Paul Gillin analyzes the concept of corporate blogging and offers his best reason on why companies should blog:
“Blogs, discussion boards and other forms of interactive media are the most cost-effective customer feedback mechanism ever invented. You won’t get a representative sampling of customers but you will get your most passionate customers. The number one best reason in the world to blog is to engage in a conversation with people who care about your company and products.”
Paul also addresses the issue of ROI (Return on Investment) which is probably the main reason many companies say they won’t start a blog...
“There needs to be an objective in order to measure a return. A company that has a reputation problem can measure customer perception over time to see if a blog is having an effect. Media measurement will give even more immediate feedback. Have media citations increased since you launched the blog and are the media citing blog posts in their articles? Then you’re probably having an impact. How about your overall presence in the media versus your competition? If you measure positive and negative media mentions over time for you and your competition, you should be able to determine fairly quickly whether your social media activities are moving the needle.”
There’s no doubt that if done right in regards to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), a company blog can gain much exposure. To me it’s just another form of advertising. I’m surprised that some companies haven’t thought of offering discounts to customers who read and comment on their blog. Now that would be good business!
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