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<!--Generated by Squarespace Site Server v5.5.4 (http://www.squarespace.com/) on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:55:08 GMT--><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><title>Blackline Blog RSS</title><subtitle>Home</subtitle><id>http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/</id><link rel="alternate" type="application/xhtml+xml" href="http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/"/><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/atom.xml"/><updated>2009-06-30T16:38:00Z</updated><generator uri="http://www.squarespace.com/" version="Squarespace Site Server v5.5.4 (http://www.squarespace.com/)">Squarespace</generator><entry><title>Joint forces</title><category term="Conferences/Events"/><id>http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/2009/6/30/joint-forces.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/2009/6/30/joint-forces.html"/><author><name>Pieter</name></author><published>2009-06-30T16:29:12Z</published><updated>2009-06-30T16:29:12Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p><span class="full-image-float-left ssNonEditable"><span><img src="http://www.blacklineblog.com/storage/icons/conferences-seminars.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1246379810919" alt="" /></span></span>Being a communications professional, I mostly talk about social media with other professionals, be it in marketing, corporate communications, internal communications, ... One question arises quite often during these conversations: how do we measure ROI? This is a very relevant question especially from a marketing perspective.</p>
<p>And apparantly not only for communication- but also for IT-specialists, as I recently found out at a seminar about social media aimed at IT professionals. However, questions there did not include ROI, but were more about the best tools to use when implementing social media &lsquo;what wiki should we use?', 'which blogging platform best allows measuring impact?', etc... These are also valid questions: IT professionals mostly are aware of how to measure the online impact, but they want to make sure they implement the software that most easily allows measurement later on. That is, of course, because they are the people the communication department will turn to when wanting to know the ROI of their social media efforts.</p>
<p>Now imagine what happens when you combine the knowledge of an IT-professional with that of a communications specialist....</p>
<p>When they combine forces, any social media project will have a higher chance of success. Together, they know exactly what to say, what platform to use to spread the message and will be able to track impact afterwards.</p>
<p>So, if you are a communications professional thinking of setting up a social media project, have a chat with your IT department first. Chances are, they will have good advice and come up with questions and tips you hadn't even thought about. It has definitely proven to work for us ;-).</p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>Student research on the use of social media increases</title><category term="External Communications"/><id>http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/2009/3/6/student-research-on-the-use-of-social-media-increases.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/2009/3/6/student-research-on-the-use-of-social-media-increases.html"/><author><name>Pieter</name></author><published>2009-03-06T10:28:56Z</published><updated>2009-03-06T10:28:56Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p><span class="full-image-float-left ssNonEditable"><span><img src="http://www.blacklineblog.com/storage/post-images/external_communications.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1236336306285" alt="" /></span></span>If the amount of student research would be a reliable indicator, we are in for a wave of social media outreach programmes. Over the course of a number of months, I have seen a rise in information requests from communication and PR students who are researching social media for&nbsp;external communicatons&nbsp;purposes.</p>
<p>The requests came via numerous ways. Two girls did face 2 face interviews. I remember some email invites. Then there was a link to a questionnaire via Twitter early this week. On top of that, <a href="http://www.3c.be/">3C</a> and <a href="http://www.iab-belgium.be/">IAB</a> support a research questionnaire for a Master&nbsp;student (if you wish to participate, you can still fill in your answers <a href="http://socialmediasurvey.questionpro.com/">here</a>). And then I am probably forgetting some others.</p>
<p>Judging by the questions that are being asked, it seems that we have come a long way from the <a href="http://www.digimedia.be/nl/article.php?type=29&amp;id_act=2537">first</a> <a href="http://www.leadsunited.com/page/CorporateblogsarestilloutsidersinBelgium.htm">researches</a> towards use of social media in Belgium. Hopefully this also means business is getting ready for a professional use of the different tools.</p>
<p>Regards,</p>
<p>Pieter</p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>Survey: 64% of professionals say web 2.0 tools increase their productivity</title><category term="External Communications"/><category term="Internal Communications"/><id>http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/2008/12/9/survey-64-of-professionals-say-web-20-tools-increase-their-p.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.blacklineblog.com/home/2008/12/9/survey-64-of-professionals-say-web-20-tools-increase-their-p.html"/><author><name>Pieter</name></author><published>2008-12-09T16:50:11Z</published><updated>2008-12-09T16:50:11Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p><span class="full-image-float-left ssNonEditable"><span><img src="http://www.blacklineblog.com/storage/icons/social-networking.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1228842356926" alt="" /></span></span>A new international survey, conducted by <a class="offsite-link-inline" href="http://www.biz-info.eu" target="_blank">BizInfo</a> and Blackline, the social media agency of <a class="offsite-link-inline" href="http://www.leadsunited.com" target="_blank">Leads United</a>, found that apart form increasing productivity:</p>
<ul>
<li>65,3% business professionals say that web 2.0 services allow them to achieve business objectives and</li>
<li>78,1% believe they help increase collaboration among employees.</li>
</ul>
<p>To the 557 respondents of our survey, "Social Networking" appears to be the most used Web2.0 service (95.3%), followed by Blogs (51.2%), RSS (49.9%) and Wikis (47.2%).</p>
<p>Online social networks are used daily for professional purposes by 32,5% of the respondents and at least once a week for 80.1%.</p>
<p>The top 3 social networking sites used for professional purposes are LinkedIn (94%), Facebook (46.3%) and Plaxo (41.2%).</p>
<p>You can read the <a class="offsite-link-inline" href="http://www.blacklineblog.com/press-releases/2008/12/9/survey-64-of-professionals-say-web-20-tools-increase-their-p.html" target="_blank">full press release here</a>.</p>]]></content></entry></feed>