The results of this recent CNET news article caught my eye:
Half of all those surveyed who identify as “blog readers” (people who read more than one blog per month, a fifth of total survey respondents) say that blogs are important to them when it comes to making purchasing decisions. But they don’t necessarily find them to be all that reliable: only 15 percent of blog readers, and five percent of all those surveyed said that in the past year they had trusted a blog to help them make a purchase decision.
That’s still higher than the number of people who said they used social-network recommendations, though: ten percent of “blog readers,” and four percent of all those surveyed.
Results of the survey are similar when it comes to advertising: a quarter of “blog readers” say they trust ads on blogs that they read (versus 43 percent on “familiar” or mainstream media sites), but a slightly lower 19 percent say they trust the ads on social networks.
I’m guessing a big part of this is that bloggers, especially popular bloggers, hold nothing back, we only earn/are popular if we help our readers and that means brutal honesty whereas mainstream media/friends, well they have little to no incentive to be brutally honest…especially when the truth hurts.
I’m curious, as blog readers yourselves, what do you think?
Tags: Blogging
