BlogSweden 3 - third annual Swedish blog survey
Between January 1 and 2, 2008, a total of 1,000 Swedish blog readers responded to an online survey about blogs and social media. Of these respondents, 806 are bloggers and it is mainly their answers that are being presented in this report. The report, BlogSweden 3, is a follow up to BlogSweden 1 and 2 from May 2005 and June 2006.
In the survey, three out of four bloggers are women. Here are some more key findings.
Bloggers: The typical Swedish blogger in the survey is:
• Female
• 16-20 years old
• reads 1-5 blogs daily
• spends 1 hour per week reading blogs
• often reads blogs in the evening (6 PM to 12 PM)
• never uses an RSS reader to read blogs
• likes to read blogs about everyday life experiences
• reads blogs to be entertained
• has never clicked on an advertisement on a blog
• is a member of a social network in order to stay in touch with friends
• has during the last 12 months; downloaded video online, listened to radio online or downloaded podcasts, viewed or downloaded video online, have made photos accessible to others online, and has tagged information online.
• has not during the last 12 months; made videos accessible online, saved links via social bookmarking sites or visited virtual worlds.
• blogs because she likes to write
• updates her blog every day
• has nothing against being contacted by companies in her role as a blogger
• is not anonymous
• does not have ads on her blog, from which she gets part of the revenue
In fact, as many as 76.2% of the bloggers in the survey are female.
There are still some major differences between the way male and female bloggers behave:
• Women more often blog anonymously than men (49.2% compared to 34.0%).
• Male bloggers blog to a higher extent than female bloggers to market a product or a service, to influence others, to strengthen their brand, to create an archive of information and because there is a need for more voices in the public debate.
• Female bloggers blog to a higher extent than male bloggers to get in touch with others and to stay in touch with friends and family.
• 66.5% of all bloggers update their blog every day. Female bloggers update their blogs more often than male bloggers (74.1% at least once a day, compared to 42.6% of male bloggers).
• Male bloggers more often than female bloggers have ads on their blogs (14.3% compared to 7.4%).
When a blogger forms an opinion about a company, she thinks that “a person like me or a peer” is the most trustworthy spokesperson. “A blogger” is as trustworthy as the company CEO, according to bloggers.
One in three bloggers have bought a product after reading about it on a blog. An equally high proportion of bloggers have refrained from buying a product after reading information or opinions on a blog. One in three have, after reading information on a blog, acted in order to influence a company or a politician on an important topic.
There are also significant differences between how female and male blog readers behave (all respondents in the survey):
Female blog readers prefer reading blogs about:
• Fashion and design (53.0%)
• Everyday life experiences (51.6%)
• Photography and art (26.6%)
• Parenthood and children (24.3%)
• Music (22%)
• Literature and writing (17.2%)
• Movies and tv (16.9%)
• Journalism and media (16.7%)
• Sex and dating (16.5%)
• Politics and society (14.4%)
Male blog readers prefer reading blogs about:
• Politics and society (49.2%)
• IT and blogging (45.8%)
• Journalism and media (45.3%)
• Everyday life experiences (39.4%)
• Advertising and PR (25.8%)
• Movies and tv (25.4%)
• Music (23.7%)
• Photography and art (19.5%)
• Literature and writing (18.6%)
• Economy and entrepreneurship (15.7%)
Over all, the favorite topics of blog readers are blogs about:
• Everyday life experiences (48.6%)
• Fashion and design (44%)
• Photography and art (24.9%)
• Journalism and media (23.8%)
• Politics and society (23%)
Here is a table of the most popular blog categories among bloggers:
The report BlogSweden 3 is free to download under a Creative Commons license and if you would like to discuss the findings you can join Media Culpa on Facebook or find me on Twitter. More graphs can be found at Flickr.
Footnote: The respondents were chosen through a convenience sample which means that the results from this survey is only representative to the respondents of the survey and not necessarily reflect the profile of all Swedish bloggers and blog readers.
Tags: social media, surveys, blogsweden3, enkät, sociala medier, bloggsverige3, bloggar. Ping.
In the survey, three out of four bloggers are women. Here are some more key findings.
