Social Media Domination

eConsultancy is a fantastic resource on Marketing and Public Relations statistics. In their Online PR Trends Briefing for 2009, they state:

25% of company respondents report improvement in engagement through brand presence with blogging.
23% with social networks
21% with user generated content
10% with widgets
7% with Twitter

The statistics in the report are quite detailed, speaking to the advantages of email marketing, targeted landing pages, user ratings and feedback, brand presence.... the list goes on and on!

What the report doesn't talk about is how to effectively leverage all of these formadable tools to engage customers - and it can all start with a great corporate blogging strategy!

You can publish your blog to social networks and to twitter automatically.
You can focus your blog content using a micro-site strategy using a tool like Compendium.
You can solicit feedback through blog comments.
You can publish UGC (User-generated content) as part of your blogging strategy.
You can publish video and audio.
You can repurpose content from email to blog and vice-versa.

What can be accomplished with blogging, coupled with the advantages blogging has with organic traffic, it seems a no-brainer that all Marketing and PR professionals would start with blogging.

By starting with a blog, you're able to leverage your content through syndication and take advantage of so many of the other tactics that provide an effective improvement in engagement.