March 17th, 2008 by Sten Franke
The last part of the ethority Social Network Survey analyzes the communication channels which picks social networks out as a central theme. Especially noticeable regarding the results was the total distribution of the Buzz concerning the issue of web communities. The communities’ percentage of the Buzz was merely 10,9%, whereas the blogosphere was able to obtain almost 90% of the total conversation quantity within user generated media in regard to the issue of social networks.
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Consequently, social networks are a popular subject for bloggers. This is not surprising, given that social networks have been the major topic on the web during the last month. Especially the bloggers’ topical affinity to the virtual networks allows them to become experts in this field. A discussion about data security, marketing attempts or “Kifferzitate” (see recent discussion about an interview with StudiVZ boss Riecke) – the networks provide the opinion leaders in web 2.0 with more than enough issues to write about.
Which bloggers and weblogs, however, stand out against the masses with regard to their reports about social networks?
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By means of his blog basicthinking.de, Robert Basic, the German blogger number one, causes the highest Buzz (33.1%) concerning the issue of social networks. The ethority survey was able to verify Mike Schnorr, blogger and publicist at Sevenload, to be the second largest Buzz-generator (24.6%) with his blog sichelputzer.de. With 14.8%, the weblog Werkkanon.de from Düsseldorf achieves the third place in this ranking. The following ranks are taken by Fischmarkt, Don Alphonso, Bernd Röthlinghöfer and Spreeblick.
The survey demonstrated that topics such as marketing and data security are favoured issues for bloggers. Again, this is not surprising, because most of the bloggers are experts on these internet topics after all. This is the reason why network operators should be aware of bloggers as web experts and opinion leaders. Some companies, such as Holtzbrinck, could utilize this know-how in order to save them and their users further PR ordeals. The major issue in online communities are recommendations. Thus, for the network operators, word of mouth marketing is the most important tool for generating new users. Xing, StudiVZ, Facebook, etc. should therefore place more emphasis on improving their reputation among bloggers as well as among their non-blogging clientele.
