Many people predict that blogs will invade the corporate world over the next years, and Forrester Research seems to embrace the idea. They recently released, in fact, a market research titled “The ROI of Blogging” where they outline the benefits, costs and risks of corporate blogs.
Check out the executive summary of the study: “Many large companies stand on the brink of blogging, yet they are unwilling to take the plunge. Others, having dove in early, now face the challenge of managing existing blogs without the ability to show that they effectively support business goals. While blogging’s value can’t be measured precisely, marketers will find that calculating the ROI is easier than it looks. Following a three-step 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. This, in turn, enables marketers to answer the key questions, such as whether to blog or not to blog, or to make smart choices about an existing blog.”
According to Steve Rubel, who was interviewed for the research, the most frequently mentioned benefits of corporate blogs were:
- greater brand visibility in mainstream media on the Web
- word of mouth
- improved brand perception
- instantaneous consumer feedback
- increased sales efficiency
- fewer “customer service-driven PR blowups.”
The study costs $379 (quite expensive in my opinion, since most of the findings could probably be gathered through a Google research) and you can buy it here.