Blogs Generate Trust? BlogHer Network Survey Findings Says "Yes"

In blogs and Pinterest we (seem to) trust …

In BlogHer‘s Fifth Annual Women and Social Media study, active blog users surveyed say they trust blogs (81 percent) as a source of information or advice, but an equal number say they trust the advice they get from Pinterest. Why is this significant? Well, for starters, the findings indicate that Pinterest and blogs are being trusted more than older social-media siblings Facebook (67 percent) and Twitter (73 percent).

Similarly, the study finds 61 percent of those surveyed made a purchase based on a recommendation from a blog, and 47 percent bought something based on a recommendation from Pinterest.

One of the reasons the survey points to for the ongoing popularity of blogs is that blogs contain substantive comments featuring details and expertise that make bloggers more trustworthy than Facebook friends, who tend to write short comments, or celebrity endorsers.

San Jose, California-based BlogHer co-founder Elisa Camahort Page comments on the Pinterest and blogger trust issues with an interesting footnote: “Pinterest’s active users are showing an intensity of trust and action that approaches that of blog readers, but its adoption rate is still less than half that of blog reading (as is Twitter’s) amongst the general population. So, we have definitely identified Pinterest as an app to watch (and for our community, adoption is much higher) but its relative impact is still going to be significantly lower.”

Our comments

We find these comments about blogs generating trust to be of high interest, especially during a time when the act of blogging in general (according to various reports we have seen come across our inboxes as of late) is on a gradual decline and/or continues to be challenged by the ongoing needs for content, time and resources. Knowing that consistent, good blogging DOES indeed still foster trust and build credibility is just really good news to hear, in our geeky blogging point of view

Mayra Ruiz Mcpherson

Brand Journalist and Digital Strategist Mayra Ruiz-McPherson is founder of Ruiz McPherson Communications (RMC), a marketing ingenuity practice based in Herndon, Virginia. Mayra — who also founded and launched the online career community SocialMediaJobsDC.com — often presents various digital and social media-focused topics tailored to business owners and senior-level marketing managers. She also instructs a number of courses, workshops and training sessions as well as provides private, on-site training on social media tools and strategies.

In between professional engagements, Mayra guest blogs and contributes content regularly to a number of publications both in and outside the Washington DC metro area. Mayra is also the editor of The Better Social Business Blog, "Pet Tech" columnist for the Virginia Maryland Dog Magazine, contributes an “e-Trends” column to the Loudoun Business Journal and is founder of the Loudoun Fairfax Local Bloggers Meetup group which mentors and helps local bloggers network, learn and exchange ideas.