Dieses Webinar fue Unternehmensblogger findet am 18. Maerz 2010 statt.

Corporate Blogs sind das Herzstück erfolgreicher Unternehmens-Websites und ein effizientes Mittel im Online-Marketing. Lernen Sie die neuesten Techniken um LeserInnen und Kunden mit dem Weblog zu gewinnen.

Mit Fallbeispielen aus der Praxis ermoeglicht das Webinar Teilnehmern neue Erkenntnisse auf dem Gebiete des Benchmarking. Es zeigt auf, wie man mit Hilfe von strategischen Kennzahlen zur groesseren Effektivitaet des Online Investments kommt.

Bitte registrieren Sie sich gleich hier:

==> kostenloses Webinar: Benchmarking und Erfolg von Corporate-Blogs messbar machen

In diesem Webinar lernen Sie, wie man Blogs konsequent für seine geschäftlichen Ziele einsetzen kann. Nach diesem Webinar wissen Sie, wie man die Anziehungskraft von Blogs zur Neukundengewinnung noch effektiver nutzt. Das spezielle Augenmerk ist dabei auf die Messung des Erfolges von Unternehmens-Blogs gerichtet.

18. Maerz 2010 um 10:30 MEZ (07:30 Rio de Janeiro / 09:30 London / 11:30 Kairo / 12:30 Moskau / 17:30 Singapor). Wir laden Sie herzlich zu unserem Webinar ein, an welchem wir anhand von Fallstudien aufzeigen, wie erfolgreiche Corporate Blogs in Industrie, Food-Branche oder Einzelhandel neue Leser gewinnen und deren Bindung an das Unternehmen foerdern.

Professor Dr. Urs E. Gattiker, Spezialist für Benchmark—Optimierung von und für soziale Medien, zeigt Ihnen, wie Sie die Wertschoepfung für den Corporate Blog steigern koennen und stellt Ihnen eine Vielfalt an sehr effektiven Techniken vor.

Ob ein Unternehmen gross oder klein ist, ob es aus der Industrie- oder der Dienstleistungsbranche kommt kann Ihnen dieses Webinar die effektivsten Straegien fuer Blogging und Marketing mit Hilfe sozialer Medien aufzeigen. Es wird Ihnen dabei helfen, eine Anzahl neuer Strategien besseren Nutzung von sozialen Medien im Unternehmen umzusetzen.
Wenn ueber Facebook, Twitter und Corporate-Blogs die richtigen Daten gewonnen werden, koennen sie effektiver genutzt werden. Dieses Webinar zeigt die neuesten Trends und wie sie eingesetzt werden koennen.

Aus dem Webinarinhalt:
- Benchmarking und Erfolg von Corporate-Blogs messbar machen
- Lernen aus Fehlern anderer
- Einsetzung von ‘push’ und ‘pull’Marketing mit dem Weblog
- Messung der 5 wichtigsten Kennzahlen zur besseren Leistung des Firmen-Blogs
- Fallstudien von Weblogs analysieren unter anderem auch solche welche im FT ComMetrics Blog Index aufgefuehrt sind
- Verstaendnis foerdern für soziale Medien
- Nutzung von Corporate-Blogs als effektive und wichtige Instrumente der Unternehmenskommunikation
- Vermeidung der klassischen Fehler im Weblog Benchmarking

Referent:
Urs E. Gattiker, Ph.D., Ph.D., ist ein Enthusiast der sozialen Medien, erfolgreicher Buchautor und Blogger. Er ist der Gründer und Chief Executive Officer von CyTRAP Labs GmbH. CyTRAP Labs bietet seinen Kunden Dienstleistungen auf dem Gebiete ‘Corporate Governance’ und  social media an. Die Abteilung ComMetrics spezialisiert sich auf Analyse und Messung des Erfolges von sozialen Medien (e.g., Entwicklung des FT ComMetrics Blog Index – – der Industriestandard zum Ranking von  Corporate Weblogs der FT Global 500 und Fortune 500 Unternehmen).

Um an diesem kostenlosen Webinar teilnehmen zu koennen muessen Sie sich bitte hier registrieren (eMail Adresse genuegt):
==>  Jetzt Teilnahmeplatz sichern – Corporate-Blogs: Effektives Benchmarking 11. Maerz, 10:30 Uhr MEZ

Download this document: http://commetrics.com/download/20/

Ihr Vorteil
Sie erhalten einen praxisrelevanten Leitfaden aus der ComMetrics eBook Serie, um Benchmarking von Weblogs sofort und erfolgreich in Ihrem Unternehmen einzusetzen.