Bloggers: The typical Swedish blogger in the survey is:
• Female
• 16-20 years old
• reads 1-5 blogs daily
• spends 1 hour per week reading blogs
• often reads blogs in the evening (6 PM to 12 PM)
• never uses an RSS reader to read blogs
• likes to read blogs about everyday life experiences
• reads blogs to be entertained
• has never clicked on an advertisement on a blog
• is a member of a social network in order to stay in touch with friends
• has during the last 12 months; downloaded video online, listened to radio online or downloaded podcasts, viewed or downloaded video online, have made photos accessible to others online, and has tagged information online.
• has not during the last 12 months; made videos accessible online, saved links via social bookmarking sites or visited virtual worlds.
• blogs because she likes to write
• updates her blog every day
• has nothing against being contacted by companies in her role as a blogger
• is not anonymous
• does not have ads on her blog, from which she gets part of the revenue
In fact, as many as 76.2% of the bloggers in the survey are female.
There are still some major differences between the way male and female bloggers behave:
• Women more often blog anonymously than men (49.2% compared to 34.0%).
• Male bloggers blog to a higher extent than female bloggers to market a product or a service, to influence others, to strengthen their brand, to create an archive of information and because there is a need for more voices in the public debate.
• Female bloggers blog to a higher extent than male bloggers to get in touch with others and to stay in touch with friends and family.
• 66.5% of all bloggers update their blog every day. Female bloggers update their blogs more often than male bloggers (74.1% at least once a day, compared to 42.6% of male bloggers).
• Male bloggers more often than female bloggers have ads on their blogs (14.3% compared to 7.4%).
When a blogger forms an opinion about a company, she thinks that “a person like me or a peer” is the most trustworthy spokesperson. “A blogger” is as trustworthy as the company CEO, according to bloggers.
One in three bloggers have bought a product after reading about it on a blog. An equally high proportion of bloggers have refrained from buying a product after reading information or opinions on a blog. One in three have, after reading information on a blog, acted in order to influence a company or a politician on an important topic.
There are also significant differences between how female and male blog readers behave (all respondents in the survey):
Female blog readers prefer reading blogs about:
• Fashion and design (53.0%)
• Everyday life experiences (51.6%)
• Photography and art (26.6%)
• Parenthood and children (24.3%)
• Music (22%)
• Literature and writing (17.2%)
• Movies and tv (16.9%)
• Journalism and media (16.7%)
• Sex and dating (16.5%)
• Politics and society (14.4%)
Male blog readers prefer reading blogs about:
• Politics and society (49.2%)
• IT and blogging (45.8%)
• Journalism and media (45.3%)
• Everyday life experiences (39.4%)
• Advertising and PR (25.8%)
• Movies and tv (25.4%)
• Music (23.7%)
• Photography and art (19.5%)
• Literature and writing (18.6%)
• Economy and entrepreneurship (15.7%)
Over all, the favorite topics of blog readers are blogs about:
• Everyday life experiences (48.6%)
• Fashion and design (44%)
• Photography and art (24.9%)
• Journalism and media (23.8%)
• Politics and society (23%)
Here is a table of the most popular blog categories among bloggers:
The report BlogSweden 3 is free to download under a Creative Commons license and if you would like to discuss the findings you can join Media Culpa on Facebook or find me on Twitter. More graphs can be found at Flickr.
Footnote: The respondents were chosen through a convenience sample which means that the results from this survey is only representative to the respondents of the survey and not necessarily reflect the profile of all Swedish bloggers and blog readers.
Tags: social media, surveys, blogsweden3, enkät, sociala medier, bloggsverige3, bloggar. Ping.
Lunarstorm lost half of its visitors in one year
Ekonominyheterna.se reported in November last year that the Swedish online community Lunarstorm suffered from the success of Facebook, MySpace and other social networks. In November, the number of unique visitors to Lunarstorm had dropped by a massive 42%, down to 617,000 weekly visitors.
And the drop continues. Now we can see that the traffic has dropped by 50% compared to the same week last year. A year ago Lunarstorm had 989,733 weekly visitors (unique web browsers) and last week the number was down to 490,289 which is just above a 50% decline.
