Comments on: ROI Revisited

By: Rob Baker

Rob Baker — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:33:45 +0000

I read a piece on this subject by Drew B’s take on tech PR. Drew linked to a Forrester marketing model to help you cost your company blog.

Not very convincing at all.

Yes, busiensses need and should measure ROI on their marketing activities. But Forrester and many other businesses have missed the point. It’s as much about reputation and building communities, in this case business communities.

What will the financial director cost that at?

If a blog is to make a real difference to a business it must be set-up with a view to complementing current marketing, not for ticking boxes and assigning dubious values to its success.

Afterall blogs and social media can reach influential and hard to get customer segments. What is the value of this attribute when it is applied well?

Let’s start applying numerical values to literature: story vs expression= greatness of novel

By: Ian Delaney

Ian Delaney — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:34:40 +0000

David — I hope it’s clear that I mostly agree with you. I like the idea of understanding the costs and gains associated with blogs — and I think it’s important that social media champions are credible and accountable. However, yes, equating it to the equivalent cost of some other marketing activity feels misguided.

Bob — the Trump blog sounds like it’s probably not the best example of embracing this format!

By: David Phillips

David Phillips — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:13:51 +0000

Ian. This does Forrester no good at all.
The whole advertising equivelent argument is juts not credible. This is shoe horning social media into press advertsing metrics.

Blog comments are not ads, they are editorial; Blog commenst can be nice and nasty does this mean negative value; Blog comments are networked; blog comments are lurked; blog comments interact with other relationship clouds (Digg? Flickr? YouTube? etc).
What do we mean by ROI? Is this discounted ROI; is the investment of the third party bloggers included — and where; is The Long Tail and assets or on the trading account? There are so many flaws in the methodology that I wince.

By: Bob Boydston

Bob Boydston — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:17:52 +0000

I don’t know if “business” blogging means a business as it faces customers or as it faces its employees.

But, in terms of facing customers, the potential for 3rd party credibility is there. I am thinking of the Trump Blog which I have visited a couple of times. It purports to be an information provider and a university if you pay a fee, but in reality it is a big PR engine. I wonder what the ROI is on this site? It’s got to be huge.

Ian, I like your point on 1st party credibility.

By: Links for the Day at Baron VC

Links for the Day at Baron VC — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:18:35 +0000

[…] ROI Revisited | twopointouch: web 2.0, blogs and social media: As blogging becomes an acceptable way to make money, naturally people will figure out more ways to financially forecast success. […]

By: DofAM

DofAM — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:19:19 +0000

I’d say blogs in their own right are about as credible as advertising. It depends on how discerning the reader is…

By: Ian Delaney

Ian Delaney — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:12:54 +0000

I’m not so sure — though it depends on your PR representation, of course — but blogs are also ‘first party’ credibility. You can talk to the MD, which is golden as an opportunity.

By: DofAM

DofAM — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:48:31 +0000

I think blogging is very similar to PR. You may think it’s different, but in many ways third party credibility — which is my definition of PR — is garnered. Whether that’s placement in a search engine or a cross link to another blog is irrelevant. The visibility of the entity is raised by other parties.