Ihr Bonus
Freien Zugang zum My.ComMetrics.com Benchmarking Tool – Messen und Tracking der Performance zur Leistungssteigerung von Firmenblogs.

Um sich für dieses Webinar zu registrieren, besuchen Sie die unten angegebene Seite – tragen Sie eine eMail Adresse ein, um somit den Zugangscode zu erhalten

Bitte registrieren Sie sich jetzt da die Teilnehmerzahl limitiert ist (eMail Adresse genuegt)

Auf Englisch gibt es das Webinar hier: FREE webinar: Know which analytics to measure and which to ignore

P.S. – Besuchen Sie My.ComMetrics (register yourself – benchmark your blog(s) => improve performance). You can get updates for this blog on Twitter by following @ComMetrics or get a free subscription by RSS, or get new posts via email:

Previously in this series we published:
1) Lessons 1 – 4: Starting your blogging off on the right foot (2009-06-03)
2) Lessons 5 – 7: Setting the stage – ready – go (2009-06-03)
3) Lessons 8 – 11: Whatever domain, home you choose – beware (2009-07-08)
4) Lessons 12 – 13: Getting the basic SEO issues right (2009-07-08)

Today we release the last two installments of these tips and lessons. The sixth, and last, post can be read here:
6) Lessons 18 – 20: Improving blogging effectiveness

In this fifth post, the focus is on commitment, authenticity and managing cultural differences carefully.

Lesson 14: Commit to regularly posting during mid-week
Having several writers makes it easier, but a politician is better off writing their own posts to assure an authentic voice (see Lesson 16 below).

Case study 2: Blogging politicians – how do they measure up?

The saying “out of sight, out of mind,” applies here. Hence, irregular posting makes it more difficult for your readers to remember that a blog provides good information. In the fast-changing blogosphere, an irregular posting schedule like Aviva’s does not seem a good strategy.

Finally, more people are on the Internet during the week than on weekends, so posting regularly during the week (e.g., Tue – Th) is most effective for reaching business and potential subscribers.

Lesson 15: Depth and breadth vs. crowdsourcing
Outsourcing is en vogue – some say it helps bring down the head count, looks good on the books and saves money. To succeed with outsourcing blogging means that you must secure the services of  ‘experts’ and ‘volunteers’ that understand your business, as this example illustrates:

Case study: eBookers or how to skip the ropes

But will these experts be as motivated as your staff, providing value for money to your current and potential customers? Can one assure consistent quality as well as making the company more personable? Will you trust others to be your voice on the web and if you do, is this a viable strategy?

Surely outsourcing blogging content fails to give the company an authentic voice (see Lesson 16 below). As importantly, to assure depth and breadth means checking up and making sure that those posts not meeting these criteria are either improved or simply not published – a time-consuming and, therefore, costly option. In today’s competitive environment, learning from and relating to customers is an opportunity that cannot be missed.

To see how well your blog strategy works register your blog here:
My.ComMetrics.com – benchmark your blog – improve your score – sign-up for FREE

Lesson 16: Authentic voice makes a big difference
An effective blog represents corporate policy, strategy and viewpoints. Hence, people need to be authentic.

Therefore, while having text vetted by the legal crew as well as the PR folks makes it all a bit more sanitized, it also removes much of what may raise interest readers. This does not mean that legal issues do not matter but it needs to be personable to get and keep people interested.

Of course, unless your CEO has the passion, desire, time and dedication to commit to frequently blogging and curate the comments, this should be avoided at all costs. That being said, there are countless examples of brilliant CEO blogs from people who love to write and share their insights. A great example is Jonathan Schwartz’s – CEO of Sun, now Oracle – blog. But either do it right or don’t go there.

Lesson 17: Culture, language and medium – editors should apply
Whatever the language of a blog, many of its readers will have a different first language. In turn, one should consider this when writing for a global social media audience.

P.S. – Not every CEO will come across successfully on video => CEO webcasts on YouTube – will it turn them into megalomaniacs?.

Takeaways

Authentic voice is key – outsourcing blog posting is not an option.
Commitment matters – regular AND relevant posts and response to comments keeps your readers interested.
Slang or humor are out – people whose first language is not the one used on a corporate blog will otherwise be lost.
Act locally, think globally – while you are on vacation many of your faraway readers are working, so assure posting during holidays. It is worth the effort.

I will keep it brief, love to dialogue more in the comments. What is your take? Please share.