According to Ekonominyheterna, visits to Lunarstorm peaked in March 2006 with 1.6 million visitors.
Footnote: Stats from KIA-index.
Tags: lunarstorm, social networks, facebook, lunarstorm. Ping.
And the drop continues. Now we can see that the traffic has dropped by 50% compared to the same week last year. A year ago Lunarstorm had 989,733 weekly visitors (unique web browsers) and last week the number was down to 490,289 which is just above a 50% decline.
According to Ekonominyheterna, visits to Lunarstorm peaked in March 2006 with 1.6 million visitors.
Footnote: Stats from KIA-index.
Tags: lunarstorm, social networks, facebook, lunarstorm. Ping.
Bad conscience as business concept
Do men shop? I don't know about you, but I sure do sometimes. Women (in Sweden) do spend more on stuff like personal hygiene, shoes and clothes, books and magazines than men do. Men on the other hand spend more than women on sports, hobbies and eating out.
The reason I bring this up is because Täby Centrum, Sweden's largest shopping mall, just published its first customer magazine called Glow. And the magazine is not a bit shy about what customers are its targets - women! The editor-in-chief welcomes her readers with the salutation "Hello, all you glorious women!".
One would assume that the strategy behind a customer magazine should be in line with the core brand values of the business. Admittedly, shopping is associated more with women than with men, but isn't it a stretch to leave men out of the picture all together?
When you visit the mall it is clearly not only for women. There are many stores that appeal to both men and women and there are stores that predominantly have male customers, such as Clas Ohlson, affectionately called "gubbdagis", or "male kindergarten". So why the magazine explicitly targets women is beyond me. It would of course have been possible to produce a fashion publication that included male consumers.
And while we are at it, the magazine paints a sad picture of the life of a woman. From the frontpage headlines ("The secret behind Keira Knightley's pout mouth") to the interview with the self-declared shopaholic, singer Charlotte Perelli, we men get a sense of what supposedly makes our women tick. One gets in a radiant mood from "a luxurious gold dress, delicious boots and nice sunglasses". Another dreams about high heels, if only her body would cope and she could afford them. Manolo Blahnik is apparently god ("you cannot have too many shoes").
Even when the magazine writes about more "gender neutral" products such as webcams and cell phones, it cannot resist giving the readers (the glorious women, remember?) a bad conscience for their bodies. "Does the GI diet stop you from putting candy in the easter egg? Give the family something you can use all year instead."
In the column by Hanna Widell we are getting closer to what the theme of this publication is all about. Widell is divorced and leads a double life, which she loves. One week she is a successful glamouros professional, the next she is a not as glamouros single mom. And when her latest date bumps into her on the wrong week (i.e. as a mom), she concludes that she is not at all surprised that he never called again, the way she looked. In other words, you women aren't perfect, so if you want to find a decent guy you need to go to the mall and make sure you look fantastic.
This is bad conscience and self-confidence as business concept.
Tags: fashion, shopping, kvinnor, mode, shopping. Ping.
The reason I bring this up is because Täby Centrum, Sweden's largest shopping mall, just published its first customer magazine called Glow. And the magazine is not a bit shy about what customers are its targets - women! The editor-in-chief welcomes her readers with the salutation "Hello, all you glorious women!".
One would assume that the strategy behind a customer magazine should be in line with the core brand values of the business. Admittedly, shopping is associated more with women than with men, but isn't it a stretch to leave men out of the picture all together?
When you visit the mall it is clearly not only for women. There are many stores that appeal to both men and women and there are stores that predominantly have male customers, such as Clas Ohlson, affectionately called "gubbdagis", or "male kindergarten". So why the magazine explicitly targets women is beyond me. It would of course have been possible to produce a fashion publication that included male consumers.
And while we are at it, the magazine paints a sad picture of the life of a woman. From the frontpage headlines ("The secret behind Keira Knightley's pout mouth") to the interview with the self-declared shopaholic, singer Charlotte Perelli, we men get a sense of what supposedly makes our women tick. One gets in a radiant mood from "a luxurious gold dress, delicious boots and nice sunglasses". Another dreams about high heels, if only her body would cope and she could afford them. Manolo Blahnik is apparently god ("you cannot have too many shoes").
Even when the magazine writes about more "gender neutral" products such as webcams and cell phones, it cannot resist giving the readers (the glorious women, remember?) a bad conscience for their bodies. "Does the GI diet stop you from putting candy in the easter egg? Give the family something you can use all year instead."
In the column by Hanna Widell we are getting closer to what the theme of this publication is all about. Widell is divorced and leads a double life, which she loves. One week she is a successful glamouros professional, the next she is a not as glamouros single mom. And when her latest date bumps into her on the wrong week (i.e. as a mom), she concludes that she is not at all surprised that he never called again, the way she looked. In other words, you women aren't perfect, so if you want to find a decent guy you need to go to the mall and make sure you look fantastic.
This is bad conscience and self-confidence as business concept.
Tags: fashion, shopping, kvinnor, mode, shopping. Ping.
Visits to Facebook fell in Europe - February may be even worse
According to data released yesterday by Nielsen Online, the number of unique visitors in the UK visiting Facebook fell in January. The tremendous growth of the social networking site has come to a halt, and the question is whether this is a temporary hiccup or a sign that the glory days are over.
Nielsen Online says that 8.5 million unique users in Britain spent time on Facebook in January, down from 8.9 million in December. MySpace and Bebo are also seeing declining stats.
Alex Burmaster at Nielsen Online says:
- MySpace peaked in April 2007, with 6.8 million unique users, while Bebo peaked in July with 4.6 million.
The number of unique users also fell slightly in other European countries, but Facebook is still growing in the U.S. However, the numbers for February do not look promising. Not that I trust data from Alexa to be 100% accurate, but a graph of the daily pageviews of Facebook show a dramatic drop during the first days of February, a drop that is in the 20-25% range which is very high. It will be very interesting to study Nielsen's data for February. [Alexa graph here]
UPDATE: Facebook sees decline in the U.S. as well. According to comScore, Facebook attracted 33.9 million unique visitors in January, 2008, down 2 percent from 34.7 million in December, 2007.
Tags: facebook, social networks, facebook, sociala media. Ping.
Nielsen Online says that 8.5 million unique users in Britain spent time on Facebook in January, down from 8.9 million in December. MySpace and Bebo are also seeing declining stats.
Alex Burmaster at Nielsen Online says:
- MySpace peaked in April 2007, with 6.8 million unique users, while Bebo peaked in July with 4.6 million.
The number of unique users also fell slightly in other European countries, but Facebook is still growing in the U.S. However, the numbers for February do not look promising. Not that I trust data from Alexa to be 100% accurate, but a graph of the daily pageviews of Facebook show a dramatic drop during the first days of February, a drop that is in the 20-25% range which is very high. It will be very interesting to study Nielsen's data for February. [Alexa graph here]
UPDATE: Facebook sees decline in the U.S. as well. According to comScore, Facebook attracted 33.9 million unique visitors in January, 2008, down 2 percent from 34.7 million in December, 2007.
Tags: facebook, social networks, facebook, sociala media. Ping.
Social media drives traffic to Electrolux
The Swedish based global kitchen appliance company Electrolux is more and more looking like the local leader when it comes to corporate use of social media. And maybe it can be the 800-pound gorilla that is needed to get more businesses to try out this space. The company has a social media news room, a presence in Second Life and is also present on Facebook via the Lunch Club application. In an interview on Resumé tv, Electrolux's global Director of Communications Lars-Göran Johansson reveals that the company has a staff of 20 people that work with online projects, including social media.
Johansson describes how Electrolux has experimented with adding photos of the main office building on Google Earth. He also said that half of the members of the executive board are now members of Facebook. So, you might wonder, what are the results of these initiatives. Well, according to Johansson, 7 out of 10 customers search for information online before a purchase and one goal of many of these features is to drive traffic to the site. Last year the traffic increased by some 70-80% which must be considered a great achievement, although social media probably is not the only reason behind the success.
