Tim Yang’s Weblog

1. Media placements

   The staple of public relations in the translation of press releases into media write-ups. Cohen points out that blogs, being similar to press releases, can be measured by the number and size of media mentions. It should also be pointed out that online media should be counted as well. The number of links, stories, prominence of stories and mentions and credibility and reach of online media outlets should be included.

2. Direct revenues or traffic

   This refers to a blog’s revenue generation via onsite advertising and pageviews. The number of times links are clicked is a directly quantifiable. But without the ability to understand the reasons why links are clicked, this method is an inadequate way of measuring blog success.

3. Improved search rankings

   Cohen points out that blogs can improve search engine ranking. Presumably, this refers to Pagerank increase. But the number of times a blog is linked, by whom the blog is linked and the terms for which a blog is ranked high on a search engine is more telling of its success.

4. Brand effect

   Without going into too much detail Cohen mentions that surveys should be used in conjunction with conventional metrics to determine brand perception in the market place. Curiously, she does not view brand perception in qualitative or in relative terms, but in old-school percentage points.

5. Increased buzz

   Blogs do create buzz and do affect consumer perception. And the parameters of perception can be determined with qualitative studies such as one-on-one interviews and focus groups. But the link between perception and sales cannot be directly estalished, although Cohen takes this opportunity to insist there is one.

6. Promotion generation

   Blogs can work in conjunction with advertising and other parts of the conventional marketing mix to complement their efforts. Cohen gives microsites as an example of guerilla marketing. But this is not a measure of effectiveness, but a marketing mix idea.

There are advantages and weaknesses in the methods that Cohen suggests to measure blog effects. Cohen’s methods are well-established and conventional methods that any CEO will recognise and give credibility to. They wouldn’t be a hard sell. But there are other methods that revolve around the technology, the connections and the strengths of interactivity and disintermediation that the internet affords us. Here are a few of them.

1. Online buzz

   A blogs success can also be measured in terms of conversations about its content via online communication avenues like other blogs, forums and even the corporate blog’s own comments system. Tracking conversations must be measured not just in quantitative (number of conversations, number of link-ins) but also qualitative (prominence of mention, who does the mentioning, prominence of the website where the mentioning was done, favourability skew of the mention, comments following the mention) means. Market and consumer insights, the real value of brand measurement, can be gathered from the anecdotes.

2. Onsite enquiries, comments and feedback

   Using the interactive nature of the internet, blog visitors can give the company direct feedback. Feedback and enquiries, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, can be directly correlated to the effect of the content of a corporate blog.

3. Loyalty and return visits

   Consumer loyalty is the holy grail of marketers and return visits are a clear sign of that. But unless a blog requires login to view it, return visits can be difficult to establish. Loyalty can be tracked by other means. This includes the number of RSS feed subscribers, the number of subscribers to the blog’s email newsletter, the return-commenters (visitors who comment more than once, if the corporate blog has a comment system) and the number of direct links to the blog’s homepage via blogrolls.

4. Directly-derived business

   Business doesn’t just mean sales, but also partnerships and an enhanced network of contacts for the company. Business can be measured in dollar value (but not necessarily) and can be directly-linked to the corporate blog based on the point of first contact (ie from a comment, email or feedback).

While the investment in a corporate blog can be measured in dollars and cents and man-hours put into it, the return is not so easily established with such metrics. Cohen’s ROI formula is therefore not a meaningful measure. Corporate blogs need their own measurements — both qualitative and quantifative. The goal of which should not be to ascertain profit, but to understand, communicate and network.