Technorati’s annual State of the Blogosphere report was being unveiled at BlogWorld 2011 right now! We’re live-blogged the event, as stats were announced by Technorati Media CEO, Shani Higgins (along with host Mitch Joel from Six Pixels of Separation and Mikal Belicove from Entrepreneur Magazine). Thanks to everyone who came to #BWELA…if you weren’t there, here are the important points:

• 4,114 bloggers were surveyed by Penn Schoen Berland, 1,231 consumers were surveyed by Crowd Source, and for the first time, 111 senior level agency and brand markets were interviewed, with more interviews to come.

• 61% of bloggers are hobbyists.

• 59% are male (down from 64%)

• Bloggers are educated and affluent – about 79% have college degrees.

• Bloggers have an average of three blogs.

• 80% have been blogging for 2+years and 50% have been blogging 4+ years.

• Bloggers measure success first and foremost by personal satisfaction (61%). Most blog to share their expertise with others (70%).

• 66% of professional bloggers use Google+ (59% of all bloggers use it).

• Probloggers use Twitter more than Facebook, but both are popular.

• The average blogger has 847 followers on bloggers (probloggers have more).

• 75% of probloggers and 50% of all bloggers have separate Facebook accounts for their blogs.

• Only about 13% of bloggers syndicate on Google+.

• LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Stumble Upon, Del.isio.is, Picasa, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Digg are the next most popular social networks (in that order).

• Twitter drive the most traffic overall, though Facebook drives the most social media traffic. (Tagging your blog posts and commenting for reciprocity are also high traffic drivers.)

• The top tools for bloggers are: social sharing widgets, built-in syndication, providing site search on your blog, video hosting sites, widgets from other sites, trackbacks, photo hosting, and commenting systems beyond the traditional blog platform system).

• Blogs outpaced other media for inspiration, product information, and opinion. They won out over traditional media in all categories except news information.

• Consumers still trust convos with friends and family first. Friends of Facebook come second.

• The number one influence for bloggers is other bloggers (68%). This is a huge jump from only 30% in 2010.

• 2/3 of bloggers blog about brands. 1/3 post brand/product reviews and 1/3 post about everyday experiences in stores or with customer care.

• 1/3 of pros publish product reviews once a week or more.

• 2/3 of pros are approached 8 times a week by brands.

• It is very important for bloggers to choose advertising that aligns with their values. This is up from 10% last year.

• Last year, 33% of bloggers encouraged readers to boycott brands. This year, that number was 25%.

• The biggest complaint with brands was that 60% of bloggers say they are treated less professionally by brands than traditional media is being treated.

• Only 15% of bloggers characterize their interactions with brands as very favorable.

• Less than 25% say brands provide value or are knowledgeable about their brands.

• 86% of bloggers disclose when a post was sponsored or paid. 58% disclose when they receive a product for review. (Alarming, since the FTC now requires disclosure.)

• The majority of brand social media professionals have only been using social media for 1-2 years. 34% have their own blogs.

• Brands most commonly measure success on social media with followers, friends, likes, and social sharing.

• Some of the biggest changes brands saw in 2011 were that individuals trust bloggers, the subject matter needs to fit the brand, and it’s about building small pieces of content to entertain. In the future, they see that social media is a campaign leader, not just a supporter.

• 4% of bloggers and 37% of full time pros say that blogging is their primary source of income. 14% receive a salary for blogger.

• Only about 6% of bloggers write sponsored posts, but most make less than $50 per post.

• Only about 1/4 are blogging weekly or more. Most can’t quit their day job (yet).

Head to Technorati to read the entire State of the Blogosphere report. And don’t forget, you can check out the BlogWorld virtual ticket to get the entire presentation and listen to all of the other awesome new media sessions at BlogWorld.