B2B Blogging Trends in 2011

Tom Pick and Tony Karrer, Ph.d., the guys behind two great sites: The B2B Marketing Zone and Social Media Informer, asked thought leaders on B2B blogging to answer some key questions:

• What do you see as key trends in B2B Blogging for 2011?
• Will anything be different in 2011 in marketing your business blog?
• What new challenges might exist in 2011 around B2B blogging?

They've pulled together the contributions from close to 25 B2B bloggers and extracted key ideas and trends into the following report:

B2B Blogging Trends in 2011

Some key points from the report:

1. Less than half of B2B companies have started a blog
2. By 2014 more than 160 millions Americans will be reading blogs
3. 50% of web visitors today are reading blogs 

My contribution to the white paper is found on pg.35.

Will the Commercialization of Blogging Kill It?  

Companies and Agencies have taken note of this fact.  Bloggers are constantly fielding calls from Agencies or Companies asking them to blog or mentioned a product or company in their post.  

One of the most popular blogs is totally dedicated to teaching others how to profit from blogging. Other digital “cottage industries” like Business to Bloggers, are recruiting “for profit” bloggers to hawk everything from baby clothing to gift wrap.

The question for 2011 is will blogs lose creditability with readers because of commercialization of the medium?  It is estimated that 900,000 new blogs are created each day, so we have to ask, which ones are only in it for the money? 

Expect new rating sites to come online and for Google to roll out tools that allow readers to rate blog sites. One thing is certain, how blogs are written, used, searched for, and rated will certainly change in 2011.  

Blogs play a vital role when customers are searching for product information: 70% of individuals turn to user or customer reviews or ratings before purchasing a product.  In addition, 90% of online trust recommendations from people they know while 70% trust reviews and recommendation from people they do not know. To understand the context of these figures, a mere 14% of individuals trust direct advertising!

The report is a good and quick read.  A helpful reference source as you evaluated your social media plans in 2011.