Corporate Blogging – Is a corporate blog really worth it?

Corporate blogs – everyone is doing it so why shouldn’t you? Corporate blogs, like GM’s Fast Lane, was one of first corporate blogs that entered the blogosphere. Since 2005, it has received high praise for being successful in corporate blogging. At the time, it was innovative way to have a Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz, share information about its products and to “talk” to their customers.

But did Lutz and GM really know what to do next? What did it require to maintain and manage a corporate blog? What would return on investment would be? Can you calculate ROI for a corporate blog?

Among the early adopters who dove into the blogosphere, many companies are now challenged with what to do next. They have no idea how to continuously speak to customers on the casual level that blogs are suppose to portray. Some companies hire a PR firm to manage their blog, some chose to hire a full-time blog team; while others “actually” let there execs write freely (but could be taking a huge risk).

Not only does there have to be a person or team dedicated to maintaining the corporate blog with new information and discussions, but they also have to be managed and screened. No intelligent company would let any “Joe Schmoe” just post comments about anything. What if it is negative? Then the negative press could become viral, float into other blogs and cause real damage the company. Therefore, companies need to manage all blog posts so they are “clean.”

But, many true bloggers argue that a blog is an open forum that should not be monitored because, then, it becomes biased. In GM’s Fast Lane, there are no horrifically negative blog posts because GM actually screens and approves all blog posts and can actually be denied! So the difficult task that corporate blogs are faced with is how to balance the communication stream with their customers while keeping the blog ethically valued. What is the perfect mix? (This is probably very hard to figure out).

There are tons of discussions floating around the Internet about if it is actually possible to calculate ROI for a corporate blog – some people believe that there are legitimate calculations available and others believe there is no way to put a dollar value on how much consumers are emotionally influenced. Forrester’s Charlene Li has written many articles describing the ROI calculations based on public information and some estimates of value and costs. Li’s model is based on customer insights, blog visibility, press, and word of mouth, and costs to run the blog. Although her methodology may seem legit, we tend to argue that it shouldn’t be perceived as an actual figure. It is more of a “ball-park” estimate with a few helpful assumptions. There is no possible way to exactly quantify the direct impact of a corporate blog on incremental sales or the direct impact of increased consideration for the company’s products/services. There are too many risk factors and additional influences to really determine ROI. Then why are analysts even talking about this?

The real value of calculating blogging ROI isn't the actual number per se, it’s really to see where the benefits and costs come from and how to continuously refine the strategy from there. It should be considered more of an optimization strategy that “helps” influence consumers. A corporate blog could have immeasurable value if it is properly handled. GM obviously got the ball running – but can other corporate blogs live up to them? Some have been successful, but more will surely fail.

Is corporate blogging worth it? Is there a clear cut answer? No there isn’t but if a company can keep on providing useful information in an interactive manner the blog will be successful. Customers will be able to provide you with insight on what changes or they want in a product and the company has a cheap medium to get information to customers regarding the newest products. Companies will be able to connect with new customers that they were not able before with other marketing campaigns.

If we owned our own company, we would invest in a corporate blog. Would you?