According to a new Online Measurement and Strategy Report, “companies are typically failing to adopt a coherent strategy that ties in web analytics data with business objectives - just 18% of surveyed firms do so.” Apparently, organizations are “under-investing in internal analytics staff and failing to implement a coherent measurement strategy which can help them turn their data into something of real value to their business.”

Approximately 700 companies took part in the survey, including 434 client-side companies and 229 supplier-side respondents (constituting agencies, consultancies and analytics vendors).

Although 88% of companies polled said that web analytics are important for measuring traffic to websites, cost and resources were seen as the greatest hindrance to effective data analysis. 48% of organizations do not have any dedicated web analysts.

For anyone who participates online, whether via blogs, social networks and even instant messenger, having some form of a history log is helpful to gain a better understanding of past trends and possibly predict the future. Sure, there are some frustrations with current web analytics offerings, but as we continue to live in an increasing hyper-digital world, effective measurement and targeting will become a necessity.

For more information about Burson-Marsteller’s evidence-based approach and strategic analysis offerings, see our Strategic Development section on www.bm.com.

I continue to be amazed by stories of employees of large companies trying to conceal their identity to influence issues via social media. Burger King is the latest to be in the news on this topic, although from what I’ve read (and admittedly I know very little about this particular case) it seems as though the company handled the situation well and was transparent in how they disclosed it.

I spoke with a reporter from the Miami Herald last week (the story is available online) and she asked some great questions around how companies should figure out when to participate, and when they decide to do so, how they should go about doing it. The initial answer is easy - if you participate you need to say who you are and be transparent about stating your reason for participating. Transparency is often used to indicate you have to disclose everything. That isn’t the case, and is usually too much information. You do need to be transparent about the topic you are discussing, and need to be unassailable in your truthfulness. People who try to participate under fake names need to just stop it. Go away! You will be caught, but more importantly, you are ruining it for others who are doing the right thing.

It is a hard enough decision to figure out how to participate. Note use of “how to participate” and not “whether or not to participate.” Companies who want any chance to influence their reputation and brand online have no choice but to be involved in online conversations. If you aren’t part of the conversation then your point of view is not represented. But when companies see others on the front pages and online news sites for improper behavior it elevates the overall feeling of confusion and concern about being involved online. It makes the blogosphere seem dark and scary (insert Halloween music here) and minimizes the true opportunity for companies to engage with their stakeholders.

I am not suggesting that companies need to respond to every every story, topic, and blog post. I am recommending that companies:

• Put social media guidelines in place so that employees and partners know what is allowed, and the implications for violating behavior (I wrote some about this in February.) The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is a good place to start for guidance.
• Monitor online conversations to understand what is being said. This is a great opportunity to get real-time feedback, almost a focus group of thousands. It will also give you a way to understand the topics that may be relevant for you to participate in, both proactively to contribute to a story, but reactively to correct misinformation.
• Determine how you will decide which posts to respond to. There will be some blogs that you want to avoid for whatever reason - the blogger is not open to differing points of view, the community has a set opinion and will use your participation to flame an issue, or the blog has a significant amount of offensive material that you don’t want to be exposed to. These are a few ideas, but think it through because there are others.
• Contribute to the community. Organizations that find a way to contribute to the conversation as opposed to only participating from a selfish perspective have a great opportunity to build relationships. H&R Block did this with tax tips, Southwest does it with open conversation and an integrated social media approach, and selfishly, our founding chairman Harold Burson occasionally does it by sharing his wisdom and insight.
• Think broadly. This isn’t only about blogs. It is about social media, twitter, discussion forums, and more.
• Participate. Monitor. And stick with it. It won’t always be easy, and the results won’t come quickly, but if you truly want to influence your brand position then you need to have a voice. And that voice needs to live online and off.

