Bloggers as the New Trusted Media
Who do you trust? In an age where consumers are becoming more conscious and demanding transparency and social responsibility in the brands they frequent, it's not easy to find media that we feel relates to us -- and more importantly, that we can trust.
According to researchscape.com, friends and family are always the top two when it comes to who we trust on matters ranging from general opinion to food recommendations. But third on the list may. or may not. come as a surprise to you: bloggers.
As noted in a Affilinet UK study evaluating who UK citizens trust, trust in bloggers ranked higher than social media contacts, colleagues, journalists, religious leaders, celebrities, brands and lastly, politicians. Paul Mclntyre of AFR Weekend also cites examples of how independent bloggers are overtaking celebrities as key social media influencers ranking from followers to engagement by presenting examples of how brands no longer need to rely on celebrities to influence their audience. A good example is Aimee Song who writes the Song of Style blog on fashion and interior design.
Paul Mctlntyre believes “these days, brands can micro target with campaigns using talent with highly-engaged audiences in the long tail. It is a revolution”. Given the level of consumer engagement in interactions between bloggers versus other major media, no wonder more and more companies are starting to take notice of bloggers as the new way to engage with and influence consumers -- in other words, you.
In an interview on researchscape.com, UK Managing Director of Affilinet, Helen Southgate, notes that “working with niche specialist bloggers using adverts or content tailored to (an advertiser’s) audience will become an important part of the acquistion strategy for (them as) they strive to improve the level of trust in their brand from consumers.” Classifying bloggers in the public sphere has been controversial. New Zealand, for example, ruled that bloggers are journalists.
Personally, I think this is a natural progression of media consumption from the consumer end of the spectrm. We’re exhausted from a lifetime of top-down media constantly bombarding us through every channel -- from network television shows and news, newspapers and magazines, radio and billboards. Bloggers are less intimidating, they’re "just like us” in that anyone can create a blog and post their authentic opinion on a product or their genuine homemade recipes. The distance between the blogger and their readers seems considerably less than the distance, for example, between us and a celebrity, though social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram are (seemingly) bringing us closer through features like @ contact and direct messaging.
I also believe this explains why Youtube and vloggers (video bloggers) have had huge success in building their respective publics. For example, in the U.S. Asian market, a limited number of Asian-Americans make it to the "big screen" but many young Asian-Americans look to Youtube and influential bloggers to consume media for everything from make up tutorials to weekly digital shows featuring asian actors. People want to find media that they can directly relate to, bloggers and vloggers make up for what traditional media is lacking and are giving the people what they want.
Here’s an example of a feature film promoted and funded by actors popular on Youtube:
Whether bloggers are the new journalists or if they will overtake celebrities is debatable, especially in the realm of credibility, but I don’t see this trend stopping anytime soon. Bloggers are gaining power, let's join the “revolution.”
