Forrester's Three Steps to Blog Heaven

Forrester Research claims to have identified a three-step process that will help companies create successful corporate blogs. However, it acknowledges that assessment is tricky, and the area will remain 'nebulous'.

The project was managed by Analysts Charlene Li and Chloe Stromberg, to outline a process for creating blogs that will increase brand visibility, customer insight and generate sales. Findings appear in a report called 'The ROI of Blogging: The Why and How of External Blogging Accountability'.

Li and Stromberg explained: 'Marketers need to understand how and why blogging will affect their particular business, and calculating the ROI of blogging is the process by which marketers can obtain this understanding.' According to Li, while the framework is not black and white, it is a 'starting point to an otherwise nebulous activity'.

The pair say that while blogging's value cannot be measured precisely, by following the process, marketers can create a concrete picture of the key benefits, costs, and risks that blogging presents and understand how they are likely to impact business goals.

Forrester interviewed nine Fortune 1000 companies with external blogs for the study, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Wells Fargo. The firm then developed a framework that allows companies to track and measure the benefits of blogs. Metrics included the number of people commenting on a blog each month - estimated as delivering the same value as running a focus group each month; and the number of press mentions a blog receives - valued on the basis of 'advertising equivalence' - ie how much it would cost the firm to buy the equivalent advertising space.

The firm, which recently announced third quarter revenues up from $44.1m to $51.1m (www.mrweb.com/drno/news7609.htm ) is online at www.forrester.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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