Blog Benchmarks

[thegypsy]

Ok... noob round these parts..why not get some opinions shall we?

I was reading this thread; How many hits

It brught to mind the issue of valuations and measuring 'success'. To that end I was recently debating this wil a Social MEdia Marketing pal and ended up writing this;

Blog Post Benchmarks

which was a response/continuation of this post by my buddy Jeff; Benchmarking Your Blog Post Quality ... So You Can Improve

Here was my analysis;

Primary Factors;

Comments on the Blog – it is barely a primary factor, but one none the less in this scenario. Considering the need for such a Blog to begin a dialogue to ultimately create a relationship, enticing engagement could be important. Being able to use the company blog as part of the CRM package also leverages the same space.

# Inbound Links – new Blog that needs to start developing a link profile. Consideration should be taken when crafting Blog post titles and find topical hot spots. Link bait is also a great SMM cross-over.

Votes in Appropriate Social Media (Digg, Reddit, Niche, Vertical, etc.) – important as it not only begins to establish a presence but also goes hand in hand with the above link building activities. As a new blog the need for links is accented by the SMM campaign.

Buzz Factor – I think there also needs to be some factors to gauge web world activity. One can look at Technorati or a mix of Google Blog Search activity and other chatter that shows the trends towards those that are active in their space ( broken down to the target market).




Secondary Factors;

Post UVs (unique visitors) – I say this because early on trying to establish contact and create early evangelists is key. Since we are going to be active in Social Media (primary) and Social Networking (secondary) there is going to be some lowered expectations for over-all engagement and rates. Once the blog is older and has a more established SEO profile, this will change. Under this plan, while important, it could be considered a secondary concern for the moment.

Stumbles – we’re more interested in direct sales or leads. Used as a secondary factor for part of the branding activities. Not considered a primary target demographic. As part of the over-all branding package it most certainly should be established, I have simply yet to see it as a primary over-all focus.

Del.icio.us Saves – the tech heavy user base is not a close enough demographic to be considered a viable primary indicator. Likely this would be more of a fringe Buzz monitor tool on a given SMM campaign.

Increase in RSS Subscribers – once more the key targets here are sales and sales leads. This is an obvious secondary consideration although I know there are bloggers everywhere that are having a coronary to such heresy. I didn’t give it the boot from the list, I merely moved it down here…. there has to be some defining lines and these are the ones I have drawn, (see how inexact the science of measuring engagement is?)

...now if you read the rest of the post, you'd understand the methodology, thinking and the fact that valuations are specific to the goals and situational market factors... the above snippet merely addresses the conversation at hand - not a definative list (as I mentioned, read my post for details of the discussion)

How do you measure success?