The blogosphere continues to grow and amaze people in marketing. I remember when I first talked about it and some of my friends thought I was crazy to think that anyone would really read blogs, much less consider them as “tools” of communications. Times have changed.
My favorite place to keep up with what’s going on in my new media world is eMarketer. They’ve got a new report out, “The Blogosphere: A Mass Movement From Grass Roots,” which has some interesting information. Here’s a couple of excerpts:
More importantly, by 2012, more than 145 million people—67% of the US Internet population—will be reading blogs at least once a month. That is up from a readership of 94 million in 2007, or 50% of Internet users.
“A big factor driving the increases is the niche orientation of the blogosphere,” says Mr. Verna.
Like podcasts, blogs tend to appeal to specific audiences. Accordingly, much of the demographic targeting that marketers work so hard to achieve in the mainstream media is already done for them.
“Furthermore,” adds Mr. Verna, “the rates at which blog readers notice and click on ads suggest that they are a well-primed audience.”
Where are you placing your advertising these days? Same old, Same old or . . . . . .
The May ZimmNews has just been published. If you are not receiving it then get yourself a free subscription. You can find the latest ZimmNews here.
Here’s some of what you’ll find in this month’s ZimmNews:
I hope you like it and thank you for reading!
Just in time for a presentation I’m giving at the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association meeting tomorrow (Blogging and podcasting for profit. Sponsored by Ewing Irrigation and PBI Gordon) is this report from Universal McCann titled, “Power to the People, Social Media Tracker Wave 3.” (pdf-24MB) They’ve done this study globally 3 times now so it’s got some interesting comparative data in it. Basically folks, new media is where it’s at in today’s online world no matter what country you’re in or what your occupation or age demographic. So for those of you who still wonder why you should know more about this, your questions will be answered. If you still wonder then let’s just say you have gotten off the Cluetrain. Here’s some interesting points and I urge you to download the report with the link above to read the whole thing.
- Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development.
- All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves: Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3.
- 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content: 55% of users have uploaded photos, 22% of users have uploaded videos.
- Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and a collective rival to traditional media – 73% have read a blog, 45% have started a blog.
- Social media has strong impacts over brand’s reputation – 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog – 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs.
Here’s the percentage of respondents who agreed with these statements:
- 56% Blogging is a good way to express yourself
- 36% I think more positively about companies that have blogs
- 33% I have a favorite blog that I read regularly
- 32% I trust bloggers opinions on products and services
- 31% Blogging is an important way to socialize with friends
There’s so much information in this report that I can’t even begin to point it all out. It’s all good. Just take some time, take a deep breath and say, “I will read it and I will try to “get it.”
Via Podcasting News
Here’s my buddies Steve Mays and George Kopp getting ready for a live Ustream.tv webcast from the Coffee Zone in Jefferson City, MO. I stopped by before they started then went home and watched it.
I’ve been testing the cameras I’ve got to see if I can get a better picture for my streams. Below you’ll find a test I did with my Dell Latitude and a Logitech RightSight webcam a few minutes ago. I think that a small camera is best so I’m going to get a webcam that works with my Mac and take that on the road to experiment with.
I don’t know what you think about live web streaming but I think there’s a lot of very cool applications for in in agricultural communications and I’m going to be trying it in the coming weeks.
I haven’t been doing much updating here lately due to the extensive amount of online event coverage projects we’re involved in. In just the last couple weeks that has included the National Agri-Marketing Association Convention, Alltech International Animal Health & Nutrition Symposium and National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Washington Watch program. During that time I was posting on multiple blogs daily and we started a new concept called Agwired Mobile and AgWired Live TV (using Ustream.tv). Additionally, we’re really incorporating Twitter into the AgWired community and you’ll find my most recent Tweets at the top of the AgWired site.
It’s just a continuing development of the community we’ve developed and our way to be in the online conversation. If you’d like to get a perspective on what that means then you should check out this post on “From the X Degree.” via Teaching Online Journalism
You might want to say that we’re just “early adopters” and that somehow this means that since not everyone in America is doing this or consuming this then perhaps it’s not something your company or news organization should be doing. Tempting if you’re afraid of the future I guess. However, it is the future of journalism and how people will and are consuming news.