Blog on, baby

Nearly 4 out of 10 Americans having visited a blog, and 8 of 10 now knowing what a blog is, according to a recent Synovate/MarketingDaily study, reports MarketingCharts.

Moreover, "8 percent of Americans currently have their own blog," said Tom Mularz, SVP at Synovate. "This is surprising given that a few years ago hardly anyone knew what a blog was."

The Synovate eNation survey was conducted online with 1,000 adults in the US from July 30 to August 1.

The following are among the key findings of the survey:

• Awareness and usage of blogs, along with people penning their own, strongly correlates to age, with younger people being much more active:
  • Nearly 90 percent of those aged 25-34 know what a blog is, compared with 65 percent of those 65 and over.
  • Similarly, 78 percent of those aged 18-24 who are aware of blogs say they have visited a blog, compared with only 45 percent of older Americans.
• As blog usage grows, so has its use as a marketing tool:
  

  

  • 43 percent of blog visitors said they noticed advertisements on blogs.
    

    

  • That proportion is 61 percent among those aged 18-24.

  

  • Nearly one-third of blog visitors clicked on an ad while reading a blog.

• Though consumers are spending more time with blogs, they aren't necessarily replacing other media: Only 13 percent of blog readers say they spend less time with other forms of media (newspapers, television, radio) since they've started following blogs.

MarketingCharts provides more findings from the Synovate survey.