Who REALLY is participating in the blogsosphere?

Many of our clients and others out there are just tuning into blogger relations and using blogs as a tool to reach their target audience. We’re repeatedly told “our customers just aren’t spending time in the blogsosphere”. Turns out most people don’t realize just who actually IS spending time reading and writing blogs.

According to two recent studies women are the ones who are the "early adopters" of new media - traditionally men are early adopters of new technologies. Auren Hoffman did a great piece highlighting the Rapleaf findings in a recent BusinessWeek article and the BlogHer/Compass Partners 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study  reconfirms that it's women, not men shaping new media.

A few interesting stats from the studies:   

• Approximately, 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week with 15.1 publishing at least one post a week and 21.1 reading and commenting to blogs a week
• More than 40 percent of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information
• Forty percent of bloggers believe their biggest impact is through fostering relationships with like-minded individuals
• Half of women surveyed say blogs influence their purchase decisions

Did you catch that last one – half of the women surveyed said blogs influence their purchasing decisions – just wanted to make sure... In a nutshell, if you’re trying to reach women, being a part of the conversation – whether you’re driving it with your own blog or participating in third-party blogs – should be an integral part of your communications strategy.

Comments

[David Schneider]

Yes, woman are the dominant online folks but gender isn't the only measure. Age is an even greater determinant in deciding how best to target audiences online. See this NYT link for data on usage across gender, age and purpose.
Cheers,

http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com:80/2008/09/09/a-profile-of-online-profiles/?ei=5070&emc=eta1