Blogging is here to stay and is an excellent way for marketers to find out more about and tap in to a topic from someone with genuine knowledge, passion, interest and first-hand experience, says Pead PR’s Deborah Pead commenting on the latest IPREX Blogbarometer international survey which reports bloggers globally welcome more contact by PR agencies.
Pead PR has an active blogger engagement programme, Pead says. “Our blogger databases could expand on weekly basis there’s so many new bloggers introducing themselves to us. It’s certainly moved fast in the past few years.”
IPREX, the global network of communication agencies (Pead PR is a member) has released the results of a 13-country survey of professional bloggers, showing blogging trends globally.
The Blogbarometer surveyed more than 2100 bloggers based in China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Northern Ireland (UK), the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, Spain and the United States of America. NZ and Australia were not included.
Pead says it’s important for marketers to have a clear vision for any relationship with bloggers.
“After the first initial checking out terms of engagement, we ensure we have a really good understanding and a mutually beneficial relationship with a group of top class and respected bloggers.
“We don’t pay for reviews. We would rather have a long term, authentic relationship with a smaller group of bloggers who have a genuine passion for the brand.
“We can build a lot of value in to the relationship with the smaller group and we are working on collaborative projects with many of them. Blogging is here to stay. It’s a terrific way to find out more on a topic from someone who has genuine knowledge, passion, interest and first-hand experience.”
The latest IPREX Blogbarometer survey identifies a range of areas globally where bloggers focus their activities …
Themes
Lifestyle-focused blogs are prevalent around the world. The most popular blog themes focus on consumer and lifestyle topics such as beauty, fashion, food and travelling. A second-tier of blog topics revolve around parenting, technology and social issues/politics, while themes of business, fitness and LGBT are scarce.
Sourcing Content
A majority of 84% of bloggers stated they find material for their blogs based on their own experiences and thoughts. While 73% of respondents said they have been approached for PR or marketing reasons – 27% are contacted weekly and 19% are contacted daily – only 28% of surveyed bloggers indicated they find their subject matter through press releases and product samples.
However, more than half of bloggers (52%) view engagement with public relations agencies positively and would welcome more frequent contact. A minority of 7% expressed reservations about being contacted by a company, and only two percent of bloggers are against being contacted altogether.
Gender/Age
The survey found that blogging is dominated by women. Overall, 72% of the surveyed bloggers around the world are women. In Estonia, women bloggers make up 91% of all bloggers. In both the Netherlands and Ireland, women bloggers comprise 83% of all bloggers. Gender dominance is reversed only in Germany and Slovenia as 60% of German respondents and 51% of Slovenian respondents are men.
Additionally, two-thirds of bloggers – both male and female – are younger than age 35. Bloggers age 18 to 25 are the most dominant age group, followed by bloggers age 31 to 35. Conversely, bloggers over age 60 are rarities.
Experience Counts
Regarding experience, the Blogbarometer found 41% of respondents have been blogging for more than five years. Only 8% of respondents are newcomers (blogging for less than a year). Nearly half (4%) of bloggers reported that they earn money from their blogs, and another 30% said they wished to earn money from this endeavour.
See the Global Report of the 2015 IPREX Blogbarometer here: www.blog-barometer.com.
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