Women Trust Blogs (or not)

I just read about a social media benchmark survey and post that show that 36.2 million women in the U.S. write or read blogs and that 40% of the women surveyed consider blogs to be a highly reliable source of information. Maybe they should have spent more time surveying the women who don’t read blogs (53% of the sample were bloggershpere participants – this proportion is unrepresentative of the population). While it may be true that the blogger network is strong and female bloggers trust eachother, the average woman doesn’t trust them, or at least not yet.

I’m the Director of Product Management for an online community that is 75% female. In addition to a variety of community features like groups, polls, petitions, and member submitted news, we have expert content from established authors on how to live a Healthy and Green Lifestyle. Our content includes everything from “How to Naturally Lower Your Blood Pressure” to “Tips For Aging Pets“. In an effort to supplement our content, we’ve moved towards a blogger model, partnering with writers in the field who can provide fresh timely content on a regular basis. This works great for us and for our audience, up until the point we call the articles “blogs”.

Care2 Healthy & Green Living

It turns out, many women still view “blogs” as personal rantings that are of no value to them. In several focus groups we conducted we heard things like, “Why would I waste my time reading a blog? I don’t even read my friend’s blogs” and “I don’t have time for other people’s complaints”. We showed women an article that had the word “blog” in the header, and an identical article without the word. The reaction was surprising, and crystal clear. The non “blog” was seen as credible, interesting, and appealing. The “blog” was a turnoff not to be further considered. Same article, same design, one word.

So while the female blogger network may be patting themselves on the back delighted at the connections they have made and the trust they have developed, the rest of us who are speaking to a more mainstream audience need to be a bit more cautious. Is it blogs your audience wants, or expert content they can trust?