Corporate Blogging – Forrester’s latest research gives pause for thought.

Only one in six consumers trust company blogs, according to Forrester Research’s “Time to Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas” released on Tuesday. This report echoes Forrester’s earlier research released in June which showed corporate bloggers failing to get results from their activities.

This research might seem surprising to those who have seen their natural search rankings increase, customer retention improved and more business coming through the sales funnel through their corporate blog. However, we are not totally surprised by the overall findings.

Before we get too carried away with the research, it is worth noting a couple of demographics that Forrester has pulled up which set this research in context:

• The average age of those surveyed was 42 years, within both pro and anti-blogging groups. Perhaps using a younger survey group would have given us different results; those in the ‘40 something’ age group are not usually early adopters of new technology.

• Out of the U.S. online adults that Forrester surveyed only 48 percent trusted the Yellow Pages (not online), perhaps indicating a fairly cautious survey population.

The question is when and how to blog for business? Forrester suggest several reasons for a company to blog, from customer service to employee involvement. What’s clear to us is that a company should identify the objectives for a blog before they start posting and that blogging should form part of an overall communications strategy. Corporate blogging is not a quick fix.

As part of a sustained PR and marketing strategy a blog can complement and highlight existing corporate goals and messaging. It provides an open forum for issues that cannot be addressed on a static website and through traditional media.