Social media is a hot topic this year and it is likely to remain a hot topic in 2009.  I even found myself talking about it over dinner last night.  That is what happens when two marketers get together for dinner and a movie.  Somehow we end up talking shop.

So you may yawn when I say that I have suggested to a client that she develop an internal blog.  However, it can help her achieve her goals by educating users about an internal resource, disseminating information about enhancements to the system, and reducing calls to the internal help desk by building a community of users that learn from each other.  Believe it or not, there are companies that do not have blogs yet.  I can understand their hesitation.  Blogs result in a loss of control as the blog may move in unintended or undesirable directions.  Further, it can inspire resistance from managers.  There is also the additional work involved as it requires that staff monitor the site and address questions or criticisms at a minimum.    They will probably need to write posts.  Blogs are a lot of work.  Ron Shevlin in his blog states, “a helluva lot of time and effort” went into creating his posts.  (In the interest of full disclosure, I had the pleasure of working with Ron a few years ago.)

To be successful, the blog must focus on what users care about;  it must be about their needs rather than the needs of the company to have credibility and gain acceptance.  If it does so, it will develop a devoted audience.  Again to use Ron’s blog as an example, his post announcing the end of his blog has 55 comments as I write this.  This was after just writing his blog for two years.    I too will miss Ron’s thoughtful posts.

As much as I like to measure and quantify, it is too early to try to assign a dollar value to social media.  Marketers are still trying to figure out how to use social media effectively.  Until they do, they will not be able to measure the impact of social media on their efforts and their brands more generally. 

If you are interested, Limeduck has posted about a tweet up held by a Boston radio station, WBUR, to explore and discuss social media.  Also, Tangyslice has also begun interviewing “real people using Web 2.0 to improve the way they do business”.