â–¶ Bloggers’ Credibility Soars: The oft-contentious relationship between traditional and social media appears to be warming up—at least, according to a study released by Context Analytics.
The report, titled “The Power 50: Most Influential Blogs,” analyzed the state of bloggers’ credibility in traditional media and identified the 50 most influential blogs, the top 10 of which were:
• The Huffington Post
• Politico
• Daily Kos
• The Drudge Report
• Gawker
• Techcrunch
• Perez Hilton
• Treehugger
• Engadget
• Boing Boing
As for the additional findings:
• Mainstream media journalists are citing blogs more and more regularly, with the number of citations growing by 45% as compared to last year’s findings;
• 70% of all citations were attributable to the Power 50’s top 10;
• Political blogs accounted for 60% of all traditional media citations of the Power 50;
• Business blogs, on the other hand, were rarely cited in traditional media, with only 2% of the Power 50’s citations; and,
• Traditionally media generally referenced political, gossip and business blogs for primary source material, such as interviews or transcripts, while technology and lifestyle/entertainment blogs were cited more often for opinions.
Source: Context Analytics
â–¶ State of the Tweet-o-Sphere: HubSpot’s latest “State of the Twittersphere” research has been tabulated and the results are in, giving numbers-based context to Twitter’s recent spike in popularity.
The data, gathered and evaluated by Twitter Grader (a platform that measures Twitter users’ reach and authority), revealed the following information:
• 80% of Twitter account profiles do not include a home page URL;
• 76% of users have not entered a bio in their profile;
• 69% have not specified their location;
• 56% aren’t following anyone;
• 55% have never tweeted; and,
• 53% have no followers.
As for statistics surrounding actual tweets:
• 1.44% of all tweets are re-tweets;
• 38% of all tweets contain an “@” symbol (mentions); and,
• 33% of all tweets start with an “@” symbol (replies).
Source: HubSpot
â–¶ Social Media as Recruiting Tool: According to research from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), 75% of employers are missing out on potential job candidates by failing to use social networks to recruit new staffers. The survey of 200 employers found that:
• Fewer than 25% of business regularly use Web sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook as part of their recruitment processes;
• 15% were worried about missing new recruits by not using sites like Twitter; and,
• 44% predicted that social networking would become more important to recruitment in the future.
Source: Department for Work and Pensions
â–¶ The Beginning of the End for Employers: Survey results from Adecco Group North America’s most recent American Workplace Insights Survey indicates that an economic upturn could spell doom for employers, with more 54% of employees polled reporting that they are at least somewhat likely to look for new jobs once the economy bounces back. Additional findings include:
• Only 9% of surveyed Gen-Y employees are willing to accept pay cuts to keep their jobs, as compared to 22% of Baby Boomers;
• 71% of Gen-Y employees plan to look for new jobs once the upturn begins; and,
• 40% of respondents believe the recession will last one to two years.
Based on the findings, Adecco execs recommend the following best practices for retaining top talent:
• Focus on mentorship;
• Highlight small but important wins;
• Support career development; and,
• Consider offering flexible work opportunities.
Source: Adecco