Getting information about your blog readership is challenging, as content moves off your site (RSS) it makes it more difficult to find out about your readers. In my case, most of my readers (by a landslide) consume this blog via RSS. Tools like MyBlogLog are interesting, but only a very small and engaged group uses that tool. To make it worse, readers of my blog are not leaving comments here on my blog, but rather in Friendfeed.
Now that the over all results are in from the survey, I’ll pick certain segments of the report to focus in on. First, let’s start with the community…you! The challenge with blogs are that you often don’t know who is reading. RSS can certainly hide a great deal of information about the subscribers, all by design. And technographics research indicates that not everyone will be a critic, and leave comments. On a related note, be sure to read Josh’s take on data, why it’s important, and what you should consider when reading it.
Methdology:
Survey launched, compiled by Forrester Research (along with three other blog surveys), 88 responses, based on 11,000+ subscribers. Additional data from Google Analytics, unfiltered, and last 30 days as of May 21st.
Who Reads the Web Strategy Blog:
Data based off a Forrester survey, and Google Analytics
Finding: A wide range of roles read, yet the largest segment is interactive marketers
Although there is a very wide range of reader responses, I’m not surprised at all that many of the readers here are interactive marketers, I see who responds via the comments, and their background is closely aligned with mine. What’s that phrase? Birds of a feather? Secondly, the second role is a strategy professional. When I think strategy, I’m thinking long-term decision making, a theme I try to incorporate throughout this blog.
“What is your primary role at your company?”
Interactive Marketing Professional + Interactive Agency (as the titles are similar)
14 responses, 12.4%
Strategy Professional
13 responses, 14.6%
Technology Marketing Professional
8 responses, 9.0%
Marketing Leadership Professional
6 responses, 6.7%
Independent Consultant
6 responses, 6.7%
Other, please specify
22 varied responses, 24.7%
Finding: Most readers are from United States 65.2%, then UK 7.9%
This is no surprise to me, Google Analytics confirms this. US, UK, then Canada. Now why not a stronger readership in other countries? perhaps many of my examples or North American centric, or maybe social media adoption in corporations is first being lead in US and UK.
“Which country are you based in?”
Finding: Most readers from small business
This was a surprised, as I think of a majority of my readers as from corporate. In reality, most identified themselves as working at smaller companies. I suspect, but can’t confirm, that because I write for corporate, that the companies trying to offer to corporate want to ‘get into the head of’ a corporate decision maker. Now this is not to say that all of the readers are from small business, and there’s clearly folks from larger corporations present.
“How many employees work for your company worldwide?”
Finding: Most are in the Industry of Professional Services/Consulting (20%) High-Tech Products (13.5%), Advertising (11.2%) other (18.0%)
I wasn’t surprised here, by any of these industries, it’s really the market I’m trying to reach. The topics frequently discussed here are how to convince decision makers through ROI, language, or demonstrating success for social media programs. I come from high tech (exodus, savvis, hitachi, podtech) so there’s no surprised this industry is threaded through the blog. Glad to see a handful of advertising professionals here, there’s an opportunity for both social media and advertising to come together.
“Which of the following best describes your company’s industry group? (Please select one)”
Finding: Most readers are beginning a social media strategy at their company
This was a question that you insisted that I ask (early, I asked what do you want to see in the survey) as you wanted to know about your peers. As suspected, there’s a lot of toe dippin’ going on, I think I attract the companies that have questions about how to get started, thus my social media FAQ series. I realize that some of my readers are craving for the advanced stuff, quite honestly, which I do talk about, except mainly with clients.
“Where is your company in terms of its online social media strategy?”
Related Data from Google Analytics
All data from last 30 days. I’m not sure, but do the following statistics help indicate the level of sophistication of readers? Maybe, but I’m not quite sure.
Connection Speed
Unknown
26,206 | 33.45%
Cable
21,551 | 27.51%
DSL
18,438 | 23.53%
T1
9,693 | 12.37%
Dialup
2,074 | 2.65%Browser
Firefox
40,870 | 52.16%Internet Explorer
29,498 | 37.65%
Josh (who I met in Tampa) has asked me to publish some visitor data from Google Analytics, please note this is a very small subset of overall readership as most consume this blog via RSS.
Top countries that visit this blog
Top US states that visit this blog
Top California cities that visit this blog (heavy activity in Silicon Valley)
Top Canadian territories who visit this blog
Top cities in UK who visit this blog
And just for Josh, who requested this additional data, top cities in Florida
Any surprises from this data? Other than most being from small business this was exactly as expected, great confirmation.
hi,
How did you get such precise details, statistics of the people who come to your site and etc ?
i have a question here:
– what are the tools available to measure the campaigns we run online for clients ?
– tools to measure campaign management ?
can you shed light on this ?
Sri
As I mentioned in the first sentence, these are findings based upon a survey we ran last month.
That’s a vast topic, and requires a longer discussion, do check out my posts tagged ‘social media measurement’ to start with.
In regards to Google Analytics, which Im sure you’re on top of, I’d be interested to see the hot spots of
Country/Territory Detail for your blog readers. Might be some interesting data in that! 🙂
Jeremiah– I follow your blog & Twitter because you distill the content I need to digest to keep up in a fast paced business world. Same with others like HRhiengold. Twitter connection gives added social connection even without getting personal responses because it reveals you and your other connects in a more personal way. You are not only knowledgeable, but a kind and decent person. Hope your company appreciates great PR value in addition to whatever else you do.
SIGEPJEDI (Josh)
I’ve added the data as requested, even gave you bonus Florida data. Anything else?
meryl
Wow, thanks, those are some big britches to fill, I’ll do my best!
Nice Jeremiah!
Very interesting data. I am surprised by the Avg Page visits & Avg Time spent. One would think users attracted to your blog, even if from a twitter post, would spend more time reading, absorbing, and even looking.
Actually, there’s a major increase in attention if drill down into a specific post per a day. Sometimes upwards of 5 minutes for the popular posts.
Most readers skim.
I’m spreading word on how helpful and enlightening your site is Jeremiah in this far-off land called Philippines. Still not tiring the least bit and will continue to do so.
Best.
alain
Jeremiah,
Have you considered that the improbably high percentage of readers from small business is an indicator of new demand for Forrester’s insights? I think that your blog is attracting small businesses because they want the kind of insight that an analyst like you can provide. Many of us have an untested opinion that Forrester is expensive and inaccessible, but then we stumble across the gem that is Jeremiah Owyang. Accessing you is simply a means of clicking a few buttons and joining in the conversation. You’re personable and you don’t ask us for money in order to participate. As another commenter mentioned in the “2 of 3” post in this series, you are more than a “rookie analyst”. You have intuitive insights into matters on social media and many of us are trying to make sure we get that game right. Your help is very much appreciated.
So, perhaps it would be worth contemplating those numbers for a while longer and I suspect that you may already be doing that. There may be ways that you can significantly increase your value to Forrester by helping them tap into the very long tail of small businesses. We’re a unique beast and it requires gentle tactics and bite-sized offerings in order to reach us. But, there are millions of us and we seem to be attracted to your online presence. If you take your time and wait for the right idea(s), I have a hunch that you’ll find a goldmine of Forrester customers sitting within earshot of what you say.
By the way, I’m @justis and I found this post by following you on Twitter.
Kind regards,
Justis Peters
Thank you Justis!