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Bloggers and Internet pundits are exerting a “dispropor-tionately large
influence” on society, according to a report by a technology research company.
Its study suggests that although “active” web users make up only a small
proportion of Europe's online population, they are increasingly dominating
public conversations and creating business trends.
More than half of the Internet users on the continent are passive and do not
contribute to the web at all, while a further 23% only respond when prompted.
But the remainder who do engage with the net-through messageboards, websites
and blogs-are helping change the national conversation, say researchers.
“We're seeing this growing,” said Julian Smith, an online advertising
analyst with Jupiter Research and author of the report. “The strongest part of
their influence is on the media: if something online suddenly becomes a story in
the local press, then it matters.”
Although unprompted contributors are generally younger and more vocal than
the wider online population, they are increasingly important as opinion formers
and trend-setters. Smith says businesses, media organisations and advertisers
reading blogs should be wary of making assumptions about their wider
significance, but that their muscle cannot be ignored.
 “They're not representative of the larger audience, but what they're
saying does matter,” he said. “It's a good straw poll-a snapshot of the
verbal conversations going on that we can't measure.”
“That's exactly right,” said Glenn Reynolds, author of An Army of
Davids, which explores the explosion in web punditry. “Bloggers and blog-readers
are 'influentials'-the minority that pays attention to events outside of
political and news cycles. They also tend on average to be better off, better
educated and, more importantly, employed.”
There are now more than 35 mn blogs around the world, according to search
engine Technorati. While most bloggers only write for small audiences, they can
sometimes achieve wider fame or become the focus of consumer campaigns.
Companies such as McDonald's and Dell have all fallen foul of Internet buzz
in recent years. Because search engines such as Google can allow grassroots
campaigns to become highly visible, industry insiders agree decisions can be
shaped by a small number of activists.
“It's always been the case that vocal minorities are listened to by media
organisations, brands, advertisers and marketers, normally because they're
thought to represent a wider swath of opinion,” said Tom Coates, a
technologist with Yahoo! and prominent blogger.
“TV and radio programmes are censored or pulled on the green-inked letters
of a few hundred people, products removed from shelves because of less than 100
complaints. “On that basis, these figures start to sound like a pretty large
number of people, and probably a much more representative sample than perhaps
before.”
Reynolds admits the idea of small groups being able to pressurise wider
decisions is nothing new, but those who ignore online buzz do so at their peril:
“You can bury your head in the sand, but very quickly you'll look like a
very old-fashioned company.”
The Guardian Page(s) 1
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