Previously in this series we published:
1) Lessons 1 – 4: Starting your blogging off on the right foot (2009-06-03)
2) Lessons 5 – 7: Setting the stage – ready – go (2009-06-03)

Today we release the next two installments of these tips and lessons, the fourth of which can be read here:
4) Lessons 12 – 13: Getting the basic SEO issues right

The final set will come your way August 12:
5) Lessons 14 – 17: Authenticity and quality are key
6) Lessons 18 – 20: Improving blogging effectiveness

Corporate bloggers should follow these lessons to save on resources, money and improve blogging effectiveness. It actually takes little effort but the results are astonishing if you correct r completely avoid these mistakes.

To make sure that you don’t miss any of these upcoming posts, just leave your e-mail here:

Lesson 8: Host blog on corporate domain
Most corporations’ main pages have a relatively high Google PageRank (ranking range from 0 to 10, the higher the better). Besides brand recognition and reputation management purposes, this is one more reason why the blog should be hosted under the corporate domain. Advantages include:

a) benefiting from the main page’s Google PageRank,
b) being easier to find for stakeholders, and
c) contributing to and receiving traffic from the main page.

Following the above strategy will result in the blog starting with a higher Google PageRank than it would otherwise get. If one cannot follow the above approach, one has to pay the price as Volvo (212.181.8.238/webbplatser/vbeb/default.aspx) and Swisscom (swisscomnature.blueblog.ch) illustrate.

Lesson 9: Make finding the blog on the corporate website easy
This seems obvious but often it fails to work properly. Nokia does this smartly and effectively (see below). Here, regardless of the visitor’s geographic location, the blog section features prominently on the main website and once one clicks on it, finding the blog one is interested in is simple.

Unfortunately, many corporate blogs use a different approach that is far less user-friendly. For instance, on a visit to the GE corporate website, one will not find a quicklink to a list of all the company’s blogs. Instead, one must search and dig quite a bit to find what one came for. Why make it difficult when easy does it better?

Lesson 10: Make sure variations of the blog’s URL work
Not always do links to the blog’s main page work properly, especially in cases where users type an alternate version of the link, such as:

- www.HowTo.ComMetrics.com instead of HowTo.ComMetrics.com,
- www.blog.Daimler.com instead of blog.Daimler.de, or
- gereports.ge.com instead of gereports.com.

Check the above links for yourself to see which ones work – at least one will give you an error. This is an oversight that can easily be fixed and one wonders why any organization that maintains a corporate blog would overlook this issue.

To see how well your blog strategy works register your blog here:
My.ComMetrics.com – benchmark your blog – improve your score – sign up for FREE

Lesson 11: Once it is chosen, keep your blog’s URL
Toyota Open Road Blog, a blog with a nice ComMetrics footprint (the lower the score the better your blog ranks within the same category – apples vs. apples), lost a lot of ground when its advertising people decided to change its URL and move the blog to the Toyota website.

In this case, the Google PageRank immediately dropped to 0. Giving up a 6 Google PageRank (some weeks it was a 7) just to move a blog might fit the corporate strategy, but is this  effective in terms of corporate best-practice?

Once you choose a URL stick with it and don’t let any advertising expert or strategy guru tell you otherwise. This will save you time and effort in the long-term. And as Nokia and others demonstrate, any blog can be easily linked to and featured on the global website for people to find quickly and easily.

Okay, now it’s your turn. What techniques you have used to improve your blogging effectiveness? What was your most successful “let’s do this and move on” tactic? If you have come close to resolving these challenges smartly, what did you do? Which of the above four strategies is your favorite? Which one do you think is just baloney? It’s okay – be honest. We can take it. Thanks much.

P.S. – You may find our next set of ropes to skip of interest as well: 4) Lessons 12 – 13: Getting the basic SEO issues right (2009-07-08).

Imagine your boss has just told you that budget cuts necessitate cutting social media expenses and you might lose your job shortly. In a semi-desperate move you suggest that she give you another three months to show what a difference you can make for the company by revamping the corporate blog.

Can we help? Absolutely! After publishing the 2009 FT ComMetrics Blog Index, which ranks FT Global 500 and Fortune 500 companies’ corporate blogs, we came to the conclusion that it might be helpful to share some of the insights we have gained.

Today we release the first installments of these tips and lessons, the second of which can be read here:
2) Lessons 5 – 7: Setting the stage – ready – go (2009-06-03)

The next set will be published July 8:
3) Lessons 8 – 11: Whatever domain or home you choose – beware
4) Lessons 12 – 13: Getting the basic SEO issues right

The final set will come your way August 12:
5) Lessons 14 – 17: Authenticity and quality are key
6) Lessons 18 – 20: Improving blogging effectiveness

To make sure that you don’t miss any of these upcoming posts, just leave your e-mail here:

Lesson 1: Ropes to skip – learn from others
There is no good reason to make the mistakes we discuss below and in subsequent posts. Just read these rules and decide carefully.

