A very hot Internet driven business initiative right now is a company blog; politicians to consultants, homebased business to Fortune 500 corporations, all are involved in blogging. You may not have a very clear picture of what a blog is and how it can be a useful communications tool for businesses.

Developed from web-based technology, blogs (short for web log) encourage second party communication from a specific audience on specific topics. Many people think of blogs as opinion forums but there are valid business applications as well. Whether you use it to communicate internally to your own employees or externally to your clients, blogs establish a different arena for sharing information and soliciting responses. Company blogs are an emerging trend and are predicted to be a normal communication method within just a few years.

Our company started a blog earlier this year as another tool for external communication. By posting New Projects we show what were working on; by posting questions and asking for response we hope to learn about issues relevant to our industry that concern clients and the services they find valuable. Maybe that seems like self-promotion, but we think it offers existing clients and potential clients the opportunity to talk with us in a completely neutral setting.

Used for internal communication, a blog gives you another forum to offer the company perspective on a broad range of topics and solicit feedback from your associates. A blog is not a chat room and it isnt another method to take a survey. It can encourage thoughtful response, new ideas or brainstorming among collaborative teams. Say, for instance, that your IT team has an idea for a new software application but they have no idea if it is saleable. The folks that know what new products your clients might buy are in Sales. We all know that Sales hates meetings because thats time not spent selling (and making money). What if IT could post their new idea on the company website via a blog that is accessible to employees only and Sales could comment, ask questions, brainstorm and offer possible client uses for the new software. Feedback from lots of sourcesmeeting free collaboration.

Believe it or not, there are over 46 million blogs on the Internet covering every conceivable subject. More than 5000 companies maintain their own blog for internal and/or external audiences. Whatever your interest or occupation, I guarantee there are hundreds maybe thousands of blogs that apply to you. The easiest way to better understand blogs is to actually start blogging. Go to an Internet search engine, like Google, and enter a subject that interests you. Then just surf through a few sites and see what others are saying. Youll be amazed!