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Blogging in the dark: The vital data no one has (or talks about)

August 31, 2010, Ian Greenleigh

Blogging in the dark

Blindly searching for the data we don't have. (Flickr photo credit: Pranav Singh)

There’s something that’s been bugging me lately, big time. It’s not your average annoyance, or mild setback. It’s a huge problem for all of us in social media marketing, but no one seems to say much of anything about it.

Let me illustrate the issue with a real-life scenario, though there are countless others:

You’re hired as a social media manager or consultant to a company that sells something, B2B or B2C—whichever. Dreaming up a social strategy to generate conversions from qualified prospects (email subscriptions, webinar registrations, contact form submits, etc.) to fill the pipeline for your company’s overall sales and marketing efforts is central to your job description.

Because you’re smart, you know that simply creating and distributing content on your own blog is only half the story when it comes to blogs. Outreach in the form of blogger relationship building, commenting and guest posting form the other half. Of course there’s more, but let’s keep it simple and continue…

So, which bloggers do you engage with, and where do you comment? You can find blogs that other bloggers say are the best in your industry. You can look at lists like The Power 150 that are informed by a mix of data, including traffic and external links. You can piece together which others think are the most important in just about any niche you’re trying to market to, but you’ll be comparing apples and oranges.

The truth is, no matter what numbers you look at, the numbers that should really matter to you simply aren’t there. Anywhere. Because you want to be on the blogs your prospects are on.

Who reads these blogs?

I don’t mean how many people. I don’t mean from where their IP addresses originate. I mean:

  • What industries do they work in?
  • What are their job titles and/or roles?
  • How often to they read this blog?
  • How influential is this blog to them, and how much do they trust what’s on it?
  • What other blogs do they read?

Try finding that information. It’s simply not there. So how do I back my decisions, as relate to external blogs, with data? I don’t.

If you were a media buyer for television campaigns, you would know where to place your ads. All the data would be there—who watches what programs at what times on what channels. It’s why you see ads for for-profit colleges on daytime TV.

Lots of other web marketing strategies can be backed by data. Search ads can be informed by myriad useful numbers. The decision to purchase banner or interactive ads on 3rd party websites is usually based on data provided by the site owner on audience.

So why not blogs?

We need a Nielsen of blog audiences.

I’ve tried in vain for months to locate a single useful source for blog readership demographics.Yes, it would be difficult to create. But it would also be insanely lucrative, and incredibly helpful to those of us in the industry (and the DIYers).

Until then, we’re just blogging in the dark.

Why don’t you think we have this tool and/or service? Am I missing something? Or is this data far less important than I believe it to be?

Ian Greenleigh
Writer | Manager of Content & Social Strategy at Bazaarvoice | Future futurist | Former baby | Businessboy
  • http://blog.firstlightpropertymanagement.com Trevor Henosn

    Excellent question, Ian – where the heck are the metrics for our blogs? We can track re-tweets, follows, RSS subscriptions, newsletter subscriptions, Like, Links, traffic sources, etc…but (at least as far as I have been able tell) specific reader demographics from a single view. I do feel that if this tool does exist – it most be amazingly expensive and the barrier to entry by the everyday blogger would be immense.

    If you do run across anything in your search, please share!

    Press on, regardless-
    Trevor

    • Ian Greenleigh

      I’m 99% positive it doesn’t exist, Trevor. And yes, it could be expensive to create. But in its absence, we’re just guessing.

  • http://contentedcontent.com/ Daniel Senyard

    Great post Ian, I feel your pain. In a realm driven by analytics, it is crazy that this information hasn’t been captured and sold to us, eager online marketers.
    .-= Daniel Senyard´s last blog ..Invisible Ink- Sometimes the best writing is in the words that you leave out =-.

    • Ian Greenleigh

      Thanks, Daniel. Why do you think we rarely hear about this data gap? Is it because, as social media professionals, we don’t want to give away the fact that we’re woefully uninformed on this particular issue?

  • http://mediatemple.net Jason McVearry

    When you’re doing mostly qualitative work, building relationships, establishing industry leader brand trust, the metrics aren’t something you can track often unless you have logo bugs sending referral links.

    1. You and the organization you’re working for have to believe in this critical form of brand building, almost blindly as you state. It’s long-tail work.
    2. You can capture raw data from your site by conducting simple “How did you find us” surveys to close the loop a bit.

    Cheers!
    Jason

  • http://influencers.posterous.com Federico Gasquet

    Great post Ian – I think one of the biggest challenges of marketers and communicators is to make sense of all the data they can collect, but agree with you demographic information could be really helpful as well.

    I think that by having a roster of your top influencers (Creators, Conversationalists and Critics), anyone could conduct his/her own research (or use an agency) to measure the demographic profile of the audiences that these promoters are trying to reach.

    One thought though: each of us is a Nielsen, we just have to make it work for our niche communities.
    .-= Federico Gasquet´s last blog ..Engagement &gt Content =-.

  • Ian Greenleigh

    @Jason-

    I agree with you that qualitative work and belief are crucial. I think it’s also important, however, to be tracking from the get-go. Engagement doesn’t have to be sterilized by hard data–if anything, its value is proven through objective measurement.

  • Ian Greenleigh

    @Federico-

    List building is as important as it ever was, but conversation is MORE important than it ever was. Thanks for stopping by!

  • http://www.allisonj.org Allison Jones

    Have you tried Quantcast.com? May not get you lots of specifics, but does share age, income, etc about visitors to your blog.

    • Ian Greenleigh

      @Allison-

      I’m grateful that you brought Quantcast to my attention–it’s one of those names you hear often and, in my case, never really look in to. Seeing it now, I’ll say it’s certainly closer to what I’m after than anything I seen yet. Again, thanks!