• Over 75% of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue.
• 70% of reporters check a blog list on a regular basis.
• 21% of reporters spend over an hour per day reading blogs.
• 57% of reporters read blogs at least two to three times a week.

Journalists are also increasingly active participants in the blogosphere.

• 28% of reporters have their own blogs.
• 16% have their own social networking page.
• 48% say they are "lurkers" - reading blogs but rarely commenting.

The survey is part of an ongoing research project by Brodeur in conjunction with Marketwire to understand the impact that social media and blogs are having on traditional news delivery. The survey was conducted among a random sample of North American reporters and editors. You may obtain a copy of the survey here.

Blogging lawyers are regularly contacted by reporters for stories relating to the lawyer's niche area of the law. Results in an interview from which the lawyer is quoted in a main stream or trade publication reaching prospective clients or their influencers. I get called about once a week.

Talking with lawyers, I've been referencing a 2 year old study finding 40% of journalists using blogs as a source once a week. So it was nice to pick up this recent research.

Now 80% of Americans know what a blog is with half reading blogs regularly. That per a study conducted by Marketing Daily.

Source of post: Blog Herald

Technorati Tags: blog research

From Bank Systems & Technology, Andy's source:

Blogging is a great step that banks can take in enhancing their online presence. Most younger consumers bank only online with very few yearly visits to a branch. And most banks' Web sites, while being very functional are not nearly as interactive as the branch. Blogging is a great way for banks to not only market to their online customers, but to show that, yes, there are real live bank employees behind their Web sites.

Sound a lot like law firms? Younger people, yes 25 to 40 year olds with legal needs, have very few dealings with law firms - even when the need arises or prudent planning dictates. And there's certainly no profession that has as great a need for demonstrating that the people who work in the profession, lawyers and the folks who work at law firms, are real people too.

Technorati Tags: blog research

Reminds me of TheGlobe (two guys worth billions at the time), iVillage, About.com, and others which generated huge traffic and became the stock market darlings of the the late '90's. Most failed completely and those that survived had a 90% + reduction in their value.

You're going to see lawyers getting into blogs and RSS in a big way through aggregators, directories and communities. It will be similar to the law portals of MyCounsel, Ed Kopp's law site, USLaw and many others of the late 90's. As far as I know, all but FindLaw know owned by Thomson/West and Prairielaw, incorporated into Martindale-Hubbell's lawyers.com shut their doors.

Don't get me wrong. I am an evangelist on blogs, RSS, syndication and collaboration. Innovation is good. Effective use of low cost technology is good. And the strong social media sites such as Flickr and MySpace are going to survive.

Ignore history at your peril though. Just because there is a huge buzz about what you are doing and you are attracting capital doesn't mean you are a success. Success will be measured by a strong business model, a valuable product or service people will pay for, and a lot of hard work by a talented group of people.

Technorati Tags: blog research