What Can Blogging Do For Your Business?
- Diane Zidek
Recent market research has found that blog readers are strongly influenced by blog content regarding purchase decisions across a number of categories, and that blogs play a key role in leading readers to the point of an actual purchase. BuzzLogic, social media analysis company and ad network, sponsored the market research and JupiterResearch, a Forrester research company, conducted the survey of more than 2,000 online consumers in the US.
This survey, called Harnessing the Power of Blogs also found that blog readership has grown 300% over the past four years. 300%! The results also suggest that consumers who read blogs more than once a month are using blogs as the top online navigation tool to discover other blog content, ranking higher than general web or blog search. This means that links on your blog are even more important than you might have originally thought.
The survey also found:
• Blogs influence purchases: 50% of blog readers say they find blogs useful for purchase information.
• Blogs sway more purchases among readers than social networks: More frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites. • Niche focus ups influence factor: For those who have found blog content useful for product decisions, 56% said blogs with a niche focus and topical expertise were key sources.