This particular article is about setting up a few internal departmental blogs and communication tools, so they are actually low cost (although maybe reasonable effort). What is the value of that cross-pollination of ideas?

In an outward facing blog what is the value of that caught disgruntled customer who you can apologise to and placate before they go away for life and take ten others with them?

I think that an acceptance of an intangible benefit is needed as well.

But fundamentally you’re exactly right. If something can’t be justified in business terms there will be major issues later on. If it can be justified in ROI then you’re definately not going to get that necessary internal support to keep it going.

And you’re right, this has to be people in the trenches not the management spiel that lacks credibility. And keep marketing tethered to the post as well, come to think of it. Nothing sells evangalism like a true believer. Find that / those true believers and support them.

I think with this short series of posts I had been attempting to coax the initial idea that this software can be used for whatever we want behind the firewall. Simple, cheap, effective communication tools. But then by the third article I’m saying OK if you’re comfortable with those ideas then how about an outward facing blog?! One that catches the disgruntled customer and turns them into an evangalist. In that case ROI is what I’d take to the meeting for support but the true value is probably the less tangible one IMO.

So many web solutions just dive because nobody asks the business questions first. Why a website? What objectives will this achieve? How will we know if its a success or a failure?

The two easiest and most effective benefits to measure are Search Engine Optimization and Page/blog conversions.

If a company is doing paid ads, you can compare those keyword clicks to winning the same terms organically through blogging.

Employees need to be included as content creators as well. Check out this paragraph from last week in the Dallas Morning News:

“It’s clear that when it comes to traditional authority figures – whether they’re chief executives or heads of state – people trust them less,” says Mr. Edelman. “Employees are the new credible source of information. We have data that shows an employee blog is five times more credible than a CEO blog – and I say this as a CEO blogger.”

If you think about starting a client with a small project that focuses on some keyword phrases you will get a lot better future support when they start comparing traffic and conversions.

Best,

Chris Baggott
CEO/Co-founder
Compendium Blogware
http://www.compendiumblogware.com