I couldn’t agree more with this opening statement of a post on Nielsen Wire about some new research results. It seems to me like many agrimarketers are solely focused on social networks as opposed to creating their own buzz via a well managed blog. Could it be because a good blog requires more effort? All too often new blogs I see created are not maintained and therefore don’t contribute much to a marketing effort.

Blogs are sometimes overlooked as a significant source of online buzz in comparison to social networking sites, yet consumer interest in blogs keeps growing. By the end of 2011, NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company, tracked over 181 million blogs around the world, up from 36 million only five years earlier in 2006.

Head on over to the report to read more about the current impact of blogging in the online world. And consider how a blog can be an effective part of your marketing campaign.

Thanks to Podcasting News for the heads up.

I just learned that the folks at Seametrics have named AgWired to their list of Top 20 Agriculture Blogs! They said this was based on “recommendations from other bloggers and because we think your blog provides awesome content for people interested in agriculture.”

Seametrics is a “water flow measurement company that helps farmers, manufacturers, and municipalities to reduce water use and save money.”

Thank you Seametrics. We’ll keep trying to earn it!

Blogging continues to grow in spite of all the naysayers who have thought it wouldn’t “go anywhere.” In fact, I’d dare say that many people who read online content don’t even know they’re on a blog and don’t really care. As you’ll see in a comment from the author of a new eMarketer report (The Blogosphere: Colliding with Social and Mainstream Media), “. . . Over time, blogs will continue to become indistinguishable from other media channels,” blogging has become sort of mainstream. Who’d have thought?

But blogs continue to be important. eMarketer estimates that this year more than half of internet users will read blogs at least monthly. By 2014, readership will rise to more than 150 million Americans, or 60% of the internet population in the US. One reason for the rise in readership is that blogs have become an accepted part of the online media landscape.

I love that. “an accepted part of the online media landscape.” As if it isn’t already. The reason some don’t think it already is has most to do with their own fear or dislike of the mechanism and those of us who have chosen it as our information publishing platform. Or maybe it’s something else. What do you think?