Thanks to David, Peter, David, Dan, Eric, and Will for their thoughts. I would like to add mine.

Blogging is my font door. Since 2004, my blog has been where I post my ideas, both big and small. There’s no doubt that my blog is the most important marketing and PR tool I have as a speaker, writer, and consultant. Unlike the other essayists, I do not work for a large company.

Even after several years and hundreds of blog posts, I’m always surprised at how effectively this tool helps me accomplish my goals.

My blog allows me to push ideas into the marketplace as I think of them, generating instant feedback. Sure, many blog posts just sit there with no feedback, no comments, and no results. But I learn from these “failures,” too; when my audience doesn’t get excited about something, it’s probably either a dumb idea or poorly explained. On the other hand, some posts have had truly phenomenal results, quite literally changing my business in the process. OK, I’ll admit that my ravings about the importance of my blog may sound over the top. But the truth is that blogging really has changed my life.

Thanks to the power of search engines, my blog is also is the most vital and effective way for people to find me. Every word of every post is indexed by Google, Yahoo!, and the other search engines, so when people look for information on the topics I write about, they find me. Journalists find me through my blog and quote me in newspaper and magazine articles — without me having to pitch them! Conference organizers book me to speak at events as a result of reading about me on my blog. I’ve met many new virtual friends and created a powerful network of colleagues.

Many people want to know about the return on investment (ROI) of blogging. In particular, executives want to know, in dollars and cents, what the results will be. The bad news is that this information is difficult to quantify with any degree of certainty. For my small business, I determine ROI by asking everyone who contacts me for the first time, “How did you learn about me?” That approach will be difficult for larger organizations with integrated marketing programs including blogs. The good news is that blogging most certainly generates returns for anyone who creates an interesting blog and posts regularly to it.

Will writing a blog change your life too? Nobody can guarantee that. Blogging is not for everyone. But if you’re like countless others (particularly the authors of the essays above), your blog will reap tremendous rewards, both for you personally and for your organization.

Yes, the rewards may be financial. But just as importantly, your blog will most certainly serve you as a valuable creative outlet, perhaps a more important reward for you and your business.

Sorry about my tardiness on the open post; I was vacationing for my first anniversary (legitimate excuse). Below is the brain child of Eric Kintz over at HP — a group perspective from some bloggers on why the blogosphere matters

For smaller corporations, I think this becomes even more important for the purpose of niche marketing. Blogging allows you to grab the high ground and become the go to resource for your niche, with all the things that go with it, good will, targetted site traffic, open dialogue, etc.

It puts, if not a face, at least a voice, on the brand. The “softer side of…” But we tread dangerous ground. It is easy to do damage to the brand by failing to understand that where the line between open discussion ends and outright selling begins.

Commercially blatant blogging is indeed going to become an issue, and I suggest corporate bloggers begin to self-police with a disclaimer on all posts, either personal or under a corporate heading. This is not to say that RSS isn’t a viable channel for pushing promotions or products.

Thanks
dc

In order for us bloggers to gain credibility so that our customers, clients and peers trust us to provide useful and honest information, we need to have this discussion. Whether we are consultant or corporate bloggers, we cannot succeed without first gaining trust.

Recently, the Edelman fiasco hurt our credibility. It isn’t the first breakdown in transparency and honesty and it won’t be the last. Apparently, creating ethics and guidelines, which Richard Edelman helped write, isn’t enough. But there must and should be a way for readers to know that the blogger they are visiting is doing all in his/her power to provide information and ideas that do not have the purpose of selling something.

If the purpose of the blog or a post is to sell something directly (including brand image), the post should be clearly labeled as “advertising,” “marketing” or “self-promotion.” None of these labels may be the right choices, but we need to find some obvious way to let the readers know our purpose for posts that are self-aggrandizing.

Lewis

HP’s Erik Kintz, author of the Marketing Excellence blog, recently had a really good idea. Why not invite a handful of passionate marketing bloggers to converge on a single blog entry (new word: blogpiling?) about the pros and cons of