Web + log = Blog! The newest arm of the Fourth Estate

According to Wikipedia, a blog is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject…a typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

To blog or not to blog, that is the question. Considering there are 133 million blogs on the Internet, give or take a few, to blog seems to be the answer!

What makes a blog great? Chris from Performancing.com listed these traits:

  •  Credibility
  •  Authority
  •  Passion
  •  Personality
  •  Reliability
  •  Empathy
  •  Reality
  •  Unique
  •  Timeliness
  •  Membership

From The State of the Blogosphere by Technorati via the Search Engine Journal, some fascinating figures:

  •   More than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002
  •   77% of Internet users read blogs according to Universal McCann
  •   75% have college degrees and 40% have graduate degrees
  •   Around half of Bloggers are working on at least their second blog.
  •   68% have been blogging for two years or more.
  •   86% have been blogging for at least a year.
  •   70% of all respondents say that personal satisfaction is a way they measure the success of their blog.
  •   72% say they blog in order to share their expertise.
  •   53% of professional Bloggers are interested in attracting new clients from blogging.
  •   15% of Bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging.
  •   One in five Bloggers report updating on a daily basis.
  •   The most common rate of updating is 2-3 times per week.
  •   The majority of blogs use tags (85%).
  •   82% of respondents say that they post photos to their blog, making images the most popular form of multimedia.
  •   Bloggers participate in an average of 5 activities to drive traffic to their blogs.
  •   56% say that their blog has helped their company establish a positioning as a thought leader within the industry.
  •   58% say that they are better-known in their industry because of their blog.
  •   Blogging is equally popular among both men and women with 50.9% of bloggers being female and 49.1% being male.

Some of the medium’s more extreme evangelists claim blogging will replace traditional media by putting the power of the press in the hands of the ordinary citizen…not likely. There’s a reason we’re called ‘ordinary’. Blogging is no fad, no phenomenon. It is revolutionary. It is changing the way we do business, interact with others, follow politics, participate in pastimes.

Business blogs are as credible and professional, as useful and influential as you make them.

Oralhealthjournal.com

The rest is just noise… DPM

RELATED NEWS

RESOURCES