ComMetrics – thanks to input and advice from others we have come up with the 20+best WordPress plugins to make our lives easier; and
Daimler – Why did Beck’s not ask Daimler before starting an expensive revamp of its blog?

Lesson 2: Define the type of blog you want
Who or what is it supposed to provide information about? Delivering information to investors is different than blogging about a non-profit organization’s neighborhood initiative.

Dell‘s investor blog, DellShares, serves shareholders, while Direct2Dell offers customers a way to find out about new products and provide feedback.

Dell’s blogs deliver different fare and their success speaks volumes about the company’s smart blogging strategy.

Lesson 3: Define the target audience
The question is, are those that read Renault’s Formula One racing team blog would be the kind of people you want to reach out to. Hence, who is your target audience – sports fans, customers, potential clients, regulators, donors or someone else? Some of your audience may fall into more than one category, such as sports fans who have and will continue to purchase Renault’s cars.

The challenge of finding your target audience is nicely illustrated by:

General Electric – Blogging for shareholders, creditors and financial analysts

General Electric’s blog is one example where institutional investors and shareholders can get information they might not be able to get elsewhere. But if you are interested to find out about its research and what future products it has in store, GE Global Research Blog will serve you better.

To see how well your blog strategy works register your blog here:
My.ComMetrics.com – sign up for FREE and compare your performance to the Renault F1 team or UPS racing blogs – we’ll help you gain the upper hand.

Lesson 4: Determine what the focus of two-thirds of the content will be
People sign up to get a blog’s RSS feed because the content looks of interest to them on a first or second visit. Straying far from the topic is not always appreciated by one’s audience, considering their many other time commitments and options for news sources. So staying on target is key when it comes to delivering unique content.

UPS racing in the US – get the latest results and box news
Renault F1 team – all about the races – from news about the Red Bull team to McLaren Mercedes – this is what you get

Both cases above show that these blogs provide racing news, so choose Renault for Formula One or UPS for NASCAR news. Somebody who is not a car racing fan is definitely not a targeted reader for these blogs, which is fine as long as it remains of interest to the target audience.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Would you have addressed any of these challenges differently? Did I miss something in one of the three points addressed? Do you agree or disagree? Give us shout-out, whether for joy or frustration, but please share your thoughts. Thank you.

P.S. - Continue with our next set of ropes to skip: 2) Lessons  5 – 7: Setting the stage – ready – go (2009-06-03).

May has been a really busy month for us. As the cartoon to the left illustrates, we talked with Dogbert and convinced him to help us come up with some nice additional features for your dashboard.

Our work with the folks at the Financial Times has also yielded satisfying results. You can get more information on our collaboration in the following posts:

- FT ComMetrics Blog Index published
- FT ComMetrics Blog Index released: KISS the blog-bride
- FT ComMetrics Blog Index: How we found you
- FT ComMetrics Blog Index: The winners are
- FT ComMetrics Blog Index: Just do it – right

Incidentally, to be notified about new features, tricks and tools first, why not enter your e-mail here and get on our VIP list:

Here is what is coming your way: My.ComMetrics.com real-time trace updates or, who is Googling you – creepy or useful?

Alerts can be a good thing. For instance Ziggs.com alerts you when someone looks up your CV online.

Real-time trace updates from My.ComMetrics.com are similar to Google Alerts or those from Ziggs. As the subscriber, you get informed when someone decides to add your blog to their dashboard. Hence, your blog’s performance is now being compared with that attained by another blog that covers a subject area similar to yours.

Additionally, the real-time trace alert provides the recipient with such information as:

• View the vital statistics for http://daniel.shortens.net/ – by logging on you can see some of this ‘other’ blog’s performance indicators (i.e. how well this corporate blog is performing)
• Trace http://daniel.shortens.net/ – logging on automatically adds this blog to those we trace on your behalf so you can find out who is doing better.

Please let us know your reactions and comments about this; what do you think? Are there other features you would like? Thanks for sharing.

To see how well your blog strategy works register your blog here:
My.ComMetrics.com - benchmark your blog – improve your score – sign up for FREE.

You can also follow us on Twitter  MyComMetrics.

PS. Find out how My Tools can get you the vital blog statistics delivered the way that suits you the most – save time, money and blog more effectively.

According to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s wisdom, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will make a beaten path to your door.”

A good and insightful saying, to be sure, and the modern equivalent would have to be convincing the boss or a sceptic of the value of social media or blogging.

