BlogWorld and New Media Expo -- Some Facts and Figures

Mike Sansone reminded me that BlogWorld and New Media Expo is scheduled for early November 2007 ... and the time for discounts is almost over. The breadth and range of the speakers on offer demonstrate exactly how challenging "keeping up" with Web 2.0/social media really can be -- there are strategists, PR and advertising types, technologists, journalists, podcasters and others who cross all these boundaries. But the real reason that social media is fascinating is not the technology or even the ideas.

It is the people. People like you and me. And people like "Jane Doe". And there are lot of them:

• Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
• More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
• Over 57 million Americns read blogs.
• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
• 9% of internet users say they have created blogs.
• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
• Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs.
• over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
• There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
• 120,000 new blogs are created every day.
• 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006.
• 51% of blog readers shop online.
• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

The last two bullets serve as a powerful reminder of the close link between social media and purchasing. It will be interesting to read Des Walsh's coverage.