As you know, the Social Flooring Index has been updated for November 2011.  The official press release is out and you can check it out for yourself! Simply click on November 2011 Social Flooring Index Update Includes More Blogs; CRI Blog Continues Most Influential.

Many of the highlights you are already aware of if you've kept up with the latest blog articles published. More specifically:

• Social Flooring Index: Flooring Blogs November 2011
• Networked Blogs: Social Flooring Index November 2011
• Geography: Social Flooring Index November 2011]
• Conversations:Social Flooring Index November 2011 

Of particular interest to the floor covering blogs included in the Social Flooring Index in the November 2011 update are the following highlights: 

• 19 of 190 blogs have high and medium influence in the flooring social media community – a decrease of 2% since April 2011
• 48% promote other social network profiles [e.g., Twitter or Facebook fan pages] on their blogs, facilitating “in real life” connection. This is an increase of 7% since April, 2011
• Those blogs engaged in other social networks primarily focus on Twitter,  then Facebook Fan Pages. Only 4% promote individual LinkedIn profiles.
• The rate of blog post publishing is holding relatively steady at 1.79 blog articles per week vs. 1.877 in April 2011.
• Although 43.6% of conversations specifically mention flooring products, ‘home’ comes up in 35%  of blog articles, ‘time’ in 26%, ‘design’ in 21% and ‘work’ in 20% of conversations.

Here's why I consider all of this a big deal.

Blogs are critical for being found online. "When combined with other social media marketing tools, such as Twitter or Facebook Fan Pages, they can be extremely effective in helping company get found online.”

The commitment to being transparent, authentic and willing to connect and be social with others in the industry matters to establishing credibility, trustworthiness and influence online. "Relevance comes from addressing topics, issues and concerns in terms customers understand and relate to. Credibility comes from being transparent, connected [i.e., ‘social’] with others in the flooring community and willing to interact as human beings rather than as impersonal marketers." Combine that with a commitment to publishing regularly and you are on your way to getting found online!

“As Google has documented in its recent ZMOT [zero moment of truth] e-book, consumers start the purchase process online using digital and social media tools to educate themselves based on content they consider trustworthy and credible. Blogs, when done correctly, represent the perfect vehicle for the flooring industry”.

I welcome your reactions to the overall Social Flooring Index November 2011 update!

Thanks for reading.

Best,

C.B.