Text 100’s global blogger survey suggested five key lessons for the PR and communications professionals and there additional findings specific to APAC include:
Contact:
• The majority (93%) of the APAC bloggers in this survey welcome contact from PR firms or corporations, up from 84% found in the 2008 survey. Bloggers in Japan and Greater China are slightly less willing to be contacted;
• 70% have been contacted in the past 6 months, compared with 66% in the 2008 survey;
• Across the region (except Japan) email is the preferred means of contact. Contact via SMS is least preferred in half of the countries surveyed. About half of APAC bloggers indicate their contact preference on their blogs;
• Most (88%) of the APAC bloggers prefer to be introduced before receiving information from a PR firm or corporation with whom they have not had prior contact;
• Bloggers prefer opinioned responses to their blogs, new product developments, news, products for review, and interviews with key people. Corporate news announcements are of least interest to surveyed bloggers.
Content:
• Half (48%) of APAC bloggers are aware of Social Media Releases (SMRs), an increase of 8% over last year’s study;
• Among the bloggers surveyed, computers / technology / internet are the most popular blogged about subjects, followed to a much lesser degree by gaming and science. Malaysian bloggers seem to be more interested in entertainment/arts/music and culture/community, while the latter is also most popular in Australia.
Blogging Habits
• Slightly more than a third (36%) of the bloggers surveyed spent more than 9 hours per week blogging, compared with 33% in the 2008 survey. 18% spend more than 16 hours blogging per week. The amount of blogging time is highest in Australia, Taiwan and Korea, and lowest in Singapore and New Zealand;
• 76% use a micro-blogging site (such as Twitter) and opinions on its effect on their normal blogging vary. About a third (30%) said their blogging increased due to micro-blogging (especially in Taiwan), a third (31%) said it decreased (especially in Hong Kong), while 39% said it had no effect on their blogging. Micro blogging is least used by bloggers in China and Korea;
• 75% agree that bloggers should always clearly state their employer or association if blogging on issues or topics that relate to their businesses. 100% of New Zealand bloggers support this philosophy while less than half (46%) of surveyed Chinese bloggers felt compelled to do so.
Continued bad Habits from PRs
• PR people continue to blindly send corporate press releases to bloggers
• PR professionals are failing to read the blogs and truly understand their target bloggers’ communities.
• They seem to expect bloggers to post corporate material, demonstrating a lack of understanding of the medium and the very reason why bloggers blog.
• They treat bloggers as they would journalists – not as influencers which is more appropriate.
Sydney Public Relations Agency, CP Communications provides specialist media, traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more great tips visit our website www.cpcommunications.com.au.
