Tipping the Iceberg
Communication scholars have long studied how influential opinion leaders spread the word across networks. Yet today’s lean-forward, take-charge audiences, who create and distribute their own content, challenge classic diffusion theories. Tech-savvy opinion leaders have new reporting tools, such as blogs, to spread word-of-mouth faster and wider than before. Mapping the blogosphere and finding key blogs may seem as arduous as tracing shooting stars with bare eyes. But looking into the online communication habits of people who speak up and draw an audience around their stories may help us better understand this new communications realm.
A recent Burson-Marsteller survey of online public opinion leaders, unveiled an elite group of influencers who use high-end technologies (e.g., WiFi, smart phones) to gather and spread information about companies, brands and products. Compared with the average U.S. Internet user, these “tech-fluentials” are significantly more likely to write their own blogs: 33% of them have their own blogs (Burson-Marsteller), in contrast to only 9% of online adults (Pew Internet and American Life Project survey, Q1 2005)
Blogs are not the only place where tech-fluentials rush to make their point. Blogging is merely a sign of their considerable contribution to the online chatter. Influential bloggers use multiple online channels when talking about corporate initiatives. In fact, tech-fluential bloggers are more likely than their counterparts to:
--Post messages to bulletin boards on a weekly basis (52% vs. 26%)
--Use instant messaging to relay positive (54% vs. 37%) and negative (46% vs. 35%) stories about companies
--Contribute to an opinion Web site to relay negative stories about companies (53% vs. 39%)
As marketers charged to find the optimal ways to reach audiences, we have become accustomed to asking one-dimensional questions. How many bloggers are there? How many people read blogs? Who reads blogs? The diversity of tech-fluential bloggers’ online habits, however, underscores how communication grows organically, across many platforms, in various modes.
Bloggers’ power is not confined to arguably amateur-looking and self-promoting Web pages. Each entry about a company may represent numerous discussion-board comments, IM conversations and e-mails to opinion sites. Online influencers’ blogs may be the tip of the iceberg when considering the total amount of chatter these opinion leaders generate on the Internet.
We need to find ways to relate to influential bloggers and develop an understanding of how they view brands, products and services. Here are a few suggestions:
**Be resourceful: Bloggers build substantial portions of their content by linking to official sources. Keep them in the loop by providing easy-to-find, current information on your company Web site. Include transcripts of important offline news coverage about your business. Refer bloggers to third-party sites where they can download additional information.
**Give them a pad and solicit feedback: Consider establishing an online network of autonomous bloggers who can review new products and serve as guardians of public interest.
**Reply promptly and regularly: Use your company Web site as an interactive forum to answer questions frequently asked by your online stakeholders. Respond to queries in a timely fashion. If possible, provide personally written, customized responses.
**Set guidelines for company blogs: Employees represent a company’s values and promote its offerings through their work and through word-of-mouth. Human resources and legal departments can create guidelines to protect employees who blog and facilitate their conversations with other bloggers.
To have a comprehensive perspective on how blogs affect communications and business, we need to be aware of audience members who take the initiative to collect and distill information about companies, brands and products. These individuals not only speak about companies, but directly to them. Almost all tech-fluential bloggers (97%) e-mail companies and 80% visit company Web sites to read of the latest technologies. Active and influential bloggers present us with an opportunity to establish rapport with dynamic stakeholders and earn their approval through candid and transparent communications.
--Idil Cakim
Director, Knowledge Development
Burson-Marsteller
Posted by Idil Cakim at May 9, 2005 09:08 AM
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