Via speakerphone, from the Mighty Corrente Building's (Padded) Marketing Department Conference Room.

The key to blog influence is proving that we're real people and that there are a lot of us. Otherwise, the establishment can pretend we don't exist and portray all of us in broad strokes as cheetos-eating teenage nerds living in our parents' basement (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Not so much, it turns out. There is a 2005 blog reader demographics survey out there and another one is starting today. Go forth and REPRESENT! It's important that you do so, not just to help the bottom line of bloggers who sell ads, but for political power.

From Blogads' voluntary 2005 survey of 30,079 blog readers. Turns out that bloggers and blog readers:

Have money (I didn't fill out last year's survey).

43% of respondents had family incomes higher than $90,000.

Have jobs. Top fields:

Education: 14.8%
Computers, Software, Tech: 10.5%
Legal: 7.1%

Are "shockingly influential"

...70% of blog readers are influentials, those articulate, networked 10% of Americans who set the agenda for the other 90%. (RoperASW, the folks who wrote the book on Influentials...)

snip

To put the blogosphere's influentials density in context, consider that the WashingtonPost.com likes to brag that 34% of its readers are influentials.

Oh, snap! How do you like them apples, Jim Brady?

RoperASW did indeed write the book on Influentials:

Ten percent of consumers tell the other 90% where to eat, how to vote and what to buy. These opinion leaders are the Influentials—the trusted advisors, trendsetters and brand advocates that amplify your message in an environment where consumers are opting out of traditional means of advertising.

Nine in ten consumers say word-of-mouth recommendations are the most important source of information in making a purchase decision and the Influentials are driving the decisions they make, creating a multiplier effect which translates into millions of recommendations a year. With six decades of research proving that they are typically 2-5 years ahead of the broader market in terms of attitudes and adoption, Influentials are also beacons for marketing guidance and strategic direction.

If Blogads' survey is indicative of what is really going on, Bloggers have the ear of the 10% of Americans who advise the other 90% on what to do. This has huge implications:

There is no need for bloggers to make nice with Politicians and Corporate Media in order to gain more influence over them. They should be making nice with us. There is no need to craft a careful message that will make it through the establisment filters and thereby reach a wider audience [besides, there are structural reasons why I think this will never work]. Bloggers already reach a massively influential audience directly.

The Influencers is a relatively new concept for me. But it makes sense. Think of all the Corporate Messages you are bombarded with every day: from when you wake up to the Logos on your household appliances and products to when you wait next to the ads on the bus shelter for the bus which is festooned with ads, then you see the ads on the inside of the bus and the posters on sidewalk you see as you look out the bus window.

People eventually get overloaded and tune it all out. They learn to mistrust all advertising. But when they need to buy something, they turn to good ol humans. Trusted humans with a proven track record of sifting through the marketing and finding the good stuff.

The same goes for News Media. The Influencers trust blogs to cut through the clutter and "bundled content" to provide them with quality information.

The trust factor makes Word of Mouth the holy grail of marketing. It's low or no-cost and it's much more effective than mass advertising. Think of the difference between a billboard and a recommendation from a friend or co-worker. While hundreds of people will see the billboard (which is expensive) very few of them will "convert" i.e. buy the product as a result. On the other hand, an influential co-worker's recommendation to his personal contacts will generate a much higher rate of response. And it's free. The influential has not been paid, they just like the product. That's good ROI (Return on Investment).

But for those in the Establishment who might want to use blogs and blogads to push their agenda, Blogads.com has a warning:

Warning: ads you'd run on sites like MSNBC.com may underperform on blogs. Smart blogads join a community's conversation rather than shouting over it. See some great examples of blog advertising. If you are looking for cheap clicks, go here. If you want 10 cent CPMs go here. If you want cantankerous, hard-to-convince, die-hard mavens stay here.

Why: You need to woo the activists and opinion makers traditional media can't reach.

That's right, the Beltway Dems need to woo the Progressive Bloggers, not the other way around. And we're not easily wooed. Bloggers and Blog Readers are media and marketing savvy. They will resist anything being pushed upon them that they don't agree with or haven't independently evaluated and accepted.

This is the key to next-generation marketing: it's bottom-up, not top-down. Which is how progressive politics should be.

I went to an eMarketing presentation recently, and there was a case study of an online vendor who created a whole new website in response to customers demanding products they did not originally carry. They made a million dollars (or something like that) in one quarter as a result.

It used to be that Corporations determined what consumers wanted. But with internet technology, consumers have ways of giving instant feedback on what they really want. Companies that respond are successful. Can ya hear me now, Beltway Dems?

The Republicans and the Bushies have been successful because they understand and practice Marketing. But hopefully they're stuck in old-school marketing tactics. Understanding next-generation marketing could be Progressives' advantage. And bottom-up marketing can only work for Progressives because we're fighting for things that people actually want and will benefit their lives.