BlogHer | Compass Partners 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study: Blogging mainstream, "Reliable" for fun, advice and information

...on our press page (http://www.blogher.com/press) you will find:

2009 Women and Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners ( http://www.blogher.com/../../../files/2009_Compass... ) [PDF]
White Paper: Best Practices for Marketing to Women Online, April, 2009 ( http://blogher.com/files/Best_Practices_MarketingT... ) [PDF]

Past Studies
The Compass Partners/BlogHer 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study ( http://www.blogher.com/../../../files/BlogHer.Comp... ) [PDF]

Thank you for asking. :)

Lisa Stone BlogHer Co-founder ( http://www.blogher.com/member/lisa-stone ) Surfette ( http://surfette.typepad.com ) BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News ( http://www.blogher.com/topic/politics-news ).

( http://sono-ma.blogspot.com )

I am dying to see the data and presentation.  As a mommy blogger, these statistics should drive how I design elements of my site....  Are you sharing this information as you stated in the last line of your post?

very interesting results.

I hear what the first two posters are asking. I guess I just wonder if part of women's contribution to the internet/blogosphere is changing some of the definitions.

 I for one can find a post informative, reliable even, certainly helpful, without expecting or assuming it's authoritative or declarative. 

Also some types of information don't require as high a bar to be authorititative or at least do no harm if they are taken to be more "expert" than they are. A blog about the best places for sushi in New York City  is a lot different than one about how "how to conduct surgery at home: a beginner's guide for teens!" :) exaggeration but you get the idea...

really interesting survey and discussion. I'd ask (next year?) what social media tools folks are using ( http://tinyurl.com/3gpmfn )and HOW we're reading all these things/processing all this information. I for one am loving it, but know I'm just scratching the surface and want to know more without going bonkers.

-washy (would give up just about ANYTHING to blog) 

washy || http://washwords.wordpress.com || washwords.dc@gmail.com

80% Wouldn't give up chocolate to blog? Am I in the right place?

Having a voice and being able to express that voice...that whole freedom of speech thing...matters more to me than chocolate, alcohol...really more than most anything else.

Even just having a blog and knowing when you're old and forgetful you can go back and read about your life. Remember things you never would otherwise.

Would you burn your personal journals for chocolate too? What about scrapbooks? Are journals and scrapbooks so very different from a blog?

I really REALLY don't mean to sound antagonistic, I'm just coming from a place of total and complete shock.

jennydecki - Beyond Mom Blog ( http://beyondmom.com )

Wow, some people really are addicted to blogging or perhaps I just like drinking more than most. I might consider cutting back! 

Jen at Semantically driven ( http://www.semanticallydriven.com/ ) and Safari suit ( http://www.safarisuit.com/ )

... supports my argument that women bloggers will achieve world domination by 2012!

PunditMom ( http://punditmom1.blogspot.com ), Contributing Editor, Politics & News 

Alcohol?  Sorry, wine comes before blogging! ;)

PunditMom ( http://punditmom1.blogspot.com )

Contributing Editor, Politics & News 

I definitely find blogs entertaining! But they don't all exist for the same purpose. A blog of tips for low-cost travel can be a source of reliable advice and information; it may not exist to foster lively discussion the way a personal/political blog might.

If I use my critical thinking skills, which I'm assuming that women do, then I can read it for a while, compare it to what else I know about the topic, and try a few of the tips. If it holds water, I've found a good source of information and advice.

If your vision is that blogs shouldn't be burdened by accuracy or sourcing, then I can see why you wouldn't take them seriously. But many bloggers strive to be accurate and provide sources, which helps me to assess their reliability.

And for many types of blogs it isn't really the central point of their existence to be "factual." Who cares what the "evidence" is for a Mexican food recipe or tips on how to manage stress when a family member is ill? But blogs on those topics can be good sources of advice and information nonetheless.

I wouldn't trust a stranger on a blog to give me parenting advice any more or less than a stranger on the street. But I might take the information they provided, think on it, possibly try it out, and if it was helpful, come back for more.

Unless they tell me to hang the baby upside down by his ankles to stop him from crying, 'cause that's just not right. ;)

That's what I thought when I read this:

* Women are so passionate about blogging that large
percentages of women said they would give something up to keep the
blogs they read and/or write:

- 55% would give up alcohol

- 50% would give up their PDAs

- 42% would give up their i-Pod

- 43% would give up reading the newspaper or magazines

BUT, some things are sacred … only 20% would give up chocolate! (Page 17)

Seems to me that seeing "chocolate" on the list made quite a few women chuckle (including me!), and they answered accordingly. :D

As for "More than half of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information." I absolutely do. Certainly I take a blog I'm reading for the first time with a grain of salt, but there are absolutely bloggers I read regularly and have for years, and I consider an exceptional source of advice and information.

And I value a personal voice over a corporate voice. 

I was actually surprised that that statistic isn't higher.

Liz Rizzo ( http://blogher.org/blog/liz-rizzo )

I blog at Everyday Goddess ( http://everydaygoddess.typepad.com/ ).

I don't know, Skye. I view blogging and reading blogs as pure entertainment. When I need advice, I call a friend. When I need facts, I watch the news. When I want to have a lively discussion with new and interesting people, I venture into the blogsphere.

Re: quitting blogging, there's research that claims blogging has peaked in 2007 and numbers are going to fall regardless of gender (I could dig up the link but this is a comment on a blog so I don't feel pressured to provide evidence).

Vered DeLeeuw
www.momgrind.com ( http://www.momgrind.com )

Vered, I think it might depend on what type of blog you're talking about. Some blogs are very focused on facts and reporting, whereas many others are more about opinions and dialogue as you describe. And for some types of advice, like parenting, I don't necessarily need it to be fact-based - I'm more looking for stories of what worked and didn't work for other individuals. For other topics I might have different criteria.

I''ll be interested to check out the presentation. I'm glad to see that women don't seem to be quitting blogging in such large numbers. I don't know that I would label it "hype" since online harassment is a real problem, especially for women of color, but there has been a lot of attention on the topic lately and I'm glad women are hanging in there!

I don't see a link to the original study anywhere.

I too am surprised that women answered that they considered blogging a reliable source of advice and information. In some ways this is troublesome. I'd like to see exactly what blogs these individuals are reading because that would make a large difference whether or not anything they read is reliable on it's own merit. Blogs are majorly opinion, unless they are just regurgitating major news from other sources. The beauty of blogs is that we get to see the opinions of others.Blogs may be helpful in making one look at things differently but as a reliable source of information?

Unless you are reading a blogger with a sure authority on a subject , authority obtained outside of blogging, what you are reading should not be assumed to be correct. I would hope women would understand this.

cooper

Except for "More than half of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information".

Really? Well, they shouldn't. Blogging is more about exchanging thoughts and opinions than about facts. I wouldn't want it any other way: when you feel free to say it the way you see it, when you are not saddled by the need to report facts, it makes for a lively, fun discussion.

But people need to realize that they should exercise caution when following advice given on a blog.

Vered DeLeeuw
www.momgrind.com ( http://www.momgrind.com )