Study: BTB Users Warm to Blogs, RSS Feeds

Blogs and RSS feeds are gaining momentum among business-to-business users, a new survey released by KnowledgeStorm Inc. and Universal McCann found.

Among survey respondents, 80 percent claimed to be blog readers, with 51 percent reading blogs at least once a week.

Technology topics drew slightly more interest than business topics on blogs, with 53 percent of respondents saying they read blogs weekly for business information while 57 percent read them for technology topics.

Referrals from blogs are high: 70 percent of respondents recommend or pass along content at least once a month.

Blog content heavily influences IT purchase decisions. More than 53 percent said that the content they read in blogs affected their work-related purchasing decisions.

Nearly half said they commented or contributed to blogs they read at least monthly, while 32 percent are considering starting their own blogs.

As for RSS feeds, 59 percent were "somewhat" to "very" familiar with RSS while 31 percent subscribed to RSS feeds or readers. However, 79 percent are accessing RSS feeds on specialized topics while only 36 percent are accessing blogs via RSS feeds.

KnowledgeStorm is an Atlanta-based search resource for technology solutions and information. Universal McCann, New York, is one of the world's largest media services firms and a division of Interpublic Group of Companies Inc.

The survey was completed by more than 4,500 business and IT professionals globally, representing a wide variety of job titles, vertical industries and company sizes. It aimed to explore how new forms of media such as podcasts and blogs are affecting content consumption and purchasing influence in the BTB marketplace.

This is the second study in the series. The first focused on podcasts, and a subsequent one will feature wikis and other technologies.