ROI of Business Blogs
by Kevin Henney, filed under:Forrester Research 
has released a new report on The ROI Of Blogging, available to anyone with $379 burning a hole in their pocket.
For those of us who don't want to spend that kind of cash on a 15 page report, Forrester blogger Charlene Li provides a summary and excerpt. While the value of business blogging is widely accepted, it can be difficult to quantify that value, and Forrester's aim here is to provide businesses with a method for measuring the value of their blogging efforts.
Some potential benefits mentioned in the summary are increased brand visibility, increased sales efficiency, and savings on customer insight. Charlene reveals some interesting details on this last benefit, regarding the value of customer insight in their case study of General Motor's FastLane blog:
FastLane has about 100 people commenting on the blog each month, which is equivalent to gaining customer insight on products and brands from a traditional focus group. We estimated that the value of this was equivalent to running a focus group every month at the cost of $15,000 a month, or $180,000 a year. Voila – there’s the value of the blogging benefit laid out in black and white.
Small businesses may not have the budget to run focus groups in order to learn what their customers want, but a simple blog is within the reach of everyone. There's no need to limit yourself to posting news and announcements on your business blog. Instead, consider telling your customers about a new product you're considering and solicit their feedback. Ask visitors to comment about what they think of your new service offering.
The important thing is to actively encourage participation among the customers who visit your blog. If you make it easy for customers to tell you what they want, and what they think of your business, you'll be able to get significant value from your blogging efforts.
Humanizing Your Business with a Blog
by Kevin Henney, filed under:When Apple announced their new iPhone yesterday, bloggers and tech sites across the internet rushed heap praise on the long anticipated gadget. The name "iPhone" has been attached to so many internet rumors about Apple's top-secret project that few ever considered who owned the actual trademark.
The Press Release
Cisco announced in a press release earlier today that they have filed a lawsuit against Apple for trademark infringement. The lawsuit, in itself, isn't terribly interesting; a company infringes on your trademark, you have to protect it. But suing Apple while they're still basking in the afterglow of their triumphant product announcement was bound to leave Cisco looking like the bad guy. And Cisco's press release, while stating the relevant facts well enough, does little to alter the impression that Cisco is just a big, bad corporation looking to rain on Apple's parade.
The Blog Post
But take a look at this blog post from Cisco general counsel Mark Chandler. It's a much more human, almost informal description of the events that led up to the lawsuit, and the reasons behind Cisco's decision to sue. It wouldn't be appropriate for a press release, but Cisco's corporate blog allows them a place to speak a bit more freely about their motivations. And it makes it much easier to sympathize with Cisco's position in the matter. Which statement would you want representing your company?
If you're not blogging, you're missing out
If your business web site doesn't incorporate a blog of some sort, you're missing out on a terrific way of speaking to your customers on a more personal level. You may not be embroiled in a major lawsuit that will be on the front page of tomorrow's business section, but every small business has things they wish they could say to their customers. With a blog, you have a place to put those things that don't fit in a press release, things that don't warrant a big announcement splashed across your home page, but things that are worth saying nonetheless.
By allowing your customers to leave comments on your blog posts, you create another means for getting direct feedback and even engaging in conversations with people who might never have taken the time to make a phone call.
Any small business that wants to improve on communication with their customers should seriously consider testing the waters of blogging. Cisco is just one example a a large corporation that's using blogs effectively, but most small businesses, especially outside of the tech industry, haven't caught on yet. But they will in time. The only question is, are you going to be the first small business in your market to get a blog, or the last?
Super-Targeted Online Marketing?
by Kevin Henney, filed under:BusinessWeek has an interesting story about local search marketing, and a small company called Skyhook Wireless that's hoping to change the way local businesses advertise on the internet. The major ad networks already provide some tools that allow advertisers to target specific geographic areas, but this new technology promises even more granular targeting, so ads could be displayed only to users within a few blocks of a local business.
It's yet to be seen if Skyhook's technology will be picked up by any of the bigger online ad networks, but they're reportedly in talks with both Google and Yahoo. If we do see this made available to advertisers, it will give smaller businesses even more power to direct their message to the exact customers who are most likely to buy. A Chinese food restaurant could advertise only to customers within their precise delivery area. A small, local bookstore could target their ads to users within a few blocks, hoping to attract walk-in customers from that coffee shop down the street that offers free Wi-Fi access.
More precise ad targeting can only benefit small businesses with limited marketing budgets. The downside, perhaps, is that more targeting options will probably make it even more difficult for do-it-yourself marketers to manage their campaigns efficiently. More options too often leads to more confusion. However, with the increased conversion rates expected from targeting only the users that are most likely to buy, advertisers will likely find that it's worth their time to learn how to properly zero in on their market. And those who don't have the time to learn may find that hiring an outside consultant to manage their online campaigns can pay for itself.
This sort of powerful targeting isn't available yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on, especially for neighborhood businesses that cater to very specific areas.
MySpace Beats Yahoo in Page Views
by Kevin Henney, filed under:
A recent leaked report from ComScore generated quite a few stories in the mainstream press about the rapid rise of MySpace, many with some passing reference to Yahoo's use of AJAX as a contributing factor to Yahoo's decline. And while MySpace has reason to celebrate it's incredible growth, their besting of Yahoo just illustrates how irrelevant page views are becoming.
Yahoo, of course, must have known that their increased use of AJAX would have a detrimental effect on the number of pages viewed. But they did it anyway, probably because it made the site better for their users. Smart choice.
Why isn't MySpace doing the same thing? I rarely venture onto MySpace's web site, but when I do, I'm confronted with an interface that looks like it belongs in 1999. It's most active users seem to love to customize their pages with wild layouts, questionable color schemes, and loud music, yet MySpace provides them with only the most limited to tools to do so. Instead, users are left with a collection of CSS hacks provided by third parties, which must be previewed and applied through form submissions (more page views). Opportunities abound to make data available via RSS, yet it goes unused. Members can receive an email when they receive a new comment, but they must go to the MySpace site to read it.
So where is the in-place editing, the live previews, the RSS feeds, the full-text email notifications? It can't be that MySpace lacks the resources to add these features. Don't they care about their users? Or do they really care so much about being number 1 in page views?
