Measuring Success of Corporate Blogs

Slide 1: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Making status and progress of corporate blogging activities visible and comparable Nils Koenig 1

Slide 2: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Basis Corporate Blogs and Success Criteria: A model for explanation (German) Matthias Schwenk www.bwlzweinull.de 2

Slide 3: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Summary The model by Matthias Schwenk defines three dimensions of corporate blogs and their extremes: • Message (central, peripheral) • Opinion (critical, uncritical) • Networking (high, low) • displays corporate blogs (in dimensions) using scroll bars. • 3

Slide 4: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Goal Enhancement of the model in order to display success of blogging in relation to the company‘s expectation • (goals) make individual blogs comparable to other corporate blogs • Goals Success Status 4

Slide 5: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Approach 3 Steps Definition of expectation values 2. Evaluation of the current status 3. Weighting of dimensions 4.  Calculation of the „Success Value“ Weighting Success Expectation Status 5

Slide 6: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Expectation The dimensions are displayed on scroll bars as set up by Schwenk. In addition a scale is introduced – here a scale from 0 to 10, where „0“ and „10“ display the both extremes (not a valuation). Message central peripheral 0 8 9 10 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 Consequently, the expectation values for all three dimension are to be derived (estimated). External users may define an expectation value based on the blog type (marketing-blog, insider-blog, …). Message central peripheral 0 8 10 6

Slide 7: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Current Status To make success visible, the current status needs to be evaluated. Transferred to the scroll bars, one receives the following picture for the Daimler-Blog: Message central peripheral 0 8 9 10 Opinion critical uncritical 0 7 8 10 Networking high low 0 5 9 10 Current Status Expectation 7

Slide 8: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Weighting Depending on the type of blog, the dimensions may have varying effects on the blog‘s success. Therefore, a weighting mechanism is introduced. For an insider-blog, one could base the evaluation on the following weights: Message 0,5 • Opinion 0,25 • Networking 0,25 • For marketing-blogs the picture should look different, as e.g. the general opinion is more standardized while networking is the more important. 8

Slide 9: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Conclusion If the derived values for expectation and current status are now set in relation and appropriately weighted, the picture for the Daimler-Blog looks as follows: Current Success Weight Dimension Expectation Success Status Factor Factor Message 8 9 0.875 0.5 0.4375 Opinion 7 8 0.857 0.25 0.2143 Networking 5 9 0.2 0.25 0.05 Sum: 0.702 The weighted success value is 70.2%  Expectations have been met with 70.2% 9

Slide 10: Measuring Success for Corporate Blogs Interpretation Advantages Because of the relative evaluation and the weighting all corporate • blogs (or their relative success) become comparable. Using defined standards for expectations and weighting (e.g. based on • dimensions), the system may be used by outsiders. Disadvantage Subjectivity: the value definition is based on personal valuation. • User opinion as ultimate indicator is not included (in addition to the • concept-based approach a user-oriented approach is needed). 10