how to measure the value of blogs and rss for your organization
DESCRIPTION
How to Measure the Value of Blogs and RSS for Your Organization. Social Media Summit April 13 2007. Introductions. Cheryl Contee, Issue Dynamics, Inc. Today’s Agenda. Introduction The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Measuring Impact Tools You Can Use The Blogs and Your Organization. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
How to Measure the Value of Blogs and RSS for Your Organization
Social Media Summit
April 13 2007
Introductions
• Cheryl Contee, Issue Dynamics, Inc.
Today’s Agenda
• Introduction• The Revolution Will Not
Be Televised• Measuring Impact• Tools You Can Use• The Blogs and Your
Organization
Introduction
Blog Talk
• What do you know?• What do you want to know? (Whiteboard)
Tuesday
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
NY Times Publisher; Feb. 7 2007
• "I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care, either."-- Arthur Sulzberger in Ha’aretz (via Gawker)
Collective Intelligence
• Wikipedia – largest encyclopedia• Craigslist – 7th largest site online• YouTube – 100 million video views a day• MySpace – 150 million members• Flickr – 5 million members
40 (8%) of the Fortune 500 are blogging
How Powerful?
• 70% of journalists read blogs for breaking news and story ideas
• 91% of Congressional offices track blogs• Only 12% don’t think they matter to the media• 75% of time on local blogs, 25% national blogs
More on bloggers and blog readers
• About 22% of American adults read blogs• The median age of a blog reader is 25-45• Their median household income is $60K to $80K• About 50% have left a comment on a blog• 80% of MySpace Users are over 18
About bloggers• Eight percent of Internet users blog• Only 11 percent of these bloggers talk about policy
and politics – most blog about life experiences.• Bloggers tend to be younger • They are equally men and women and are from all
over the country.• Bloggers tend to be more ethnically and racially
diverse.
The state of the blogosphere
• There are over 70 million blogs• The blogosphere doubles every six months• A new blog is created every half second!• More than half of bloggers continue to blog after
their third month• ~100,000 blog posts are created every hour.
Exercise 1: 3 Ideas -- 1 Company
Break!
• Please be back in 10 minutes
The Impact on Communications
“Golf Blog”
• 79 million hits in Google
Recipe for Blogging Success
Mission, goals and objectives
Readers Time, resources
and training
Accurate, currentInformation
FeedbackGood Blog
Mission and Goals
• What is the mission of your company or organization?
• What will be the mission of your blog? • What is your audience? • Focus on a specific issue or topic• Don’t forget the big picture. How does the blog fit
in?
Example Missions
• To be an online community news, information and feedback for staff, participants and the press for XYZ organization’s upcoming annual meeting.
• To be the online destination for news, gossip and information for Wall Street experts.
Goals
• What are your communications imperatives?• What role will this blog play in your
organizational strategy?• What are the expectations?• What about ROI?
Setting Goals
Your goals should be “SMART”• Specific• Measurable• Attainable• Relevant• Time-oriented
Examples of Goals
• Fifty percent of traffic will come from other blogs within the first six months
• The blog will generate 100 newsletter signups each week
• 75 blogs will link to our blog by the end of the year.
Exercise 2
• Blog Mission and Goals• Discussion
Exercise 3
• To Blog or Not To Blog
How Can I Use these Tools in a New Environment?
Blog Monitoring
• It’s not just what you say• It’s also what others say• About what you say
Value
• Prepare for news before it crosses to the mainstream media
• Follow and participate in a dialogue
• Examine the impact of your work
Where to begin
• Get your bearings
• Who are your influencers?
• Who are your amplifiers?
Look at the big picture
The better you know the landscape of the blogosphere, the more effectively you can monitor and grow the value of your blog.
Tools
• Blog search engines
• RSS aggregators
• Trend charts
General Blog Traffic Overview*
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Date
Page View s Unique Visits RSS Feeds
Break!
• Please be back in 15 minutes
What the Blogs Mean to Your Organization
Why use blogs?• New channel of communication• Connect with prospects, media and consumers• Communicate directly with the public• Bypass or influence the press. • Improve search engine placement• Connects with Web 2.0 technologies (You Tube, My
Space, Flickr, Wikis, etc.)
Measurement Tools
Blog ROI – Forrester Research
ROI for GM FastLane Blog
• 100 visitor comments per month• Focus group = $15,000/month & $180K/yr
• 99% ROI in 2005 (conservative), 61% in 2006• Potential 117% in 2007
Exercise 4
• Circle the metrics your organization already values
• Star the ones they should consider tracking
Exercise 5
• Using Technorati• BlogPulse Demo• TechPresident• Social Networks
Promoting your blog
Blogosphere
Social InternetYour Blog
The Daou Triangle
Decision MakersThe Press
The Blogs
Using Web 2.0 to Your Advantage
• Know What People Are Saying• Become a Thought Leader• Multi-Message• Grow Your Audience• Build Your Brand• Influence The Influentials
Getting StartedFind Blogs Using:• Technorati.com and BlogPulse.comRead Blogs Using:• FireFox.com, Bloglines.com, NewsGator.comLaunch Blogs Using:• Moveable Type, TypePad, BloggerJoin Online Social Networks Free at:• Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg
