Blogs as a business tool

Weblogs now seem to be finding commercial applications as marketing tools, and the business press is starting to pay attention to it - it is claimed to be the new market research, the new branding and the new R&D rolled into one. There's a debate raging as to whether blogging should be done by journalists, copywriters, PR agencies or in-house staff. Of course, there's another group who could be doing it - technical communicators. They can write clearly and they understand the organisation and the users.

We have always run the front page of our Web site and this newsletter as a hybrid blog (without a comment facility), and this month we have implemented a Cherryleaf Blog in order to complement this newsletter.

Blogging may also offer a better way for sharing knowledge *internally* around an organisation. Blogging is quick, easy, often informal, and collaborative. Microsoft has been an early pioneer of this approach, and it will be interesting to see if it is adopted by others.

What do you think of the future for blogs?