While blogging may be an effective way to reach many of the company’s customers and suppliers, and reduce customer calls if the help or FAQ section delivers, that may not be enough to convince a boss who neither reads nor writes a blog.

Hence, one needs to demonstrate that current and potential clients are making use of these technologies. Finding competitors or industry leaders that blog will also help convince a budget committee to assign a project manager and get started.

The  2009 FT ComMetrics Blog Index rankings can help you build a case for using social media in your organization (see the statistics at a glance at FTindex results). It illustrates how the largest companies are doing in comparison to their competitors and other large companies around the globe. It provides a tool for tracking success through hard numbers: how big is your company’s social media footprint? In particular, how does it stack up against your competitors’ ComMetrics Footprint and so forth.

Accordingly, deriving value from non revenue-generating activities means demonstrating the sometimes hidden values of blogging and social media activities. This is what the FTindex results can help you with. Findings indicate how blogs are being used to improve consumer relations, recruiting efforts and handling a takeover without ruffling too many feathers.

Download white paper (expanded version of 2004-05-14 FT article)

You can also get a complete report with the results as a free download (just register, and voilà):

Log in ➡ Download the 2009 FT ComMetrics Blog Index report

Additional posts and download of additional materials provided as PDF files:

Download press release
Download Financial Times case study
FT ComMetrics Blog Index published
Financial Times May 14 – by Urs E. Gattiker – Corporate blogs: New way to engage with stakeholders

Relevant blog metrics for diary, personal and business blogs
Please subscribe now so you can claim your personal and/or corporate blog AND trace those that you want to compare yourself to.
For Twitter, please use #hashtag ➡ #FTCBI

Alpha testing is critical to find any errors and flaws you may have missed in a program’s development. This post explains how we went about testing My.ComMetrics.com to ensure users’ satisfaction with the final product.

There are three types of land mines in software engineering that must be dealt with when developing software of any kind:

1) Defects: these cause the software to behave in unpredictable ways. Examples could be code showing up when it should not be, failure to handle mistakes properly or incorrectly completed calculations that inadvertently provide the user with inaccurate results.
2) Errors: these can be reduced by using quality assurance testing. The software might perform in a way contrary to what your customer expects. For example, the user enters a URL at My.ComMetrics.com, clicks on View Trend and in response the software provides an empty results page or an error as shown in the image above.
3) Flaws: these are generally viewed by the end-user as errors, without technically being an error within the developer’s code, such as presented data being correct but the visual leaves something to be desired (see image further below).

How to manage software development
To resolve this apparent conflict we need to realize that only defects cause future headaches, and therefore they must not be deferred. Hence, if your software fails to process data correctly, the information provided to the user will be useless.  If the program freezes (remember the Windows XP blue screen of death) the defect must be fixed before it causes harmful damage. Of course, Microsoft proves that one can still be successful while releasing software with defects.

If the software reliably serves you an empty result page every time, this is not a defect, but an error. Nevertheless, it can and must be fixed. By contrast, a flaw is more of a design issue than an error but again, the client expects a fix.

Defects are more critical and the risk of their presence should be minimized right from the start. Terence M. Colligan wrote Nine Steps to Delivering Defect-Free Software, all of which are still useful today, even though it is usually impossible to deliver perfect software right from the start.

Finally, some people call mistakes in software bugs, but we prefer to call them errors, because, for one thing, if they blow up they can do long-term damage. This often includes decreasing customer trust and confidence as discussed in the post Bugs versus defects – there are no bugs just land mines.

Where do alpha users come in?
Alpha users are required because the number of potential errors and flaws in most programs is too great to be able to test for all of them in advance. Instead, alpha users discover the land mines by making use of the software in infinite ways, putting the program through its paces and (hopefully) informing the developer of any eventual problems. They are also the ones who usually point out possible flaws or limitations a software tool may have.

The challenge for the developer is to prioritize the feedback provided and fix the most critical issues first, without forgetting all of the rest of the information provided by the alpha users. This makes alpha users the helpful individuals who enable the developer to refine and adjust the software before releasing it to the public for the first time.

Bottom line
Most projects come with costs that are impossible to quantify at the beginning, including defects. However, the danger with defects is that they can cause so many problems as to bring a project to a screeching halt. On the other hand, software errors are not that bad and can be fixed as needed. Eric Ries discusses this very nicely in his post Lean start-ups vs. lean companies.

In most cases, exhaustive testing is impossible because there are too many possibilities to test them all. For My.ComMetrics.com, we focused on minimizing the risk of software errors and finding the unexpected ones with the help of alpha users. In this way, we continue to refine and improve the software as you read, this thanks to your and other alpha users’ help!

