I think you got it half-right when you said that a large part of this ‘cannot be discovered’. Sure you can look at output (in trad PR terms) like number of links or number of readers… but this is kind of like measuring AVE or number of people reading an article. It doesn’t translate to out-take or outcome.

Blogging in particular as a comms tool (at least in my eyes) is about demonstrating your commitment to a set of values – whether in business, government etc. I’ve met a lot of people who agree that you can’t measuer ROI but you can guarantee by blogging openly about your brand you can make a lot more people like you more (providing you are serious about really connecting with people).

They say if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. But the thing is if you try to manage relationships with stakeholders, customers etc they usually know and don’t like it. I appreciate this has kind of drifted away from your original post… but I liked where it was going! Sorry.