Finally, Technorati, the largest blog directory in the world, is getting more reliable data about professional blogging. When they release their State of the Blogosphere report each year, there's usually plenty of interesting data on who's blogging and why, but since 70% of blogs are hobby blogs, there's been little data on people using blogs for professional reasons.
This year they engaged a research company to survey 2,900 bloggers and included professionals writing about their industries (not to be confused with people making money from blogs ads, another type of problogger).
Here are the benefits of blogging for your business, that others are reporting:
- 71% have greater visibility in their industry
- 63% said clients purchased products and services
- 56% stated their company was now regarded as a thought leader
- 40% have been asked to speak at conferences
These stats support many of the reasons your small business should have a blog. A well crafted business blog is the number one key to getting found online. If you can't get found on the Web, you don't look good, and you will miss leads when prospects do online research.