Our question to readers and My.ComMetrics.com users is, what are your experiences with bugs versus defects – does how they are handled make a difference to you? Please share your thoughts and insights on this important issue by leaving a comment. Thank you.

Five steps to turn buzz into sales
Which FT Global 500 and Fortune 500 blogs made the FT ComMetrics Blog Index
Financial Times – is blogging good value?

What is the FT ComMetrics Index?
ComMetrics has developed a detailed methodology to benchmark corporate blogs. The FT ComMetrics Blog Index uses the same methodology, but a less-detailed version.

Why create such an index?
We thought creating this index this would help promote good practice as far as corporate blogging is concerned.

If you want to find actionable insights, you need to segment your benchmarking data: pinpoint the various sources, user behavior and outcomes. The FT ComMetrics Blog Index helps corporate bloggers achieve this objective.
More issues below.
Who is included?
Companies included in the Index are taken from the FT Global 500 2008, ranked by market capitalisation. Where possible we have indexed the top 25 from the following categories: the US, Europe and the rest of the world. In some cases we were unable to find a corporate blog. In other instances, the blog may be owned by a subsidiary.

This is the case with Berkshire Hathaway: its subsidiary Business Wired has a successful blog that we included in the list. A similar case is EON: its UK division has a blog, but we found no active corporate blog published by its German headquarters (see also Social Media Marketing in Deutschland).

The 2009 FT ComMetrics Blog Index will appear in the Financial Times newspaper’s regular Digital Business supplement and its webpage (www.ft.com/digitalbusiness) on Wednesday, May 13.
Please subscribe now so you can claim your corporate and/or personal blog AND trace those that you want to compare yourself to.
For Twitter, please use #hashtag ➡ #FTCBI

Our next stop was the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki. It has a few blogs that qualify using the criteria we developed for identifying corporate blogs. Really great job these people did in collecting all this important information, have a look.

Another big help was Peter Kim, who put together A List of Social Media Marketing Examples, (Bernhard Warner also recommended this list). Kim has an impressive list of a vast number of social media marketing examples. Sometimes it mentions brands (not necessarily the corporate owner of the brand) and other times, as in the case of IKEA, customer blogs are listed. This is no obstacle, however, and the list is just plain impressive. By the way, another blog that you have to read, his other stuff is impressive too.

The next step was a tweet to Twitter followers, which garnered a nice response from Michael E. Rubin. He suggested Alltop – all the corporate blogs and Feeds of the Blog Council. Of course, this should have been done earlier, since we ourselves are a member of the Alltop Social Media blog crowd.

We also found a ‘white paper’ (five pages but not much detail) and some presentation slides of a survey that included 132 Nordic companies, all with a market capitalization of more than 1 billion euro. There were a few only that had blogs, most we had included already. Check out Corporate blogging amongst listed Nordic companies, it is interesting reading.

Are we still looking for more blogs?
Yes, we are. Please tell us about yours. Companies often have several blogs listed in our database. For instance, all of Hewlett Packard’s numerous blogs are being tracked; naturally, the best one will be included in the Index.

If you want to check out who is already included, visit the
FT ComMetrics Blog Index

If you have a blog that we should track for the Index, tell us about it by leaving a comment below with the blog URL(s).

If you want to see how you compare to others, check out FTindex.ComMetrics.com (you must be registered to view data/statistics).

When will it be published?
The 2009 index will appear in the Financial Times newspaper’s regular supplement on Digital Business and its webpage (www.ft.com/digitalbusiness) on Wednesday, May 13.

=========>
More resources:
FT/ComMetrics Blog Index

Why should people follow a corporate blog or what is tweeting for companies 101? It is like the old saying about wheat and chaff: with a lot of followers come a lot of hecklers. In turn, having specific standards and understanding better what works well helps weed out the worst.
This post addresses some characteristics of corporate Twitter account from Dell, ComcastCares, Tyson Foods and so forth.

Microblogging – also called microsharing has become ever more popular thanks to Twitter and the many Twitter tools that help one make better use of this communication tool. We have addressed this elsewhere like:

Twitter – what works what fails

Return on engagement – Twitter for social media experts – benchmarking with My.ComMetrics.com

Here we are particularly interested in finding a better on what distinguishes a corporate Twitter account from a business or personal type of account.

Louis Gray did a survey amongst Twitter users (about 50 respondent online to one question – select your primary reason for using Twitter). Findings revealed that half of the respondents answered for social network or communicating with friends. However, interesting to us is that just about half used it as part of their job, monitor what others are doing and collecting information.

