Terra: Hispanics overindex on blog usage
Posted by Elena del Valle on July 18, 2006
Reasons people write in blogs
According to Terra*, Hispanics blog usage is booming. Terra’s analysis indicates that between December 2005 and May 2006 Hispanics visiting blogs grew 54 percent in unique visitors while the general market grew by 33 percent. The Spanish preferred segment grew 82 percent; English preferred increased 35 percent; and bilingual visitors went up 80 percent for the same time period. Terra relied on the comScore Media Metrix US Hispanic Service, Demographic Report, Blog Category, May 2006 for its analysis.
According to a 2005 AOL survey the reasons people keep a blog vary. Almost half of respondents said blogging was therapeutic. Forty percent blog to stay in touch with family and friends and 20 percent said they do it because people they know blog. Others blog to improve their writing skills or because they are interested in journalism. Some want to stay ahead of the news and gossip or expose political information.
At the same time, the majority of blog readers said they like blogs because they provide news that isn’t available elsewhere and with a better perspective; and that they find news on blogs more quickly, with more up-to-date and honest content than news that’s available elsewhere. Approximately 75 percent of the respondents felt blogs provide news with a better perspective then what they find in other places. Nearly half of respondents thought blogs offered news with more personality and more than 40 percent said the biases on blogs were transparent. More than one third of respondents look to blogs for the latest trends.
One of the reasons visitors gave for reading blogs was to find out about the latest updates on topics of interest such as the 2006 soccer games. This drive to have the most recent information available at their fingertips seems to be prompting some media to explore blogging as a news delivery tool. Although we couldn’t locate any daily print Hispanic oriented or Spanish language media outlets delivering news via blogs, some well known general market news websites are offering news updates in blog format. Examples include Washingtonpost.com and USAToday.com .
It seems an increasing number of Hispanic online visitors are looking for the latest news of interest to them. When they don’t find it, according to the comScore Media Metrix report, some bloggers are producing their own content. At the same time, 72 percent of Hispanic blog visitors are between 18 and 44 years of age and divided almost equally by gender. In terms of income, 18 percent of Hispanic blog visitors earn between 25,000 and 39,999; 27.6 percent earn between 40,000 and 59,999; 13.7 percent earn between 60,000 and 74,999; and 19.9 percent earn more than 75,000.
*Smart Marketer Newsletter June 2006
