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Insights Mission
HomeCover Story
The NPD Blog & Forum Study
By David Pinsley, Vice President, Research & Development
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There’s no disputing the quantity of media available to consumers, from traditional to new media. The marketing potential of this material is a force to be reckoned with. Statistics on the number of blogs, an increasingly important new medium, vary – we’ve seen estimates from 30 to 100 million blogs. Whether it is 30 or 100 million blogs, we get it: there are lots of blogs.
Considering the widespread presence of blogs, we began to ask some questions: Are people actually reading these blogs? Who reads them? How often? What are they reading about and why? Is this new form of social media important? How does blog content compare to news and information found in more traditional media?Do readers trust the information they are reading? Can NPD’s clients capitalize on this growing form of social media?
To get more clarity on the role of blogs in the U.S. – and their potential value to our clients – we went to our own online consumer panel. The objectives were to understand who’s reading consumer generated media, what they are reading about, how frequently, and very importantly, what motivates them to read blogs. We surveyed 2,800 individuals. Here are some of our findings.
Incidence, Age, and Gender
In the study, 36 percent of Internet users reported reading a blog or forum in the past 30 days. That’s an important finding – whenever one-third of a population is doing something, it’s noteworthy.
Source: The NPD Group/Blog & Forum Study
As expected, reading blogs skews toward younger individuals – 52 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds reported reading a blog or forum in the past month. Still, readership among older individuals is also strong: 28 percent of respondents ages 55 and older have read a blog or forum in the past month.
Frequency
Those who report reading blogs and forums say they do so about 11.5 times per month. There are small differences demographically, skewing younger and male, but generally, all groups are in the range of 10 to 12 times per month. About a quarter of readers read blogs and forums over 20 times per month.
Source: The NPD Group/Blog & Forum Study
While we did not note material differences between men’s and women’s reading of consumer-generated media as a whole, there are some differences in what they read.
Content
Men are more likely to read about news, computers, sports, and technology. Women are more likely to read about personal topics. Men and women are equally likely to read about entertainment, politics, and celebrities. Diving in a bit further, looking at the products and services discussed on blogs and forums, men drive the popularity of the top computer and consumer electronics categories. Reading about restaurants is split about equally between men and women.
Consumers value the product information and opinions present on blogs and in forums, particularly when they’re planning to purchase a product. They use blogs and forums to identify products worthy of purchase, and those to avoid.
Trusted Information Sources
Some of the most interesting findings are related to soliciting opinions. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said reading a blog or forum is like listening to a friend or neighbor. Respondents identified friends and neighbors as the most trusted sources of information about products and services. This suggests social media has the potential to be a trusted resource with a tangible impact on consumer sales.
When respondents were asked to evaluate the trustworthiness of various sources of information, blogs and forums ranked fifth overall. That changes for heavy users, who ranked them third, behind only friends/neighbors/relatives and Internet stories/reviews. For all groups, blogs and forums were consistently rated more trustworthy than TV news and advertising.
Percent of Respondents Who “Trust” the Information Source
Source: The NPD Group/Blog & Forum Study
Social media is here, and it has a growing presence on the Internet and in consumers’ lives. Over one-third of the Internet population is reading this material every two to three days. Readers view this new medium as a more trusted information source than many traditional communications outlets available to marketers, adding further gravity to the size of this audience. While the opinions of friends, neighbors, and family have always played a role in consumers’ decision making, blogs and forums are amplifying the voice of customers with an opinion – whether justifiably or not.