My name in the comment I left is also linked to the appropriate article.

Here is a tiny URL version that hopefully won’t encounter the line break – http://tinyurl.com/6du7fr.

Andy Komack’s last blog post..By: Andy Komack

Great insight all around!

I agree that there are many, many benefits to corporate blogging. In fact, there are so many that it seems clear to me that the majority of B2B companies should at least consider establishing a corporate blog.

I used to believe that 95% of companies can benefit from establishing & maintaining a blog. Perhaps it’s overly optimistic – maybe 90%?

However, the first hurdle that we always come up against is convincing a client that there WILL be ROI associated with the effort. It’s easy to discuss it, and make what sounds like a convincing argument. We even have client examples to draw from. But the evidence is usually circumstantial at best – at least in how a company weighs someone else’s experience against their own business model. I wish that there was some kind of “magic bullet” that would unlock the vision to executives and managers.

While at my company we tend to start the conversation from a search engine optimization perspective, it is clear that blogging is MUCH more valuable than improving search traffic and incoming links.

As I personally looked around for examples of corporate blogging ROI, I compiled a list of “27 Resources for Evaluating Blogging ROI”. Unfortunately, the evidence is again circumstantial.

I have not yet read Forrester’s latest “How to Derive Value From B2B Blogging”, but I’m putting that on my reading list for sure.

Of course, it’s one thing to get a company motivated for the effort of establishing a blog, it’s another thing entirely to manage the ongoing process of content creation, establishing a genuine voice, communicating with the blog community in that industry space, and using the amazing amount of market feedback to inform a variety of corporate initiatives/questions.

Any insight you have (and anyone else involved in the conversation here) in helping executives/managers see the potential and making the commitment to sustain a blogging effort is much appreciated!

For convenience, here is a link to the 27 Ways to Evaluate Blogging – ROIhttp://www.komarketingassociates.com/blog/27-resources-for-evaluati ng-blogging-roi/.

I also wrote a post awhile back titled “How to Convert a CEO Into a Blogging Evangelist”. Not sure that post had the impact that I was hoping…

Andy Komack’s last blog post..By: Andy Komack

All the more reason to get Trackur!!! haha.

Utah Search Engine Optimization’s last blog post..The Unwritten Laws of Social Media

Working for a B2B company, I believe that the ROI CAN be measured and that companies must have a LONG-TERM view of ROI. The difference is that I take these “methods” from PR side, We all agree it’s important but how does it impact the bottom line.

I look at 1) does it increase traffic to my website, 2) do I get more inbound inquiries about my company, and 3) how many people read the blog or subscribe to RSS feeds. Very simple, high-level.

Csalomonlee’s last blog post..Are You Ready for Virtual Trade Shows?

Many companies don’t realize this until they have a stale blog which is sad because then it gives blogs a bad name.

Additionally, for my clients its a cornerstone of SEO. That I think is a compelling reason to blog in and of itself.

My issue lies with the fact that blogs are only seen as a marketing medium from a corporate POV, when in fact they are a *communications* medium. And they get it all wrong from the start. Morever, attempts to apply old-school-based ROI numbers to them is missing the point.

I think that if old-school numbers are used to evaluate new media, you’ll wind up with flawed assumptions and missed opportunities. Do you think Zappos, Comcast, and JetBlue started their successful Twitter presences only after a hard-nosed ROI analysis? I’d guess not.

Which gets to a larger issue, which is that I think many marketers (by way of their CEOs) don’t know enough about blogs and social media in general to even know what they are asking for when they ask for ROI on such things.

What’s the ROI of more engaged customers and a more active community? What’s the ROI of better informed potential customers? What’s the ROI of getting direct feedback from your customers? I’m guessing these aren’t the sorts of ROI figures they’re looking at.

As Forrester says, value and measurement are still being figured out (and the wildly innovative and active vendor space is evidence of this). So, companies are left to figure out the ROI of social media for themselves, and the tough thing for them is that those numbers might not be as easy to plot as their stock price.

Then again, I doubt many of those same CEOs asked (or know) what the ROI of their web site is, and I bet you that cost them a few cents more than dedicating some time to maintaining a blog, monitoring the blogosphere, or figuring out how to use Twitter to help their business.

BTW, hi there, Janet. Long-time, no speak.

– FWIW, the back-button-based spam protection killed my first attempt at the above, which was much better put and thought out. The lesser second version is what we’re all stuck with here at 11:30pm. –

From my perspective, Forrester could have saves some trees by simply saying “Garbage out = Just plain Garbage out”.

So I think the point that this report makes is basically that a lot of B2B folks jumped into blogging excitedly, then only let their blogs become mediocre because they didn’t take the steps to keep it up. And likely, they did not keep it up because other tactics that have proven ROI become a higher priority.

If blogs one day become the main method of communication for companies, then likely this will change. But without resources or budget, marketers will continue to analyze priorities and anything that doesn’t have ROI risks becoming a lower priority.

ROI? WTF?