Furrier.org – John Furrier's Personal Blog

One-half of US blog readers surveyed thought blogs were useful for getting information about purchases. More than one-half of respondents who had trusted blogs for purchase decisions in the past said the information they found on blogs helped determine when they decided to make a purchase.

CEO of Buzzlogic points out what I’ve been saying for years – “Bloggers are the New Navigators”.. “For a portion of Web users, blogs rival search as a navigation tool, which has really interesting implications for advertisers,” … Also Blog Advertising works often pointing users who are seeking very specific information to places of interest online.”

Blogs are influencial because the service is valuable for users in finding content – BUT the biggest reason is the trust earned by the user is what makes the blogging work.  I‘ve said here that corporate blogging isn’t working.  Why?  Because users see right through the ‘head fake’. Corporate blogging isn’t trusted by users.

Some of the actions taken by blog readers based on the information they found were: reading product reviews online (17%), seeking out more information on a product or service (16%) and visiting a manufacturer or retailer Website (16%).

The number of consumers influenced by blogs will rise, based on overall blog readership projections. More than two-thirds of Internet users will read blogs in 2012, up from one-half who did so last year.

I did a speech at MIT in 2006 called “The Blogosphere: New Navigators.” – in this speech I predicted that certain blogger would asend to the highest trust level in communities to earn a place of trust. Why? Because to be an effective blogger you have to know about the sector your covering. To capture news, get scoops, provide content value, you need to know what you’re talking about. Bloggers provide a real time service for users. Often bloggers make mistakes, but more importantly to users they provide links to other sources that delivers on the real time alerting or redirection of attention and interest (this is what normal users are looking for). Of course bloggers self correct or get corrected from their audiences. This content cycle is two way and very effective in content development, story development, fact development, and opinion development. This makes them valuable to users. (side datapoint: the best analysts of top firms have become bloggers – why?? ..Point made)