Edelman asked Technorati to help them with a survey of blogs and PR. Technorati contacted thousands of bloggers via email, blog posts and the networks of discussion and links those posts generated. The survey generated 821 responses during the week of September 26, 2005. The complete findings can be found at the results site.
I did a blog post announcing the survey and participated in it recently. I found some of the results interesting. It was likely a survey of people who blog for business reasons given the answers. This was also their apparent target audience.
The highest reason for blogging was to be recognized as an authority in your field with keeping a record of your thoughts, my choice, a close second. Connect with others was third but all of the above was not an option. The majority posted every few days, probably right for busy business blogger. The vast majority said they would like free samples of products to review. Since the majority said they were never contacted by a PR firm, they must not know what they would be getting into.
I am contacted on occasion by PR firms wanting me to support their product. If it is very blatant and not someone I know, I do not respond. A PR friend said that this would open the deluge. If I know the PR person and/or the message is from an employee or head of the firm, I will respond. I have received some interesting things, like a video and DVD on BBQ which I reviewed, along with a number of professional reports and books. I always acknowledge that I was sent the material to review and attempt to write a balanced review.
The Edelman site provides the complete results so I will not repeat them here but suggest you take a look.
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