Gays, Lesbians More Receptive to Blog Ads than Heterosexuals Are

Online Gay and lesbian adults are reading more blogs than their heterosexual counterparts - 51 percent vs. 36 percent - and are also more receptive to blog advertising, according to a recent online national survey by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications, writes MarketingCharts.

A similar question on blog readership was asked in November 2006, when 32 percent of gay and lesbian adults reported reading blogs.

(Tables that summarize the findings referred to in this article: feelings toward ads on blogs, various online activities, types of blogs read, the frequency of some online activities and social networking site membership.)

Gay and lesbian adults also said they feel more positive toward advertisements on blogs:

• Nearly one in five (19 percent) reported that they felt positive toward advertisements, compared with 8 percent of heterosexual adults.
• In a similar study conducted two years ago, roughly the same proportion (21 percent) of gays and lesbians reported feeling positively toward blog ads.

Gay and lesbian adults are also more active in and connected to the blog medium:

• Asked to choose from a list of online activities, 27 percent of gay and lesbian adults reported posting a comment on a blog in the last month, compared with 13 percent of heterosexuals.
• More than one out of five (21 percent) gay and lesbian respondents said they had written a personal blog post in the last month, compared with 7 percent of heterosexuals.

Regarding the types of blogs that gays and lesbians read:

• 28 percent of gay and lesbian adults reported reading news and current issue blogs, compared with 19 percent of heterosexuals.
• More than a quarter (26 percent) of gay and lesbian adults also read entertainment and pop culture blogs, compared with 11 percent of heterosexuals.
• With the heightened interest in this year’s electoral contests, nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of gay and lesbian adults said they read political blogs. Just14 percent of heterosexual adults reported reading political blogs.

Apart from blogs, gay and lesbian adults also participate in other online activities more than heterosexuals:

• Asked how often they send instant messages to friends or other people, for reasons other than work-related tasks, in a typical month, 25 percent of gay adult men said they send instant messages at least once a day. Just 15 percent of heterosexual adult men said so.
• Half (50 percent) of gay and lesbian adults said they have sent instant messages (IMs) in the last month, compared with just one-third (34 percent) of heterosexual adults.

The trend is similar in the case of online communities and dating websites:

• Most gay adult men (57 percent) online said they are a member of a social-networking website, compared with 37 percent of heterosexual men.
• Two out of five (42 percent) gay and lesbian adults said they have visited an online social community or network in the last month, compared with roughly one-third (32 percent) of heterosexuals.
• Just over one-quarter (26 percent) of gay adult men reported visiting a dating or match-up site in the last month, compared with 9 percent of heterosexual male adults.

About the study: Harris Interactive conducted the study online within the United States between March 11 and 19, 2008, among 2,733 adults (age 18 and over), of whom 2,302 indicated they are heterosexual and 326 self-identified as gay or lesbian (this includes an over-sample of GLBT adults).