Yesterday was a good day at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s WOMM-U conference. The main session speakers were interesting, and the conference organizers featured a round robin style approach to breakouts, giving participants a choice of two learning tracks. I led breakouts on the topic of “Building a Complete Blog Program.” Essentially the idea was to facilitate a conversation about best practices pertaining to developing a complete blog program.

The groups I had were a nice blend of agency and corporate communications or marketing professionals. Participants tended to focus on corporate blogging, but when probed started to open up about other elements that comprise a “complete” blog program. Our final list included:

• Blog monitoring for immediate consumer feedback but also longer term trend identification, etc.
• Corporate blogging on company sponsored/developed blogs
• Blog responding both reactively to correct misinformation and proactively to participate in conversations
• Blogger outreach to generate conversations, where appropriate
• Microblogging to have a more consistent presence with interested stakeholders

We then started speaking about what best practices should be deployed for corporate blogging programs. Each group had different thoughts, and the combined list is certainly a good start for anyone considering a blogging program. Some of the best practices discussed were:

• Determine a clear strategy and objectives - the first question I always ask when someone tells me that they want to start blogging is “why?” Organizations need to have a clear marketing strategy and business strategy before moving ahead with a blogging program. The strategy and objectives will drive numerous elements including who blogs, topics discussed, levels of governance, etc.
• Conduct a risk assessment - organizations need to consider the risks associated with conducting a blogging program, including the risk of not participating. What regulatory concerns need to be addressed? Who from the company can participate? How will comments be moderated and handled. How will you respond to negative comments about executives and the company? And so on.
• Implement a social media policy and governance strategy - having a clearly defined social media policy is critical to ensuring that employees know what is within the realm of acceptable participation and visitors know how comments will be handled.
• Define the commitment required - participating in blogging activities is not for the faint of heart. It takes a deep commitment on many different levels — time is an obvious commitment, but a willingness to speak in an authentic voice is another that has to be considered. Bloggers also have to consider the fact that their content may live online forever, and be comfortable knowing that they can’t necessarily retract or remove comments from everywhere they get posted.
• Consider the implications of being translucent - everyone talks about being completely transparent online, but I think that is too much information for people to absorb. I think translucency is a better concept to consider. You need to be truthful and authentic in everything you say and must be unassailable in terms of being able to defend yourself, but you don’t have to discuss every single topic under the sun.
• Select the right spokespeople - that’s right, spokespeople. Bloggers are company spokespeople, whether they intend to be or not. Just as you wouldn’t let an inappropriate person conduct media interviews, you need to ensure that people involved in blogging activity are appropriate for the type of activity and level of visibility that they may achieve.
• Put a scalability plan in place - as your blogging program grows so will your needs. This includes things like resources to manage the program, time to develop content, the effort required to moderate and respond to blogs / comments, and the potential need to scale the technical infrastructure.
• Be realistic about results - it is important for organizations to have goals tied to their blogging programs that are realistic given the space they are in and the amount of effort put into the program. Results should be measured, but organizations must be patience as you generally need to participate and contribute to the community for some time before you are truly invited to the party.

Obviously there are a lot of other elements to consider, but the best practices above are certainly a step in the right direction for companies considering a blogging program. I believe the risk is in NOT participating, and that companies who do engage truly do have an unparalleled opportunity to build relationships with stakeholders as opposed to simply driving a transaction. The rewards outweigh the risks, but only if you enter the space with a well-thought out plan and realistic expectations.

Southwest Airlines has announced that they have had to ground more than 40 planes for lapsing in safety inspections, and the FAA is trying to fine them more than 10 million dollars. Given that Southwest has been celebrated for their open communications via their blog, I was immediately interested to see whether or not they’d post a response or point of view on this situation.

As it turns out, they did post their press release on the “Nuts About Southwest” blog but also posted links to their CEO’s media interviews, and other comments directly to the consumer. This is a great example of a company creating conversation and even opening themselves up to criticism because it is a) the right thing to do, and b) the best way to truly understand what their customers are saying.

