Research: B2B blogging and marketing

Business blogs can shorten sales cycles when they connect decision-makers to the designers and thought leaders who shape new products and services. Unfortunately, B2B blogs are new and evolving; only a small fraction of Fortune 500 companies sponsor one today. This early state represents both an opportunity and a concern for business marketers, especially early pioneers at high-tech firms where evangelists and engineers lead blogging efforts. Forrester believes that B2B blogs can open the formerly closed borders of corporations to prospects, customers, and investors. Marketing's role here is to leverage good blog content produced by technologists into their sales and PR activities, and create guidelines that keep individual bloggers from exposing inside information or straying off topics into areas that don't support the business.

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