Business Blogging - Technorati’s latest numbers

Barry Hurd at 123 Social Media took a nice task to build a metrics about Business Blogging. I agree with Barry that the latest number on blogging are hard to find sometime, so this is a quick post to Technorati’s “State of the Blogosphere” report released this week. The very nice part about this report is that it pulls data from several other sources and really allows for businesses to understand how wide the marketplace is. He has pulled some bullet points from Technorati for the readers to skim over, but suggest to browse the original article for more details.

comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)

• Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
• Facebook: 41.0 million | MySpace 75.1 million
• Total internet audience 188.9 million

eMarketer (May 2008)

• 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)
• 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)

Universal McCann (March 2008)

• 184 million WW have started a blog | 26.4 US
• 346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US

77% of active Internet users read blogs

• Brands Permeate the Blogopshere - Whether or not a brand has launched a social media strategy, more likely than not, it’s already present in the Blogosphere. Four in five bloggers post brand or product reviews, with 37% posting them frequently. 90% of bloggers say they post about the brands, music, movies and books that they love (or hate).

The following idea chart detailed a GREAT point about blogging for business:

Blogging has opened up unique opportunities.

Blogging has brought many unique opportunities to these bloggers that otherwise would not have been available. One in four have been invited to participate in an event as a result of their blog, one in five have contributed to a print publication as a result of their blog, and almost as many have found themselves on TV and/or on the radio.

If you look at the chart above- it highlights something that many business bloggers fail to leverage: blogging leads to additional exposure opportunities. It may be an chance for radio, print, television, or public speaking. All of those opportunities tie back into the “social media” aspects of blogging, and if done correctly the material created in radio, print, television, and speaking can all cycle back into a growing social media campaign.