The Buzz Bin

Ahh yes, marketers are scrambling to tell their CEOs and clients, “This is how blogging impacts your efforts.” Forrester’s Charlene Li published a blog post yesterday on the ROI of Blogging, an mash-up of two Forrester write-ups on blogging.

A fascinating report, it raises many questions, including the age old, “How do we really measure the impact of the blog [Note: Feel free to sub in ad, brochure, web site, etc.]?” Marketers across the Capitol Region and the world are slapping their foreheads and groaning (In addition to the obvious North American audience, Diary of an Ad Man is read in Latin America, Australia, Asia and Europe. 70 percent of readers are in the Capitol Region).
Primary benefits include increased brand visibility, savings from customer insights, reduced impact from negative user-generated content, and increased sales efficiency. On a more measurable level, Forrester offered this comparison chart, which has assets and deficiencies, but would make any analytical marketer sit back in their chair and think for a while.

Of particular note was Forrester’s belief that the primary value of a blog is PR. I totally agree with this assessment. Blogging is very similar to PR. Some argue that it’s different, but in many ways third party credibility — which is my definition of PR — is garnered through blogs. Whether that’s placement via a search engine, a press mention or a cross link to another blog is irrelevant. The visibility of the entity is raised by other parties. Thus, blogging = PR.

My thinking will probably evolve on this prescient Forrester posting, but very interesting indeed. It’s caused quite a lot of interest in the blogosphere.