As we’ve all seen from Technorati’s latest State of the Blogosphere post, the conversation is indeed global. However, as you will soon see, it's very local too.
Two thirds of all blog posts are written in languages other than English. This is why Edelman and Technorati partnered earlier this year. The localized versions of Technorati in German, French and Italian are being pushed out to our teams this week. Now that we have them, we have learned a lot about the European blogosphere and how it differs from the US. More in this story from the Financial Times. (These sites will become available to the public next year.)
For starters, using Technorati’s data we have identified the top 100 bloggers who write in these three languages. We also compiled a list of the most influential UK bloggers we could identify using a far more subjective methodology. (It's difficult to sort out blogs originating from the UK vs. those from Australia and the US.) While these are the most prominent blogs written in Europe, in no way are they the only important ones. We compiled the list to learn about the bloggers in each region and how they operate. Edelman also conducted a separate survey on blog readership and activism.
For each top 100 list of local influencers we looked at: who are they, what they cover, how often they talk about multinationals/local companies. In addition, we zeroed in on the top 10 in each region to find out how often they link to each other, regional media and four key US media (CNN, NY Times, CNET, USA Today.) Here’s a snapshot of what we learned and a look at the lists (Excel file) - as of this week. The full results will be published later this year.
* The dialogue in each region is fairly balkanized and reflects the national culture.
* A strong interest in technology-related topics pervades the blogosphere regardless of language with 22% of the top French blogs focused on the topic while technology focused blogs are prevalent on the top German (25%) and Italian (11%) lists as well. The most popular focus for a Top 100 blog in Italian (43%) and French (30%) are so-called personal journals, while a tech blogs are the most common category among top German (25%) bloggers.
* Just like the U.S., there is a good deal of interdependence between bloggers and mainstream media: In Italian and German, the top 10 blogs link heavily to mainstream media, though in France the Top Ten bloggers link to each other 29% more often than they link to regional media.
* Specific, companies and brands in Europe are discussed, but not nearly as often as in the US. However, in both Europe and the US, there are similar levels of discussion in the product categories such as cars.
So what’s this all mean?
* To influence the influencers, you need to take both a local and a global view of the conversation
* The dialogue in each region is fairly balkanized and reflects the local culture and influences. However, it is influenced by media and blogs in other countries
* Companies and brands are discussed in European blogs, but not nearly as often as in the US or as product categories are talked about
* Brands have a big opportunity to become part of the conversation by listening and developing programs
UPDATE:: Please note that these lists are in beta. Further, if you feel your blog belongs on the list, please follow Technorati's instructions to claim it and identify your language. Thanks!
Tags: technorati, edelman, germany, france, italy
