The findings are from a study of women’s shopping behavior and the influence of the media on purchases, jointly led by PR firm DeVries and online information network BlogHer.
According to the survey, which questioned 1,074 BlogHer users, blogs have a significant impact on the purchasing behavior of women.
In answering the question ‘Over the last 6 months, which resource was more likely to cause you to make a beauty product purchase?’ 63 percent of the respondents chose bloggers, with 26 percent choosing magazine writers and editors.
In addition, survey findings suggested that women trust general blogs that cover many lifestyle related topics for beauty advice, and do not limit themselves to uniquely cosmetic or beauty focused sites.
According to President of DeVries Public Relations Stephanie Smirnov, the survey supports the agency’s belief in the importance of involving bloggers in PR.
“We’ve long believed at DeVries that trusted blogs have as much influence on purchase decisions as traditional media outlets, both inside the beauty category and out,” she said.
However, Smirnov noted that involving bloggers was not without its challenges.
“One of the biggest challenges in working with bloggers is making the time to get to know them and their site intimately. Pitching bloggers requires an even greater level of personalization and relationship-building than in a traditional media relationship. The payoff for investing this time is great, however” she told CosmeticsDesign.com USA.
Future trends
While the survey group was taken from BlogHer’s users, suggesting an acceptance of blogs at higher levels than the wider population, Smirnov said wider conclusions can be drawn.
“Previous BlogHer research has proven the BlogHer community are a good indicator of where the mainstream population is trending, as it relates to social media usage and digital behavior,” she said.
Adding that: “We think this research is a great snapshot of how highly engaged online women are behaving right now, but also a forecast of where their mainstream sisters are likely to go in the next year or so.”