Blogging has been around for years now. It’s a socially acceptable way to get your opinion out on the Web without fear of rejection (you can control the comments…) and with relative ease. What was once Web Logging has evolved significantly in the past few years, expanding from simple paragraph entries that were more personal in nature to magazine-type formatted text and images that need a CMS to organize entries properly.

One appealing aspect of blogging is that it allows people to share their expertise on very singular topics with the whole world. While Adam Smith would approve of this specialization, would he see the value of essentially publishing ideas and thoughts for free? This is what most blogs, in fact, do, and the vast majority of blogs are a labor of love rather than a profitable enterprise. The new and intrepid blogger shouldn’t count on getting rich through Google AdSense. Today, the competition for readers is tremendous and the sheer number of blogs staggering, making it all the more challenging to be heard above the din.

In the past few years, blogging has moved beyond the personal and into the corporate world. At this point, you’re the odd-man-out if your firm doesn’t have a blog on its website or isn’t at least planning a blog initiative for 2008. Corporate Insight is no exception. We’ve been blogging publically now for a few months and we do see the value in providing our thoughts on subjects near and dear to our heart - financial services products and services. We like the flexibility a blog gives us to point out – in real-time – some of the interesting experiences we’ve had with financial services firms in the course of our research. We like that when we’re given a flyer or a free bagel by a guy on a Segway with a bank’s logo on it, we can talk about what it means beyond some quick reading material and a full stomach.

With that said, blogging also presents a challenge to us and we’re sure to many. While it’s good to have an outlet, how much do you give away before you leak too much value out onto the Web? This is a struggle many firms are going through and it’s not an easy one to come to grips with. Sure, you have your server stats and Google Analytics showing you how many users and page views you have. Great, you’re popular. Beyond an ego stroke, is the value of blogging making its way into your checking account at the end of the day? After all, page views are no substitute for paying customers. What server stats can tell you is if your social marketing is being bought by the masses. While it may not be exacting, it’s safe to assume that if you’re getting a lot of page views and have developed a loyal readership, someone is hearing your message.

One question we feel some companies haven’t answered before launching their blog is “why?” A lot of what we see in terms of corporate blogging today has a “me-too” feel to it. “Look, we have a new product, here is the same information we put in a brochure.” Sure, this will help your search engine rankings, but is there a deeper purpose or strategic reason beyond that? Are you simply trying to prove that you “get” Web 2.0 or are you genuinely interested in creating a dialog between your firms and your customers? Are you blogging just to keep up with the Joneses?

For us at Corporate Insight, we view our blog as a gateway to our knowledge. Many of the items we talk about were covered in our subscription Monitor publications, usually in more detail with all the gory facts and images. Some posts provide updates on topics we’ve covered in our research by reviewing recent changes in the marketplace. Essentially, we’re using our blog as a social marketing tool to provide a taste of our expertise in financial services competitive analysis.  There it is, that is our goal. Along the way, we get to learn more about readers’ likes and dislikes (server stats, remember) and this helps shape potential research topics for clients and, of course, future blog posts. It lets us take the pulse of our client base day in and day out.

While the blog concept seems simple enough, planning and executing one for a company is not so simple. You need to seriously consider several questions before jumping into the blogosphere. How do you create a destination that your customers will want to visit? How do you provide value without giving away the store? And how does this all reinforce your company’s strategic goals?

We’ve laid out our basic blogging premise. Do you understand yours?