Charlene Li is a Forrester analyst who often writes about user-generated content and social media. This week she’s written a new Forrester report entitled The ROI of Blogging:
Many large companies stand on the brink of blogging, yet they are unwilling to take the plunge. Others, having dove in early, now face the challenge of managing existing blogs without the ability to show that they effectively support business goals. While blogging’s value can’t be measured precisely, marketers will find that calculating the ROI is easier than it looks. Following a three-step process, marketers can create a concrete picture of the key benefits, costs, and risks that blogging presents and understand how they are likely to impact business goals.
It sounds really interesting, if the chart and associated notes on Charlene’s blog are any indication.
I’d love to take a look at this report, but we don’t have a Forrester account because, well, they’re hideously expensive. If anybody does, and wants to slide this badboy my way, I’d appreciate it, and promise I’ll keep it to myself.
On a related note, Dave Olson wrote a great-looking paper on Blogging for Retailers for Elastic Path. Give it a read. More dubious, however, is writing a press release about writing a whitepaper.
UPDATE: Thanks to Charlene, who kindly sent along a copy of the report. She’s sending out a few copies to foster further conversation about the subject.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Darren,
I’d like to read the report too — so if someone sends it to you, please share it with me too. 🙂
I really like the research that Charlene Li does. I wish it didn’t cost $379 for a 15 page report! At least her blog is free.
Indeed, it’s just too short a document and we’re too small a consultancy for that price point to make sense. At $199, I’d probably just buy it.
Maybe I should just take collection plate around, and have 20 people pitch in $20 each? Heh.
If you can stop the illegal sharing, it seems like the ROI on report-writing is pretty good 🙂
If the report were anywhere near reasonably priced then there wouldn’t be much need for ‘illegal sharing.’
Sending out a press release about the white paper was the only way i could think of to publicize that dashing photo of me in a shiny shirt.
In the meta column, along with the press release, i recorded a podcast about the white paper but somehow managed to resist writing a press release about the podcast about the white paper … (though i did also blog about blogging for retailers)
Really though, what other methods (besides one to one communication) shall one use to tell the whole dang interworld about a great looking white paper?
As an aside, I am curious if the Forrester report is DRM’ed? Wouldn’t want the kids sharing it over P2P.
Dave: That photo is dashing.
I remain pretty unconvinced about press releases, particularly those about relatively minor bits of corporate news. I don’t think you get much traffic from them, and I don’t think that traffic’s particularly high quality. I’d be curious if that was true with regards to this release.
As for promoting the whitepaper, I think a lot of hustle is the best way to go. You emailed a private list I was on, and that was a good thing. If you haven’t, I’d go find the top twenty corporate blogging bloggers (er, you get the idea) and drop them a personalized note.
Similarly, I’d pitch journalists and analysts (such as Charlene) who cover the blogging/social media space. If the whitepaper includes case studies, or if you’ve got some, pitch those to the journalists and they can mention the whitepaper in the subsequent article.
After that, I’d get creative. Uh, go to the Mesh conference with 300 copies of the report, and hand them out to everybody. Do the same at Northern Voice, but, you know, don’t be overt about it.
Or, you know, just hire Capulet to help you promote the thing. Heh.