Corporate Blog Monitoring Focus 2007

As the blogosphere becomes saturated with discussion about corporate blogs and strategies, I thought (from a monitoring perspective) that Cymfony's Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Jim Nail -- http://www.cymfony.com/abt_mgt.asp#jn -- effectively summed up the focus for 2007 -- http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10798.asp:

"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."

"The blogosphere thrives on diversity of voices. But this time next year [Aug 14, 2006] the voice of business, currently almost absent from the dialogue, will have a more prominent presence."

Some Questions:

1. Who were the early adopters (IBM, HP...)? How did they experiment with topics, audiences, and formats?

2. Who are the fast followers (Wells Fargo, Southwest Airlines...)? How are/will they experiment with topics, audiences and formats?

3. How and what is the comparison effect on business/business communication measured between a single CEO voice on a company blog and a diverse collection of employee voices on a company blog? The business voice vs. the CEO voice...

4. What strategies are companies using to gain visibility to their corporate blogs (since external corporate blogs build networks)? Blog Tag -- a fun means of gaining visibility and networking?

5. What universities/colleges/companies are offering training programs in corporate blogging and what are the topics under study and practice? How are these programs evolving?

6. What surveys and studies on corporate blogging are being conducted and by which companies? What are the findings and how do they compare with previous surveys and studies?

7. What aspects of content management systems are internal blogs overlapping/replacing?

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As I think of more questions, I'll add to them. Please add your thoughts too.