubles in
size!
7. Size of the blogosphere
Source: State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth
Posted by Dave Sifry on April 17, 2006
8. Why are blogs so powerful? Interlinked
Blogger
writes great People read this
article on “Y”
B lo
gge
Blogger reads this
r re
ads
this
You have
reached a
high network
9. Types of Blogs
• Blogs can be divided into:
“Corporate Blogs or Professional Blogs: the blog is
either written by the company or by a professional
with high level of expertise in the sector.
– www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Resources/CEOBlogs
List
Political/Activist Blogs: includes political blogs, anti-
war blogs, etc.
Amateur journalist Blogs: for people that either like
writing or to proof their knowledge to the world.
• All of the blogs above have huge power in
disseminating information.
10. Types of Blogs and Blog of Mouth
• “Corporate Blogs” or Professional Blogs:
Fon Movement: project that got communicated only via blogs
Microsoft or General Motors were one of the early adopters.
Ask.com obviously has a blog to communicate to the world.
• Political/Activist Blogs:
Campaign for Howard Deen (in the US).
Very pro and very anti war blogs regarding Irak (vs. Traditional
media).
• Amateur journalist Blogs: for people that either like writing or
to proof their knowledge to the world.
As an example, www.ojobuscadores.com only by going thru
blogs just gathered 200 people to talk about search last week
in Madrid.
11. Blogs and companies
• How companies react to blogs (every day there are
new ones!)
Trying to get Bloggers on your side:
– The film “Serenity” gave free tickets to bloggers.
– The “Fon” movement
Bloggers on the other side:
– Delta Airlines – Ellen Simonetti (queen of the skies)
– Axpe Consulting in Spain
• Overall feeling: companies don't still see the power
of the blogs… but they are already seeing the
effects!
12. People talking about blogs
• There are way too many articles
• Every week you hear the importance of blog in one or another
article
Jupiter Media report talks about “disproportionately large
influence” and quotes that although "active" web users make
up only a small proportion of Europe's online population, they
are increasingly dominating public conversations and creating
business trends.
Glenn Reynolds (An army of Davids) "Bloggers and blog-
readers are 'influentials”… "You can bury your head in the
sand, but very quickly you'll look like a very old-fashioned
company."
“La blogosfera hispana” pioneros de la cultura digital: a book
on blogs and bloggers recently published in Spain.
13. Experiences at Ask.com
• We have our own blog at Ask.com where we communicate
and more important receive feedback (http://blog.ask.com)
• We have just launched beta/full sites in mainland Europe and
have followed an early adopter strategy:
Bloggers are critical in this strategy
• When we launch new products (such as smart answers)
bloggers quickly pick up the news.
• Other experiences:
Launching Ask.com in NL and someone taking pictures of your
presentation … 2 mins later is online.
Same situation talking in a blogconference in Madrid (nice to
see no computers in the room today!)
I have to read them daily to make sure I don't miss any
important news
14. Back to the initial question?
Is “blog of mouth” the definite tool for word of
mouth?
• A tool that Spreads quickly any information
• Exponential growth
• “Cheap” (ie. free) way of distributing any
information (although you have to be careful)
15. Lets look at “Internet 1.0”
• Initial years of internet…
Not that many sites
Everybody would check any site that launched
Directories were the way to get the information needed (and
you would visit multiple sites in the directory).
• Internet now
Millions and millions of sites
Most activity gets centered around few sites
If you are not in a search engine, you don't exist…
– People only check top results.
Concentrate only on what is relevant to you
16. Consequences for “Blogs 2.0”
• 35 million blogs
Post 2 entrance per day
70 million daily documents per day!
Obviously No time to read all this information.
• Blogs in the near future
You will only focus on a very limited number of
blogs
Isn't that similar to other ways of “word of mouth”?
17. And with so many bloggers, couldn't this
happen?
Blogger
writes great People read this
article on “Y”
B lo This Blogger
gge
Blogger reads this
r re agrees
ads
this
This Blogger
says the
opposite
You have reached a high
network but with many
different messages
18. People talking about blogging (2)
The findings of the British Market Research Bureau's
quarterly survey led senior associate director Trevor
Vagg to conclude that blogging has received
disproportionate media coverage and the whole idea
of citizen journalism is overhyped.
Awareness of blogs dramatically increased
But despite this there has been no significant
change in the number of people who publish blogs,
which remains at just 2% of UK internet users.
only 10% - around 2.8 million people - of internet
users view a weblog once a month or more.
19. And back again to the initial question?
Is “blog of mouth” the definite tool for word of
mouth?
• If you are a blogger, definitely “yes”
• If you are some of the journalist on the traditional
media, definitely “no”
• In Web 2.0, the user has the power so…its up to
you to decide!!!
20. THANKS
PS: If you want to get started in the blog
world, just go to www.bloglines.com, choose
several blogs that interest you and you are in!