And while only 1 respondent admitted to use it for a brand, the survey did not address the self-branding issue (i.e. many use it to self-brand, of course) or getting brandchecked for that matter.

what is a corporate Twitter account?
Like we have done for corporate blogs, a definition must be given for a corporate Twitter or microblogging account. We list a few (do you know of a few more for FT Global 500 or Fortune 500 companies, please leave a comment) below:

Direct2Dell – pendent to blog – about Dell services, customers, etc.
DellShares – pendent to blog – investor relations, etc.
DellHomeOffers – get the latest deals, offers, rebates for a limited time only
TysonFoods – pendent to blog – corporate social responsibility – foodbank, etc.

Twitter account uses corporate name
Direct2Dell (about products, happenings, feedback) or  MyComMetrics (users, get feedback, ideas) are corporate Twitter accounts that provide information.

Tyson Foods is an example that illustrates a corporate Twitter account whereby the company is supporting its hunger relief campaign with its microblogging efforts.

While the focus is quite different for each of these examples, the corporate name features prominently. Similar to a CEO blog, Twitter accounts can also be used by top management to tweet on behalf of the organization.

For instance, Commetics or ComcastCares – the face behind the Twitterfeed (see images to the left) -both tweet on behalf of their employers.

In short, using the corporate name and keeping copyright with the company seems standard for corporate Twitter accounts.

However, there are many people using Twitter for professional or business purposes. Their tweets may mention the employer and the corporate brand. Nonetheless, the Twitter account is her or his own, as these examples illustrate. These business Twitterers provide great tweets for many people on business related matters:

Twitter profile – bio links to corporate website.
Besides using the corporate name/brand for the Twitter account and the copyright being owned by the organization, a corporate Twitterfeed is usually linked to a corporate website.

For all the many Dell examples one can find on Twitter, each Twitter account links to its corporate weblog.

Hence, the microblog extends the blog’s voice or vice versa if you wish.

Consistency and volume
Usually, corporate Twitter acounts do not send out tweets during weekends. Below shows you three Dell Twitter accounts and Tyson Foods’ Twitter efforts.

To the left you have DellHomeOffers that provides clients in the U.S. only with special offers. Most times, a tweet gives one a link to a special offer valid for a limited period only.

As the graphic shows for the period of August through November, few tweets are sent to followers each month. However, tweets are limited to sales information nothing else. Hence, very focused and narrow type of tweet content. Accordingly, unless you are in the market for a new product from Dell, this feed might not interest you very much. If you are in the market, however, this tweet can help you save you a few dollars for sure.

The feed to the right – DellShares – is for people interested in the firm’s share price. Of course this means investors and analysts.

All tweets and their content focus on issues of relevance to investors, analysts and shareholders.

DellShare provides maybe one tweet or less each week throughout the month as the graph to the upper right shows.  

To the lower left you have another Dell Twitter account. Dell2Dell has about 1 tweet every work day. It is usually quiet on weekends as are the other two Twitter accounts shown above.

So in comparison to Dell, Tyson Foods (see lower right side) has a few more tweets throughout the month. It also supplies its followers with tweets during weekends.

There are other things that make the Tyson Foods Twitterfeed a bit different from those offered by Dell.  The Tyson Foods Twitter account focuses on an issue that is not directly linked to the company itself – namely, fighting hunger.

Twittertweets focus on THE corporate social responsibility issue Tyson Foods has chosen to pursue and be associated with. This is an engaging matter. Helping people not go hungry during an economic crisis and, as importantly, is of interest to many more people than just those looking for the next best bargain available in Tyson Foods stores.

Corporate Twitter accounts – social relationships versus broadcasting
Following the above reasoning, the engagement level with the Tyson Food blog seems quite high. It has quite a few messages starting or containing somewhere an @username. These are replies to tweets followers have sent in.

Accordingly, all other things being equal – corporate Twitter accounts tend to send out fewer @username replies than other accounts. Except for the case of Tyson Foods mentioned above, all Dell Twitter accounts rarely if ever send out replies. So Dell uses its Twitter accounts to provide followers with information about its products or the corporation. Some would label this classical broadcasting - one way communication. Nothing wrong with that since this is what subscribers expected and got. Nevertheless, building social relationships is something different but can be done nicely as Tyson Foods illustrates.

Followers versus Follwing
As illustrated by Dell Twitter accounts, corporate Twitterers tend to follow fewer people than follow them. In some cases this may be extreme (see Dell Norway following 0 – screenshot earlier to the right). Again, Tyson Foods is a bit different in that it follows more people than follow Tyson Foods. Nevertheless, this is more of an exception than the rule with corporate Twitter accounts it seems.

