One example I find interesting is a framework for measuring Return of Investment of corporate blogging, developed by Forrester Research Inc., technology and marketing research company. This tool should allow their clients to measure four major benefits of corporate blogging which they have established through informal research. The entire report explaining the main principles and the research on which they base them is available only to their clients. However, this chart provides a rough summary:
There are a few questions which pop up after looking at this chart. Let’s take savings on customer insight, for example. Can blog comments be equated to focus group research? You cannot be sure that people behind the comments are representative of your target market. The ways of interacting are different. Instead of just guiding the discussion, the author of the blog usually participates. Not to mention that people who comment can have rather different views from those who just read the blog, or do not read it at all.
When it comes to increased sales efficiency, decrease in the cost of sale could be attributed to the corporate blog if a link is established between reading the blog and the decision to purchase. Otherwise, it could be a mere coincidence.
Looking at advertising value of blog traffic and blog-driven press coverage presents the same doubts as the Advertising Value Equivalent in general (it doesn’t tell us anything about changes in attitudes, knowledge or behaviour, for example)
As for the word of mouth benefit, the same value (cost of hiring a buzz agent) is used regardless of whether the number of people commenting on the blog is 4 or 5, or 200.
These are just a few doubts about this framework as an appropriate for measuring ROI. My guess is, most clients won’t be asking most of these questions, so it probably works quite well for Forrester in terms of getting new clients through the door.
1 comment:
I believe that there is not a standardized metric that allow companies to calculate the ROI of blogging or of any other ICT. Companies should evaluate the blog's effectiveness based on its goal by developing metrics that they could later value. Moreover, is crucial when they are calculating the ROI of a blog to take into consideration the impact of risk in blogging.
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