Women Who Blog: 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study

When considering any sort of marketing tool, statistics can be useful.  (Also when doing presentations about said marketing tools).  That's why I was pleased when the following announcement landed in my inbox: BlogHer | Compass Partners 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study: Blogging mainstream, "Reliable" for fun, advice and information.

This spring, BlogHer partnered with Compass Partners to do a sweeping social media benchmark study of more than 6,000 women. We surveyed 1,250 female Internet users via a nationally representative panel, and 5,000 visitors to BlogHer's network...

Some interesting results:

• 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogsophere every week (15.1 publishing, 21.1 reading and commenting)
• More than half of women maintain the original blog they started
• 24 percent of women surveyed say we watch less television because we're blogging
• More than half of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information
• Half of women surveyed say blogs influence their purchase decisions

Another useful site for Internet statistics and usage studies is the Pew/Internet & American Life Project.  I've referred to a number of their studies in my presentations on blogging as a marketing tool.