Forrester Research recommends that firms get active bloggers on their side. Jaap Favier, research director at Forrester, states: “Active bloggers can make or break a brand in less than a day. Firms shouldn't fake a relationship with them or they will experience a backlash. To get bloggers on their side, firms should gain bloggers’ trust by establishing an honest and transparent relation with bloggers first. They should get to know them and give them the tools to connect easily with their peers and pass along messages.”
Forrester's survey shows that European bloggers are southern European. The population of bloggers is highest in southern Europe. France, Italy, and Spain make up 57 percent of the blogosphere while Germany lags behind with only 13 percent. Today, France is still the European blogging leader with almost one million active bloggers.
Bloggers are usually early adopters of technology. 21 percent of European bloggers have set up RSS feeds – automatically updating selected content on the user's desktop – compared with 5 percent of all Internet users. Almost 80 percent of bloggers go online daily to check their emails, post, or read messages. These users spend 16 active hours online per week: That's 5 hours more than the average Internet user.
Furthermore, bloggers are active, multitasking Internet surfers. Bloggers spend more time online than they do watching TV or reading printed magazines or newspapers. And, 52 percent of them read magazines or newspapers online. Fifty percent of bloggers had posted comments online and 47 percent had published their own Web page in the previous four weeks, compared with only 14 percent and 8 percent of all Net users, respectively.
Forrester’s data shows that bloggers are more open-minded and trusting of consumer-generated information than the average Internet user. In fact, bloggers trust each other. From consumer-generated reference information to blogs, the level of trust of European bloggers is higher than for other Internet users. Almost a quarter of bloggers trust general blogs, compared with only 10 percent of all Internet users.
The Forrester study also shows that bloggers welcome targeted ads. They don't pay more attention to ads than other Internet users. However, 41 percent of bloggers say they don't mind ads if they relate to their interests. That figure is only 34 percent for all Internet users.
Last but not least: Bloggers shop differently. They shop
around less than the average Internet user before making a purchase,
and they are more willing to try or do new things. When they like a
product, almost 70 percent of them tell their friends. Peer
recommendations matter to bloggers when making a purchase: More than a
third of bloggers rely on friend or family recommendations when buying
something.
Source: Forrester Research
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