Blogging - Social Media 2007 :: Atlanta Real Estate Forum

Blogging - Social Media 2007

Day one of the Social Media Conference was very informative. Marilynn T. Mobley, Senior VP with Edelman presented an excellent session.  She encourages anyone thinking about launching a blog to think like a CEO and to review the following items:

• Why do we need to do this?
• What’s the real cost (launch & employee time)?
• What’s the ROI - is it going to make us $$ of save us $$?
• How will it affect our credibility?
• Who is ultimately responsible for it?
• What happens if we don’t do it?
• What is the competition doing?

There are many answers to Why launch a blog.  Among them:

• These conversations are going on anyway, why ignore them
• To showcase your firm’s authenticity
• Demonstrate a willingness to be transparent
• Instant publishing on your own terms
• No need to rely on mainstream media to disseminate messages

What’s the real Cost?

• Technology costs are minimal — most blog software is free, for instance this blog is built in Word Press
• Human resources to man the blog — this varies depending on how many people are posting & how often
• Existing content can be repurposed from press releases, speeches, collateral and white papers

What is the ROI?

• Biggest answer is the opportunity to listen to stakeholders 
• Opportunity to have conversation with others involved in a specific marketing niche
• Improve visibility to mainstream media (several speakers commented today on how their blogs had attracted interviews from mainstream media)
• Test product or service changes (again this was a major theme! Corporations can use blogs as mini focus groups)

Ok, I hope this gives everyone a bit of a taste for what we covered today. 

Some sites to visit

www.blogpulse.com

www.ceoswhoblog.com

www.womma.org

www.edelman.com/insights

Enjoy!

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