Blog Relations PR Survey - USA v America
America is browsing blogs far more actively than Europe, with 73 percent of American PR PROs who responded saying that they read blogs “At least five times a week” as opposed to only 36 per cent in Europe. Roughly the same numbers agree with the statement, “There are already a good number of influential blogs.”
But when it comes to action, Europe is not such a laggard. 33 percent of Europeans PR PROs “occasionally pitch blogs” as opposed to 20 percent of American respondents. 9 percent of Europeans say that they “regularly pitch blogs” with again 20 per cent of Americans saying that they do so regularly.
A handful of anonymous Europeans left comments to say that so far they did not know much about blogs, but on the whole it would appear that after a slow start, Europe is beginning to catch up with America in blog awareness.
Katy Howell, Managing Director, Immediate Future Ltd, UK, says, “Just because we in the UK are not in a blog frenzy, doesn’t meant we shouldn’t be monitoring them: learning from America and helping our clients understand, protect themselves, and benefit from citizen journalism.
| How often do you read blogs? | Europe percent |
USA percent |
| Never or rarely | 22.1 | 6.7 |
| Every now and then | 27.3 | 6,7 |
| About once a week | 9.1 | 00 |
| Several times a week | 6.1 | 13.3 |
| At least five times a week | 36.4 | 73.3 |
| Have you ever pitched a blog, if so how often? | Europe percent | USA percent |
| No answer | 3 | 0 |
| I have never pitched a blog | 54.5 | 60 |
| I occasionally pitch blogs | 33.3 | 20 |
| I regularly pitch blogs | 9.1 | 20 |
| How many blogs would you say have influence? | Europe percent | USA percent |
| No answer | 6,1 | 0 |
| Hardly any blogs have any influence | 12.1 | 0 |
| There are a few influential blogs | 48.5 | 26.7 |
| There are already a good number of influential blogs | 33.3 | 73.3 |
| Do Blogs pose a threat to corporate reputations? (May tick more than one answer) | Europe percent | USA percent |
| Blogs pose a significant threat | 39.4 | 40 |
| Blogs don’t pose that much of a threat | 18.2 | 0 |
| It is much harder to spot a crisis coming from a blog than from the traditional media | 42.4 | 33.3 |
| A disgruntled employee or dissatisfied customer could use a blog to ignite a full blown crisis | 51.5 | 66.7 |
| Business sometimes over react to the threat posed by blogs | 24.2 | 53.3 |
| Businesses have not yet woken up to the threat posed by blogs | 24.2 | 53.3 |
| Don’t know | 00 | 6.7 |
| How many businesses do you think might benefit from setting up their own blogs? | Europe percent | USA percent |
| No answer | 3 | 0 |
| No business could benefit | 0 | 0 |
| There are a few exceptional cases where a business could benefit | 15.2 | 20 |
| There are quite a few businesses that could benefit | 51.5 | 33.3 |
| There are many businesses that could benefit | 30.3 | 46.7 |
