Technorati Reserach: Do Bloggers Affect Your Brand?
October 17, 2008 by Liz Fuller
Filed under Social Media
Technorati research on the State of the Blogosphere 2008 confirms what Laura and I have been saying for quite some time:
Bloggers frequently write about Brands.
Specifically they found that:
- 82% post product or brand reviews
- 89% post about brands they love (or hate)
- 63% post about company information or gossip they hear about
- 79% post about every day experiences in stores or with customer care
This is consistent with experiences that Laura and I have discussed in which bloggers have written posts about their experiences with Steak and Shake, Target, and Dell, among others.
This is important to Businesses because Bloggers influence customer’s perspectives. Bloggers have credibility because they themselves are customers. And in this day and age of increasing skepticism about big business – customers are going to trust bloggers more than they trust your own PR department.
BusinessWeek recently released its report on the top 100 Global Brands for 2008. At the top of the list is Coca-cola, with a brand worth $67 Billion. And at #100 is Visa, with a brand worth $3 Billion.
Despite their large size, all of these companies need to pay attention to their reputation and the potential impact of the blogosphere.
Now, your brand may not be worth $67 billion or even $3 billion – it’s worth more, because it is worth your business and your reputation.
What effect have bloggers had on your brand?
Bloggers endorsing companies are indeed a blessing. I remember seeing dozens of visitors coming to a company’s website from a simple recommendation in an extremely large forum thread. They kept coming for months after the endorsement. But the opposite is also true, a bad review can turn potential customers away from your brand. It’s something all brands, no matter how big or small, must keep in mind.
Интересная статья. Спасибо!
Hi Alina
It is true that bloggers can affect brands – and a single incident (good or bad) can get way too much attention. But I think also that the majority of impressions is important too. If one person says a company is bad, you will usually see either a lot of people jump on the bandwagon in agreement with their horror story or quite a few come to its defense.
I think readers are getting savvy enough to know the difference between a single disgruntled customer and pervasively poor customer service.