I recommend that you keep a close eye on Electrolux for further good examples on how corporates can embrace social media.
Tags: electrolux, social networks, facebook, electrolux, sociala media. Ping.
Johansson describes how Electrolux has experimented with adding photos of the main office building on Google Earth. He also said that half of the members of the executive board are now members of Facebook. So, you might wonder, what are the results of these initiatives. Well, according to Johansson, 7 out of 10 customers search for information online before a purchase and one goal of many of these features is to drive traffic to the site. Last year the traffic increased by some 70-80% which must be considered a great achievement, although social media probably is not the only reason behind the success.
I recommend that you keep a close eye on Electrolux for further good examples on how corporates can embrace social media.
Tags: electrolux, social networks, facebook, electrolux, sociala media. Ping.
Female bloggers register three times as many domains as male bloggers
The results of my third blog survey suggest that three out of four Swedish bloggers are female (76.2% vs 23.8%). Statistics from .SE (The Internet Infrastructure Foundation) now support the view that women are dominating the Swedish blogosphere. According to a press release, female bloggers registered 18% of all new private domains in Sweden (.se) during 2007 while male bloggers only registered 6%. That is almost exactly the same female/male ratio (75% vs 25%) as in my survey.
Danny Aerts CEO at .SE says that men traditionally have always registered more domains than women and that this is the first time women are in majority.
.SE says that at the beginning of 2007, about 5% of the individuals who registered a domain intended to use it for a blog, and at the end of the year the percentage had doubled.
Tags: blogs, domains, kvinnor, bloggsverige3, bloggar. Ping.
Danny Aerts CEO at .SE says that men traditionally have always registered more domains than women and that this is the first time women are in majority.
.SE says that at the beginning of 2007, about 5% of the individuals who registered a domain intended to use it for a blog, and at the end of the year the percentage had doubled.
Tags: blogs, domains, kvinnor, bloggsverige3, bloggar. Ping.
Social networkers motivated by social interaction
A new Swedish think tank called Forum Internet has published findings from research about business models, financing and motivations behind online communities. It is a bit unclear where these conclusions come from, but according to a presentation on its website, research shows that people are motivated by the following when they participate in social networks and online communities:
• To distance yourself from "everyday life"
• To display yourself
• To express yourself
• To explore others
• To be part of a group
• To build relations
• To join a category
I find some of these motivations to be quite vague and hard to understand. What does it mean to distance yourself from daily life? Is it just passing time or to be entertained? I would also like to argue that there are other motivational factors that are not as "social", such as using technical features (sharing objects like photos or links) or getting access to information.
Either way, I think this research appear to support the view that "social interaction" is the main motivation why people use social networks.
Tags: movitations, social networks, motivation, sociala media. Ping.
• To distance yourself from "everyday life"
• To display yourself
• To express yourself
• To explore others
• To be part of a group
• To build relations
• To join a category
I find some of these motivations to be quite vague and hard to understand. What does it mean to distance yourself from daily life? Is it just passing time or to be entertained? I would also like to argue that there are other motivational factors that are not as "social", such as using technical features (sharing objects like photos or links) or getting access to information.
Either way, I think this research appear to support the view that "social interaction" is the main motivation why people use social networks.
Tags: movitations, social networks, motivation, sociala media. Ping.
4-year anniversary
I read that fruit or flowers are typical gifts for a fourth wedding anniversary. Don't know what the equivalent would be for a blog anniversary, but anyway, today it is four years since this blog was launched. "Hip, Hip, Hooray".Tags: blogs, anniversaries, bloggar, media culpa, jubileum. Ping.
I'm joining Burson-Marsteller
I am happy to announce that I am joining Burson-Marsteller to head up its digital PR practice in the Nordic region. For the last four years I have been exploring blogs and other social media in my spare time, trying to learn what is is all about and how it affects the PR profession. Now it's time to "walk the talk" and start to work with these topics professionally. I am very excited about this opportunity to work with businesses and organisations in the Nordic area.
