Much has been written about the power of blogs and its power to shape customer opinion. Measuring the business impact of blogs is an area of great interest to me. Some key questions I often ask myself are:
- Is blogging an island without too many inhabitants - Is it a niche waiting to get mainstream?
- Does the opinion of bloggers matter at all when it comes to brand purchase decisions?
- Do consumers consider blogs as a trustworthy source vis-a-vis other forms of media?
- Is user-generated content considered valuable by customers?
- Is it possible to summarize the business impact of blogs by way of addressable customer numbers? Is it a large enough market waiting to be tapped by marketers?
Well, there seems to be some answers for these questions. Here's a research done by IPSOS in Europe - a leading marketing research firm. I think this research clearly gives directions for other markets too, on how customers perceive this new medium and its impact on brands. Here's the presentation:
https://s3.amazonaws.com:443/slideshare/ssplayer.swf?id=16820&doc=business-impact-of-blogs-14692