BBC : Blogs rival other media as sources of trustworthy information about products and services

An article on BBC news yesterday has some shocking info from a survey on the power of blogs in influencing people’s buying habits. Quoting the BBC, “The survey suggests that blogs could soon rival other media as sources of trustworthy information about products and services.”

• Consumers are starting to use weblogs, or blogs, as guides to what they should and shouldn’t buy.
• Many see blogs as trustworthy sources for what they should buy.
• Respondents said they trusted blogs because they were written by real people and based on actual experiences.
• 77%, said they thought the regularly updated web journals were a useful way to get insights into the products or services they should buy.
• As many blogs were the work of individuals, many believed that they were more honest and reliable because they were not subject to the same marketing pressures as corporate or commercial websites.
• Almost half, 49%, thought blogs were as credible as articles in magazines, 46% thought web journals were as trustworthy as newspapers and 40% thought web logs and TV news programmes were just as reliable as each other.

Paul Halfpenny, product manager at survey sponsor Hostway rightfully put it, “Consumers are tired of marketing gloss and so the interest in blogs is not surprising. We all want impartial advice and information, as far as consumers are concerned blogs deliver this.”