The comments to their blog are the most interesting part of this story from my perspective. There are the usual suspects - brand loyalists supporting the company and committing to ongoing patronage, and of course, those who are upset with the company and say they’ll never fly SW again. More interesting though are the conversations happening among the blog readers, including Harrison, a self-proclaimed former Southwest mechanical intern who vouches for the strength of their crew and applauds the company for allowing an open dialogue and several current Southwest employees sticking up for the company.

What are the implications of Southwest’s creating dialogue with stakeholders via their blog? There are a few that jump to mind, although I’m sure there are others that I’m missing. First, both mainstream and online media have an additional source of information that goes beyond the standard press release. Obviously, they are getting real time feedback from customers. Employees are rallying, or have the opportunity to rally to the company’s defense. And, they are likely seen as more credible since they are engaging in an open conversation as opposed to simply issuing a press release and then slamming the door. What are the other benefits of the conversation Southwest is participating in?

Nice job Southwest, and good luck beating that fine. I think you deserve a discount just for the way you are handling this situation.

The blogosphere is buzzing over CNN firing a producer for blogging. The chatter ranges from conversations around freedom of speech to a dissection of his blog posts, and emotions range from anger over the unfairness of it all to glee from those who are have a differing political viewpoint. I first heard about this on Thursday, and my initial reaction was one of surprise. It seems very 2002 for a media property to fire someone over blogging, especially given blog readership and how many media outlets are encouraging their journalists to blog more. But then I read some of the producer’s posts, both on his personal blog and on Huffington Post. He covers topics with a strong personal point of view and no mincing of words, and could leave readers wondering how his personal perspective influences his work for CNN. To be fair, I don’t believe he had ever disclosed his employer on his blog, but he also didn’t have any disclaimers protecting them either.

So did he deserve to be fired? That isn’t for me to say. I’m curious to know what others think. In the meantime, it did make me realize how critical it is for companies to develop and distribute a policy on employee blogging. What are the rules of engagement, and what are the consequences for violating them? At Burson-Marsteller we encourage employees to participate in social media, although have a few guidelines that must be followed:

• If blogging personally about topics related to the PR or communications industry, we ask for a disclaimer indicating the point of view is personal and not on behalf of the firm.
• If blogging on behalf of the company, the blog must be reviewed before being launched for relevance, and then guidelines are in place around not mentioning clients without their permission, not disclosing confidential information, etc.
• We insist on full transparency when blogging on behalf of the company, and strongly recommend it for personal blogging and social media activities.
• We are willing to coach clients on topics and editorial style, but recommend they do their own writing for blogs. It really is different than other activities we conduct such as speech writing or internal communications.
• We support and abide by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association ethics code around social media participation.

There are other points to the policy, but so much of this is common sense. Companies should develop policies with input from various groups - legal, human resources, regulatory (if applicable), digital, sales, marketing, etc. A frank outline of the risks and opportunities, with a discussion around acceptable behavior can save both companies and employees from difficult scenarios in the long run.

For the record, this post is my personal opinion, and doesn’t necessarily represent the opinions of Burson-Marsteller or WPP.

Update: This story is also covered on “For Immediate Release“. Listen here.

A new survey released by Synovate eNation demonstrates that 8 in 10 Americans know what a blog is and that nearly half have visited a blog.

You’d have to live under a rock in today’s 24/7 media environment to not know what a blog is, and I’d bet that the number who have visited blogs is actually higher. Reading about this study made me think of a client meeting last year. The CEO of a company was asking for digital guidance, but told me he was tired of hearing about blogs and didn’t want to discuss them. About three slides into the presentation I took a glance at his computer screen and was surprised to see a blog on the monitor. I asked him what the site was and he replied, “oh, it is just some guy, he writes every day about current events and politics and is really entertaining. His is the first site I visit every morning.” That was quite the gotcha moment. (And yes, we did discuss blogs after that!)

