Measuring Blogs
Jeff Jarvis today issued a call for a blog measurement summit. That's a great idea. As he points out, current panel based solutions aren't as accurate as many would like to see, especially when it comes to niche blogs. Fortunately, there are a number of smart companies looking at and thinking about the problem, including Comscore. But I believe that Jeff's notion of getting together a group of people who can speak to how the data is gathered and used would be very helpful.
Some of the specific solution ideas he throws out have merit, but may be difficult to implement. Using a centralized service that aggregates server statistics or convincing all bloggers to use the same stats service would be challenging because it involves so many different players. And that's precisely why a summit of some sort would help get the issues on the table and help alls sides understand each other's challenges.
As the founder of a company that tries to help clients understand their media coverage in traditional sources as well as blogs, I would welcome access to more reliable data that can help our customers develop metrics to better measure blog coverage.
I believe Jeff has the requisite stature and influence among key players that he is well suited to issue this call. Hopefully others will heed it and we can move forward with the start of this important dialogue.
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