Since 2004 the good people at Technorati have been publishing in-depth reports on the state of the Blogosphere.
This year they have gone deeper than ever before and covered topics including: female bloggers, brands embracing social media, traditional media vs. social media, brands working with bloggers, monetisation, smartphone & tablet usage, importance of twitter & Facebook, niche blogging, and changes within the blogosphere over 2010.
One of the key findings of the report is that the blogosphere is in a state of transition, it is no longer a start up community. Some other important notes from the report are as follow:
The lines between blogs, micro blogs and social networks no longer exist. Bloggers are embracing social media and the sharing of blog posts is increasingly done through social media sites.
There has been a rise in mobile blogging, with 25 percent of bloggers posting via smartphones and tablets. 40 percent of bloggers who engage in mobile blogging say that it has changed the way they blog, encouraging shorter, more spontaneous posts.
Women and ‘mum’ bloggers are having a big impact on the mainstream media and brands. The report shows that women and ‘mum’ bloggers are most likely to talk about a brand on their blog.
Technorati interviewed 15 of the most influential women in social media and the blogosphere: over half plan on blogging more frequently in the future, and 43% plan on expanding the topics that they blog about.
Bloggers who generate revenue from blogging are blogging more this year than they were last year. 48 percent of all bloggers believe that more people will be consuming entertainment and news through blogs in the next five years than from traditional media. Technorati discovered that like bloggers, the public’s trust of traditional media is dropping.
Out of the 7,200 bloggers that responded to this years report, 65 percent were hobbyists – those who blog for fun and the simple satisfaction. 13 percent of the respondents were part time bloggers – those who receive compensation for their blogging, but do not consider it their full time job. 1 percent were corporates – those who blog for a company or organisation and 21 percent were self employed bloggers – those who blog for their own company or organisation.
The report also identified the following:
- Two-thirds of bloggers are male
- 65% are age 18-44
- Bloggers are more affluent and educated than the general population
- 1/4 of bloggers have a household income of $100K+
- 81% have been blogging more than 2 years
- Professionals have an average of 3.5 blogs
- Professionals blog 10+ hours/week
- 11% say blogging is their primary income source
We have only scratched the surface above – the full report offers a very interesting read, especially to those in the blogging community. We would definitely recommend making time to have a proper read of the report on Technorati.
