The New York Times reports that indie bloggers are getting courted by corporations. Some interesting nuggets from the story…
* Businesses are spending $50 million to $100 million this year on blog advertising and marketing, according to Forrester. Wow – that’s a rather substantial number. I believe it’s the first time this has been quantified.
* USWeb, an online marketing firm, has run campaigns this year that pay people $5 to mention a company or link to its site. Most of the companies USWeb works with do not allow the company to identify them. This one was news to me. It sounds like they were keeping this one partially under the rug for some reason.
* Volvo said a million people have visited their home page directly from their blogvertising program
One of our Vespa bloggers, Neil Barton, was quoted as well. To clarify, the Vespa bloggers can write about competitors if they so choose. More importantly, based on all this activity, it sure sounds like 2006 is shaping up to be a big year for corporations and individuals partying together! Watch this space for more. We have some potential projects in the works here.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
