Buyers trust blogs more than friends lists
A study has found that buyers are more likely to consult, and trust, blogs than friends on social networking lists. That might prove incentive to advertisers moving online to consider blogs.
Media Life touched on the trend, as well as taking the time to talk to Rob Crumpler, chief executive officer at BuzzLogic about the trends: “advertisers’ changing attitudes toward blogs, their influence over purchases, and what categories they exert the most power over.” BuzzLogic had commissioned Jupiter Research to conduct the study in the first place.
In actual numbers, blogs aren’t the biggest influence on the Web, with only 15 percent of blog readers (5 percent of those surveyed) saying they trusted blogs to help them make buying decisions. But it was still a tad bigger than the percentage who relied on social networking – a mere 10 percent trusted people on their friends list, a mere 4 percent of those surveyed.
What did Crumpler have to say about the trend? “Blogs have evolved from an early-adopter phenomenon to a sizable media force with major marketing power. Blog readership and participation has been steadily growing year over year, but consumer use of social media technology in general hit the roof this year.” He said that consumers were simply “getting more comfortable”.
What does this mean for advertisers? It goes to show that blogs are living up to the hype, bloggers do have influence, and as personas have the power to influence consumer buying decisions. Celebrity endorsements just don’t cut it anymore – people have gotten wise to celebrities being bought to tout a product.
But bloggers are seen as more ‘every man’ – hearing about a mother who successfully used a certain product and blogging about it has more believability than say, Jennifer Aniston hawking it on an infomercial.
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