Sex, age and blogging

There is a perception that bloggers are mostly young men who operate anonymously. An understandable caution towards dealing with unknown or pseudonymous commentators is one of the reasons some PRs cite for not engaging with the bologosphere.

But research by Bam-blogger Dr Jan Schmidt (University of Bamberg), presented at Stuttgart, shows a rather different picture. His paper Blogging Practices: Empirical Findings for the German-speaking blogosphere (see my earlier post) analysed the responses of 5,246 German-speaking bloggers who took part in "Wie Ich blogge?!" survey last October.

Not suprisingly, Jan found that take up of blogging shared characteristics with other internet technologies - participants were generally young (mean age 29.3 years) and have a high formal education. Most have used the internet for five years or more.

But there are differences, notably in the gender share which showed almost as many women as men running blogs. Among teenagers, the balance shifted with female outnumbering males by almost two to one.  And less than a third (29.5pc) blog anonymously or behind a pseudonym.

Overall, a majority of repsondents run blogs 'for fun' and most say they like to write; one in ten runs a blog for professional reasons.

Age plays a part in what blogs are used for, with teenagers much more likely to share personal experiences, stories and photographs; older bloggers are more likely to point to other online content or comment on political issues. Likewise, older bloggers are more likely to read a wider range of other blogs, and to use a feed reader to stray abreast of the conversation.

Comments and linking

The content maybe highly personalised, and often of interest to a very small number of people, but there appears to be an intention to engage in dialogue (only 3.2pc of all active bloggers disable comments, and as 22.2pc have a registration process there is a reasonably higher awarenmess of the tools needed to do so).

On the other hand, only slightly more than half (55.3pc) of active authors have a main page blogroll.

Experience makes a difference

As well as slicing his sample by age, Jan went on to analyse the results in terms of length of time respondents had used blogs, and found a clear distinction in the way experienced bloggers (active for more than six months), used the medium compared to novices. Broadly, as users gain experience they embrace more of the tools and facilites the technologies offer. Jan writes "routines of relationship management and information management depend rather on weblogs' age than on blogger's age."

My feeling is that this observation resonates with the EuroBlog 2006 findings around a 'two-speed Europe', once people engage with blogging their undertanding of its potentials sharpens rapidly. Again, the lesson for PR practitioners is that the social software phenomenon is one they need actively to investigate.

Content

In general, most bloggers expect weblogs to enable comments and to present the author's personal opinion. they expect a an informal writing style and mix od media content. They do not expect blogs to have a polished design or to present objective discussion

Jan concludes:

Weblogs must not be studied in isolation, since they are only part of a larger landscape of 'social software'. Internet users increasingly apply a whole repertoire of applications for online-based networking, self-presentation and information management.

Again, there are clear implications for PR practitioners....

• It is dangerous to ignore such a significant social phenomenon
• It is unwise to regard weblogs as a discreet activity - PR needs to engage with a much wider range of social softwares and find ways of building this engagement into strategic planning 

Comments

[kob]

The German study looks about spot-on. I don't have formal stats, but from running DC blogs I can make these general observations: most bloggers are between 25 and 35 years of age, although Baby Boomers are beginning to come on in large numbers. Most bloggers, (I by this I mean only those in their 20s and above -- i don't link to teens), have at least a bachelors degree. A significant number have graduate degrees, law degrees, and post grad degrees. Women may outnumber men in the DC area. Many of the other observations in this study are true. For instance, regarding design -- content, not design, is everything. Some of the more popular bloggers have done nothing, for instance, to change their basic blogspot template.