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
Enjoy!