Anyway, the more important issue really is content. Given user search habits, the delivery mechanism is not at important. What matters is that companies have a push / pull strategy to participating in online conversations. Users access all sorts of web content based on search engine results, including proactive client blogs, microsites, consumer-generated content, and rick-media materials. The key is to have consistent messaging, relevant to targeted groups, in numerous places and formats, that can all be confirmed on a corporate website. And, companies need to recognize that consumers are no longer interested in receiving directive marketing messages, but are quite open to having marketing conversations with companies who are willing to dialogue in a genuine fashion.

Blogs can no longer be considered “emerging media,” especially if 8 in 10 Americans know what they are. And companies can no longer ignore blogs as a significant component of an overall communications strategy.

A newly published study argues that blogs are playing a big role in shaping foreign journalists’ coverage of China. Thanks to Will Moss for the tip.

According to the report’s author, Rebecca Mckinnon, blogs are especially important to China hacks as the China ’story’ is not dictated by any one dominant issue, but rather requires detailed understanding across a range of themes, each of which demand specialist insight and where information and where on the record quotes, formal or informal, can be tricky to gather.

MacKinnon, a former CNN bureau chief in China, further notes that blogs are now a standard part of most journalists’ regular reading on the country with some 90% , but that they are evaluated individually according to the author’s track record and reputation.

Two blogs that score particularly highly are EastSouthWestNorth by Hong Kong-based researcher Roland Soong and Danwei from Beijing-based consultant Jeremy Goldkorn. Both set out to shed light on China, collating, (sometimes) translating and analysing latest developments in Chinese news and media and technology respectively.

Unsurprisingly, blogs emerge as the favoured online source for emerging stories, analysis and expert opinion, reflecting the fact that blogging outside of social networks has taken on a role similar to that in the west ie. a platform for personal opinion and professional advancement (if not, yet, for company communication), though in China’s case, it has also been subject to some well-documented nationalistic flag-waving (eg. Starbucks in the Forbidden City).

Meantime, discussion boards, which remain highly popular perhaps in part thanks to their anonymity, in part due to the sheer range of topics and numbers of participants, are considered useful for guaging public opinion.

With more of China’s 140m+ internet users going to the net for news and information (source: CNNIC 2007 Statistical Report - pdf) than receiving it on TV or print, organisations doing business in China would do well to keep an eye on the internet as a whole ie. both blogs and boards - for the latter are usually the source of stories about products, the former where these stories are shaped and promoted.

First blogs, followed by vlogs, and m’logs.  Now we have splogs (spam blogs) and clogs (corporate blogs.)  What will they call annual blogs?  Analogs?  That would be funny.  Actually, annual blogs have been around for a while, but they are gaining traction and there are a lot more of them of late.  Basically, an annual blog pops up to cover an annual event, starting in advance to cover preparations and ramp-up, and stopping shortly after the event concludes. 

AdWeek has launched an annual blog for the International Advertising Festival at Cannes.  They are just getting started, but already have some impressive industry insiders as guest contributors.  BloggingSundance.com covered, you guessed it, the Sundance Film Festival.  And BloggingMilken.com covered the Milken Institute’s Global Conference and included a wide variety of topics. 

What is the opportunity for companies?  With the proper time commitment and elbow grease, I think they should consider blogging tradeshows and conferences, especially where they have significant new product or service announcements.  Annual meetings are another prime opportunity to create conversations with stakeholders about a company’s future.  From an internal perspective, blogging leadership summits or annual planning meetings would likely be interesting to the rank and file.  And, companies in trouble could certainly use a blog to tell their side of the story, provided they are completely truthful and transparent in their blogging efforts.  Lastly, within different industries there are set times of the year that provide opportunities - Fashion Week, tax season, and back to school, for example.  Any other examples pop into mind?

The reality is that more companies should be using blogs, even v1.0, to create dialogue with their target audience groups.  Maybe annual blogging can provide a way to experiment to encourage more frequent communications and let companies ease into the blogosphere?  What do you think?