Blogs to become the ultimate marketing tool?

Online Media Daily reports that “Blogs — once considered the domain of all that is not corporate–will soon be an indispensable marketing tool” according to mix of public relations, marketing, and research professionals who gathered this week at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York.

Here’s some highlights of what experts and professionals at Search Engine Strategies discussed on the power of blogs.

• JupiterResearch analyst Gary Stein: ‘[S]earch engines contribute to a blog’s reach and influence. Engines are naturally drawn to blogs‘ incessant linking, which is just one reason why a company seeking differentiation and exposure should consider blogging. Blogging is not only an opportunity for companies to aggressively engage consumers on their blogs, on their terms, but a way for companies to attract customers with their own blogs.’
• Jonathan Carson, president and chief executive officer of word-of-mouth research and planning firm BuzzMetrics: A client recently confessed to him that the blogosphere was fast becoming a better litmus test of consumer sentiment than even Consumer Reports magazine.
• Steve Rubel, a CooperKatz public relations executive who runs the blog MicroPersuasion: ‘Anal retentive companies who don’t value transparency and want to be left alone are probably better off without blogs. If a company isn’t prepared to engage in a conversation with its customers, they’re obviously not ready for a blog.’
• Greg Jarboe, president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a firm that combines search engine marketing and public relations to optimize and promote Web sites: ‘…For a business that can establish a reputation as an authority in its field, the potential payback is endless.’
• Stephan Spencer, founder and president of Web development firm Netconcepts: ‘The relatively low start-up costs of corporate blogging and its ROI potential of the emerging medium is becoming too tempting for most businesses. Part of this is obviously hype, but there is a very real side to corporate blogging, and the cost of entry is too low to ignore right now.'”

I am going to going to call law firms not publishing blogs anal retentive. But ignoring smart PR guys like Steve Rubel would be foolish. Smart legal marketing professionals and innovative lawyers would be wise to consider Stephan Spencer’s insight on the ROI of blogging – high rewards and low cost of entry.

Source of post: Micropersuasion