Burson-Marsteller has an impressive global network and I hope to learn a lot from my new colleagues. I will start my new job on 1 April. More info about me at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Tags: pr2.0, social media, Burson-Marsteller, public relations, pr, sociala medier. Ping.
Burson-Marsteller has an impressive global network and I hope to learn a lot from my new colleagues. I will start my new job on 1 April. More info about me at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Tags: pr2.0, social media, Burson-Marsteller, public relations, pr, sociala medier. Ping.
Danish kids positive to social networks
The Danish Media Council has published some findings from an online survey about Danish children and young people’s use of social network sites. One conclusion from the survey is that there is too much focus on the negative sides. Instead, social networks and communities have become a natural and positive extention to kids' normal lives.
2,400 children between 12 and 18 years of age have participated in the survey. Only 34.1 percent of the respondents say their parents have talked to them about their usage of online communities.
These kids spend lots of time on chat portals, social networks and communities. As many as 30.9 percent spend more than 2 hours a day and 29.5 percent spend 1-2 hours a day.
Via Malene.
Tags: denmark, social networks, danmark, sociala medier. Ping.
2,400 children between 12 and 18 years of age have participated in the survey. Only 34.1 percent of the respondents say their parents have talked to them about their usage of online communities.
These kids spend lots of time on chat portals, social networks and communities. As many as 30.9 percent spend more than 2 hours a day and 29.5 percent spend 1-2 hours a day.
Via Malene.
Tags: denmark, social networks, danmark, sociala medier. Ping.
Wikipedia on your iPhone
This sounds pretty cool. Patrick Collison has created an application that gives you the access to the entire contents of Wikipedia on your iPhone, "available to you at any time, online or offline".
Via Mashable.
Tags: iphone, wikipedia, wikipedia, iphone. Ping.
Via Mashable.
Tags: iphone, wikipedia, wikipedia, iphone. Ping.
Blogger meetup tonight
Niclas at deep|edition invited a bunch of bloggers to grab a beer tonight at Bagpiper’s Inn at Rörstrandsgatan 20, Stockholm. So why not, I'll be there. There will be one or two people there whose blogs I read, but have never met IRL.
Tags: öl, bloggträff. Ping.
Tags: öl, bloggträff. Ping.
Midnight at the Lost and Found RSS feed
If you publish the entire RSS feed of your blog (which I strongly recommend as a service to your readers) instead of, say, the first 250 characters of a post, chances are that a good portion of your readers never visit your blog. So if you for some reason decide to change your RSS feed you need to announce the new address within your old feed. I'm not sure how the details have been communicated here, but I am glad that one of my favourite bloggers, Martin Jönsson of Svenska Dagbladet, has neither quit blogging nor vanished from the face of the earth. I was a bit curious why no new blog posts came up after November 27 last year, but the reason was simply a change of RSS feed (new one here). There are currently more than 80 subscribers to the old feed in Bloglines alone so it could be a good idea to inform them of the switch via the old feed, if it is possible.
Tags: rss, blogs, rss, svd, reklam. Ping.
Aftonbladet uses Tailsweep for blog advertising
Anton, Beta Alfa and Gnu & Tapir write that it seems like Aftonbladet has started using Tailsweep, the advertising network that runs on a number of Swedish blogs, including this one. The assumption was based on a banner that was up for a short while on artist Magnus Uggla's blog on Aftonbladet.se. And if we look at Tailsweep's site we can confirm that this is the case. There are at least three blogs in the sports category, including Robert Laul, and six political blogs, including Helle Klein and Lotta Gröning.
Tags: advertising, blog ads, tailsweep, aftonbladet, reklam. Ping.
Tags: advertising, blog ads, tailsweep, aftonbladet, reklam. Ping.
The Fred Astaire of ballpoint pens
Once in a while you stumble upon a story that is so amazing you just got to share it with others. This is such a story. Check out the photo realistic art work by Juan Francisco Casas who only uses ballpoint pens to create images that look so realistic you think the guy must be pulling your leg. Can it really be possible?
Story and photos at the Daily Mail.
Tags: art, pens, konst, foto. Ping.
Story and photos at the Daily Mail.
Tags: art, pens, konst, foto. Ping.
