Pings

Blogs Matter

Mainstream media (MSM) still matters, at least on the Web. The latest Technorati "State of the Blogsphere" report shows that 100,000s of blogs continue to link to news stories on major news sites.  The big winner is the New York Times followed by CNN and the Washington Post. If your strategy involves driving traffic to your site, getting mentioned in the MSM can help bring your message to the blogsphere.  Certainly, there are many other reasons to working with MSM, but this is likely one reason that most media directors are not thinking about.  One day, "integrated communications" will really mean integrated. :-) But, not yet, so forward this new report on to your media relations folks.

Of course, the report has lots more to tell.  The real news from this latest report is the growing importance of blogs themselves. 

"Continuing down the attention curve, blogs take a more and more significant position as the economics of the mainstream publishing models make it cost prohibitive to build many nice sites and media."

So, don't forget blogger relations as well.

Superbowl ads the talk of the blogsphere

Bloggers had a lot to say about this year's Superbowl ads, according to "Word of Super Bowl Ads Travel the Web," on ClickZ. But, the article goes on to report on the real story: all the missed opportunities.

"Few of the ads involved consumers in any way. It's surprising against the backdrop of companies wanting to start blogs," said [Pete] Blackshaw [of Intelliseek]. "The ads were created by traditional advertising [departments]."

Blackshaw gave the example of Gillette, which debuted a campaign for the new Fusion razor during the big game, but lacked Web elements to engage its target audience. "I thought Gillette missed some really big opportunities," he said. "It's heavily targeted toward one of the most active segments online."

It seems that if you had enough money to run an ad during the Superbowl, you probably could have/should have spent a little bit of time and money on a Web component. Oh, well. Maybe next time. 

Teens are Web publishers

The latest Pew study reports that nearly 60 percent of all teens online in the United States are "Content Creators" -- those who have have created a blog, posted a photo, etc.   

• 33% of online teens share their own creative content online, such as artwork, photos, stories or videos.
• 32% say that they have created or worked on webpages or blogs for others, including groups they belong to, friends or school assignments.
• 22% report keeping their own personal webpage.
• 19% of online teens keep a blog, and 38% of online teens read blogs.
• 19% of internet-using teens say they remix content they find online into their own artistic creations.

Read more: "57% of Teen Internet Users Create, Remix or Share Content Online," from Pew Trusts.

CBS continues new media rollout

CBS will be launching a series of blogs for some of its primetime programs. Currently available blogs include "Survivor: Guatemala" and "CSI:  Miami." 

In an iMedia Connections article, Larry Kramer, president, CBS Digital Media says:

"...we're confident these blogs will help drive traffic to our sites, while also increasing the visibility of these series on a whole new platform and build an even stronger relationship with the viewers."

CBS is using blogs for all the right reasons.

Read the full article: "CBS.com Launches Blogs," from iMedia Connections

See also from this blog: "CBS pondering cell phone episodes of CSI" and "Glogs. Yes, I said Glog."

BlogAds delivers bigtime

Wow. A recent ad campaign for the Audi A3 included the use of BlogAds.  Overall, the blog ads cost "just one-half of one percent of the media buy budget." But, the BlogAds generated 29 percent of the traffic to the campaign's website. 

Real more: "Audi A3 camboomo!" from BlogAds.

Glogs. Yes, I said Glog.

CBS SportsLine.com has launched The Glog (short for a "game log"). Gloggers will provide color commentary for site vistors who go online during the game. The Glogs will be part of the site's new role as "a 24-hour, seven-day a week multimedia extension of CBS Sports."

Read more from iMedia Connection: "CBS SportsLine.com's Video and Glogs."

Keep the blogosphere clean

Thanks to a post on Micro Persausion, I have discovered the Splog Reporter.  Yes, I said "splog." What is splog? Splog Reporter provides the best definition:

SPAM + BLOG = SPLOG

How much splog pollutes the blogosphere? Mark Cuban, creator of the term, has a simple exercise for you:

Go to your favorite blog search engine and type in hair loss. Or you can try Cialis, or Discount Tickets… You get the idea. Anything that has ever been spammed about is spammed in monstrous proportions in the blogosphere because its so easy to do.

Use Splog Reporter to report splog and help keep the blogosphere clean.

Bloggers are young and affluent

A new study conducted by comScore Networks reveals that blog visitors are more likely to be young, shop online and use a broadband connection.  The study was sponsored by Six Apart and Gwaker Media.

Blog visitors are 11 percent more likely than the average Internet user to have incomes of $75,000 or more, and are 30 percent more likely to live in households headed by someone between the ages of 18 and 34, the study found.

During the first quarter, the average blog visitor viewed 77 percent more Web pages than the average Internet user, and spent 23 hours per week online, compared with 13 hours per week for the average user, according to the study. Regarding e-commerce behavior, blog visitors are 30 percent more likely to shop online than the average user.

Cheryl Contee, Assistant Vice President at Issue Dynamics (IDI), raises some good questions about the report on IDI's blog, bloggerrelations.com:

Comscore divides the the blogosphere into 7 categories: Politics/News, "Hipster", Tech, Woman (Authored), Media, Personal and Business. Left off this list are the two giant categories of Sports and Entertainment. Healthcare is an emerging category as well, but somewhat smaller in overall reach today. It seems to me that if Comscore, Six Apart (a major blog host) and Gawker Media (a confederation of blogs in multiple categories) are interested in motivating advertisers, why ignore two target industries?

Contee also takes issue with the "blogs authored by women" category:

I am frankly offended by the categorization of "Woman (Authored)" blogs. Wonkette and Michelle Malkin are given as examples of such blogs, but these are both major political blogs that are more often than not in the top 10-15 blogs. Why should they be separated out from other political blogs? Wonkette is cross-listed but is that because the blog is one of Gawker Media's properties? What does "woman authored" mean exactly? While it is important to discuss the presence of women readers and writers in the blogosphere, surely this type of categorization demeans and trivializes rather than celebrates.

Read "Blogs Attract Young, Wealthy Readers," from PC Magazine.

See also, "50 Million Americans Visited Blogs During the First Quarter 2005, According to New comScore Study," from comScore.

(Full disclosure: Issue Dynamics is a consultant for Amnesty International USA)

Political blogs tend to be conservative

The Washington Times reports on a new study on political blogs released by The New Politics Institute.

The study found that while liberals have "a decided advantage" over conservatives among the top 40 blogs (24-16), "conservatives hold a whopping 133 to 77 advantage" among the next 210 blogs.

Read the article: "Liberals lag conservatives in political blog presence."