There’s a lot of enthusiasm and passion around the wave of new online media tools.
The big question is: Do we know how these tools/channels will ultimately impact mainstream communication?
I believe the answer is not yet.
I think that even though we’re seeing glimpses, we’re still some time from understanding the full impact of these technologies. The emerging popularity of virtual worlds/Second Life technology is an example of how it’s continually developing and changing.
These technologies may utlimately look very different to how they look today.
One interesting step on the road to maturity is looking at the benefits they may offer organizations. Steve Rubel has a post on a new methodology that has been created by Charlene Li at Forrester for measuring the return on investment from blogs.
In Forrester’s interviews, the most frequently mentioned benefits of corporate blogging were: greater brand visibility in mainstream media on the Web, word of mouth, improved brand perception, instantaneous consumer feedback, increased sales efficiency and fewer “customer service-driven PR blowups.”
[Please note: Contrary to rumours around the InterWeb, I was not given an exclusive first, second or third look at the report].
You can read Charlene’s comments on the model here.
It’s good to see some analysis on blogging with respect to business. It’s not a panacea but a good start.
Sidebar:
For obvious reasons I rarely discuss issues regarding my employer on this blog. I don’t intend to deviate from that policy. However, I have found the discussion from Kami, Scott and Stuart incredibly interesting – this is an additional and often overlooked element of “Web 2.0” for PR professionals representing small, medium and large organizations. It’s another example that we’re not mainstream just yet.
Murphy's Law 