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Some basic rehash of the goodness of blogging (which always bears repeating but we would say that, wouldn’t we?) in an article by The Globe and Mail last week.

Apparently, blogs are going big business. And according to advocates of the technology such as devotee Jim Carroll, it is about time.

Whatever it is you do by marketing, you can do by virtue of a blog.

They’re a useful and valuable tool to build a relationship with your customers so that your brand name, what you do, who you are, is in their minds. You can do wonderful things [with blogs] if you really apply your creative thinking.

Mr Caroll is future-trends author and consultant who asserts that blogs adapted for business use have a host of applications, ranging from customer relationship management to increasing consumer awareness of one’s business on-line. Blogs also seem to attract a valued consumer demographic.

A study released by Jupiter Research last year showed that 61 per cent of Internet users who read blogs at least once a month have an annual household income of $60,000 (U.S.) or more. A recent survey conducted by U.S.-based Web ad network Blogads revealed 61 per cent of blog readers are over the age of 30, and more than 45 per cent spend five to 10 hours reading blogs each week.

Now, if I could only link this ‘blog metric’ to the concept of “prosumers”, we are rolling - marketing professionals stand aside!

Note: I found the best description of “prosumers” in the Economist feature on The future of advertising.

...there is a wider group which marketers sometimes call “prosumers”; short for proactive consumers. Some people in the industry believe this group is the most powerful of all.

Such people often reject traditional ads and invariably use the internet to research what they are going to buy and how much they are going to pay for it. Half of prosumers distrust companies and products they cannot find on the internet. If they want to influence prosumers, says Mr Lepere, companies have to be extremely open about providing information.