Some Twitter users even state that they choose not to follow those that:

“… Follow way more people than follow them (this seems spammy, or at the least, desperate)…”

There seems to be no fast and simple rule with corporate Twitterers. Some may follow few people (see Dell) and others follow many (e.g., Tyson Foods) but rarely if ever more than follow them.

Many corporate Twitter accounts – not Dell for sure – have automatic follow in place, whereby anybody who follows the brand will be followed back. With a lot of followers comes a lot of cruft. How these companies stay on top of it is hard to say but time-consuming for sure.

Besides the above characteristics of corporate Twitter accounts and challenges, quite a few do a very good job indeed as illustrated above. Nevertheless, each brand needs to find AND define what the purpose is for using Twitter. Only then can it deliver.

Got other reasons why it’s a challenge? Or have solutions, ideas what makes up a good corporate blog? Leave a comment…

And if you care – follow me on Twitter.
======> Addendum 2008-12-17
Self-employed workers already account for nearly a third of the US workforce- up more than 25 percent in the past two years.

This means ever more often the single-practice doctor, lawyer, accountant use their corporate or family name for Twitter. However, tweeting serves work efforts and not private interests. This type of small business/self-employed entrepreneur type of Twitter accounts are on the increase.
=========>
Here’s what I’m suggesting for today. Add your comment to this post. Keeping in the spirit of Twitter, please tell us about your corporate Twitter feed in 140 characters or so.
Please provide people with your corporate Twitter ID so they can follow you. Only corporate microblogging accounts should be added (for definition see above of course). Thanks.

follow us on Twitter.

My.ComMetrics.com, type in your blog’s URL and start tracking your performance – straight dashboard for straight answers.

1st step – sign-up and get the 60 days free-trial

Get the latest about benchmarking tools and new features we offer by signing up for the Twitterfeed MyComMetrics
=========>

When data are missing, the appropriate missing data analysis procedures do not generate something out of nothing but do make the most out of the data available

One of the most common forms of analysis with missing data involves simply substituting the mean for the variable whenever a value is missing. Unfortunatley, mean substitution can produce very wrong estimates of variances and covariances. In general, substituting the mean for the missing value has the effect of underestimating the magnitude of both variances and covariances

“1. Whenever possible, use the EM algorithm (or other maximum likelihood procedure, including the multiple-group structural equation-modeling procedure or, where appropriate, multiple imputation) for analyses involving missing data.2. If other analyses must be used, keep in mind that they produce biased results and should not be relied upon for final analyses. Recommmending:

a. Never use mean substitution, even for preliminary analyses.

b. With minimal missing data, analysis of complete cases may be a reasonable solution.

c. If data are missing completely at random, pairwise deletion or complete cases analysis may be a reasonable solution.

d. If data are not missing completely at random and the cause of missingness has been measured, complete cases may produce unbiased e2stimates, although it is a generally less powerful approach than the EM algorithm or multiple-group procedure.”

John W. Graham, Scott M. Hofer, and Andrea M. Piccinin (1994). Analysis With Missing Data in Drug Prevention Research L. M. Collins & L. A. Seitz (eds.), Advances in Data Analysis for Prevention Intervention Research (13-63). NIDA Research Monograph 142 Bethesda, MA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Service

Accordingly, mean substitution:

1. artificially decreases the variation of scores, in turn, this decrease in individual variation for each of the variables is proportional to the number of missing data – in turn, the more missing data, the more “perfectly average scores” will be artificially added to the data set; and

2. substitutes missing data with artificially created “average” data points – this can result in considerably changing the values of correlations.

We have tried to minimize this issue with calculating the mean value for those variables with the same Google Page Rank only (e.g., take all means from variable x for those blogs with Google PageRank 4 only – calculate the average score – use it). In turn, this reduces the impact outliers – high and low – may have on our results. For more see also:

what we do with missing values

We are currently in the process of finding ways for doing multiple – imputations. Want to support our efforts, get in touch and/or leave a comment below.We are wondering how we can integrate this program:

Schafer, J. Software for Multiple Imputation

with our work. Suggestions are welcome.

We need to find a way to run it without using any of the statistical packages to do the job for us – any advice – please leave a comment we need your expertise and appreciate any help we can get.

other resources

Allen, E. I., & Sharpe, N. R. (2005) Demonstration of Ranking Issues for Students: A Case Study. Journal of Statistics Education Volume 13, Number 3

Karen Grace-Martin – writes The Analsis Factor blog – you should subscribe – it is refreshing and very helpful indeed