Jim Nail, Cymfony’s chief strategy and marketing officer writes in mediaconnection.com about the current use of corporate blogs, the benefits they offer and what’s ahead.

He claims that 2007 will be a breakthrough year for corporate blogging and therefore provides us with five indicators to prove his forecast right:

• Indicator #1: Mainstream industries join the corporate blog list.
Companies like Nike, Starwood Hotels or McDonald’s, who offer distinctly non-digital products, have begun to see the (commercial) value of blogs and will encourage others to join.

• Indicator #2: Corporate blogging topics are diversifying.
Companies like McDonald’s (corporate social responsibility) or Starwood Hotels (travel tips, news about new mobile devices and information about their hotels) deploy weblogs to inform about very different company or non-company related issues. Some corporate blogs even involve executives discussing corporate strategy.

• Indicator #3: Interest in best practices continues to grow.
A survey initiated by Cymphony showed that only about one third of those interviewed already have blogs whilst two thirds indicated that they were at least likely to have a blog in 2007.

• Indicator #4: Positive results decrease the fear factor.
Whilst many companies are still reluctant to set up blogs because they fear they will receive negative comments and criticism. Instead, negative experiences are the exception, not the rule.

• Indicator #5: Social media can be a source of market insight.
Just as fear of criticism, some companies belief that monitoring the blogosphere is only about detecting potential attacks on the company. The top three reasons for monitoring blogs are to discover emerging trends, to gain competitive insight and to understand the word of mouth about their company.

These indicators lead Jim Nail to conclude: “2006 was the year for early adopters of corporate blogs. Based on these indicators, 2007 is shaping up to be the year that the fast followers will kickstart corporate blogging. This wave will spur greater experimentation with topics, audiences and formats, leading more companies to jump into the blogosphere.”