Matthew Allen

Richard Jalichandra from Technorati presenting a sneak preview of the 2009 Blogosphere (see also “What To Watch For At Blog World Expo“, socialmediaexplorer.com)

Commences by emphasising that blogging remains strong and is of profound social importance; viz. the 2008 US election. “Blogs are media”.

Looking back, what happened in 2008
Social media – conversation is the content
Blogs are media
brands are in the blogosphere
Many internet users – 75% – read blogs (USA)

2009
focus on professional blogosphere – survey 2900 bloggers; 20 interviews with leading bloggers

Key findings
46% bloggers – professional bloggers (self-identified) – but by data, 28% are professional, in terms of making money. [Interesting difference]. Of these – three categories – part-time (15%), self-emp (9%), corp (4%)

66% male; 60% 18-44; more affluent and educated than Internet population; more also than hobbyists. Massive proportion have graduate degree; average of 4 blogs each. 17% = blogging is primary income.

Richard emphasises that, despite the mainstream media’s attacks on the blogosphere, it is growing, and becoming significant. Yet the survey shows 75% of bloggers blogged more this year; twitter did not have a major impact to reduce blogging. And, those who did blog less, did not identify micro-blogging very much (only 33%).

40% of bloggers worked within traditional media creating content; this is the professional class of online media types – with graduate degrees, and/or professional content creators, and some (27%) still employed in traditional media. 60% of bloggers think that blogs are the coming wave for news – indeed some say no newspapers in 10 years.

Twitter and blogging – 6x the use of twitter by bloggers vs general population. Twitter – #1 use is to drive traffic to blogs. Tweeting – gets ideas, interact with readers, it’s not about interacting with celebrity.

Sincerity is what everyday bloggers say about themselves; professionals say ‘I am an expert’. professionals do ‘muse’ but they are reflections on professional activities. Professionals spend more time, not surprisingly.

Upside of blogging:

– hobbyists – personal satisfaction
– professionals – unique visitors and page views (audience reach)

Blogging – it’s about building credibility, as well as monetization; building of repute through the judgment of the crowd. Note, for example 68% increase in blogs with ad tags between 2008-2009; BUT Google’s share is declining – more players in the market. Massive development of a new channel through which ads can be served. In other words, new media emerges in concert with new marketing; the power of Google to change the way advertising works goes hand in hand with new places through which those ads can be presented.

Blogging and brands: “brands are in the blogosphere” [constant refrain at this conference]

What to the pros say about how to be good at blogging: be passionate – to generate the content and the pageviews

Questions:

– video blogging (not answered – data not crunched)
– critical comment re use of term ‘hobbyist’ – better term needed
–

Side notes
The discursive rendering by RJ of this ‘professional class’ of bloggers (who are perhaps far more diverse than might be captured in the stats) is a really significant move to create both a new audience for the tech industry – including Technorati and its new products – and to create a cohesive counter-force to traditional media, especially at a time when trad media is ‘fighting back’ against bloggers. Also important for the development of the Google approach – new marketing needs new media; (or ads + channels = change in state for media business). Essentially, we are seeing the formation (deliberate and shaped through conferences such as BWE) of a new industry – differently formed – which stands apart from and in competition with traditional media channels. the question is: is this industry a ‘tool’ of the ‘not media’ companies like Google? (see my post re not media).

The data is really important, and speaks to a truth about the Internet which is often obscured in the focus on individuals’ experiences; developing a picture of how the Internet serves as a locus for new economic formations which are part of the net but also separate from it (blogging is not the net; but blogging often appears to define the net). That said, I sense the hand of Foucault on my shoulder as I blog – the professional blogger is a category between words and things – this category enables an ethic of care of the self = caring for oneself as a blogger.

Tags: blogging, blogosphere, blogworldexpo, bwe09, liveblogging, technorati

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 00:58 and is filed under Conferences, Events, keynotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.