With a barrage of web 2.0 options entering the digital marketing toolkit, it’s been challenging to sort out the relative impact of platforms like communities, social networking, blogs, wikis etc.  I’ve been trying to better understand the trade offs on blogs as a component of the marketing mix and now after months having passed since establishing a blog, I can provide a personal testament to what seems to be an underestimated investment of resource to create topical and relevant content in a timely enough manner to keep an audience engaged in dialogue.  A situation I see mirrored in the corporate blogosphere.  Without a ghost writer, it’s pretty challenging to populate, much less maintain, a blog as a part time pursuit. 

The successful blogs I’ve observed serve a very specific purpose to a very specific audience.  Rudimentary marketing, perhaps, but often overlooked as a tactics are deployed without strategy.  The siren song of new ways of reaching customers and prospects has created a web 2.0 checklist, now standard issue in an agency pitch.  A recent study from Forrester www.forrester.com entitled “B2B marketers fail the community marketing test” highlighted that only a fairly significant percentage of B2B marketers are using blogs.  What specific strategy to move prospects along the purchase cycle is enabled by a blog and how effective and measurable the result.     I also observe successful blogs are often times fueled by personal passion.  A function of staying disciplined in scope and focus and ensuring whoever is writing understands the unique vernacular of the target.  Passion and discipline attainable without dedicated focus?  I’ll test it for myself trying to keep up with what’s purported to be a key currency in the digital marketing toolkit as a side-exploit.