State of the Blogosphere Address – Keynote with Shani Higgins

Most of you are probably already aware of Technorati’s annual State of the Blogosphere Address. This year Sani Higgins, the CEO of Technorati, presented the new information that provides some excellent insight into the blogging community.

This year Technorati introduced a new category of blogger, the entrepreneur. It seems that more people are using blogs to promote their own businesses. Most bloggers, according to Sani, come from North American, Europe, and Oceania. They are generally educated individuals many of which blog as a hobby or to supplement their income.

The primary drivers of blog traffic are obviously facebook and Twitter with Google plus and Stumbleupon coming close behind. Tumblr and Foursquare are becoming more prevalent while Digg is starting to fall out of favor.

The primary source of influence for most bloggers this year is other bloggers along with conversations they have with friends. The topics they write about are as varied as ever and as their voice grows it has become even more important for brands to take this into account because the blogging community could do a lot of damage to a brands image. According to Shani, one of the important things for bloggers to consider this year is the transparency of their relationships with brands especially if they are promoting their products.

Overall, there are a lot of interesting and exciting trends taking place in the industry. In the future social media will the primary driver of marketing campaigns and companies will have to spend a lot more time and resources figuring out which social media platforms their customers are using.

If you would like to watch this keynote speech or any other session you may do so at Blog World Expo