According to blog monitor Technorati, a new blog is created every half-second or so. That means roughly half a million new blogs each week. While this level of growth may be hard to sustain, there is little question about the impact of the blogosphere on the flow of information and it serves as a kind of indicator for what is going on in the world (news, trends, etc).
Blogs have become standard fare for hobbyists, experts and families to share photos with eager grandparents. Many bloggers have several blogs depending on topic. The notion of creating a personal blog is not a real head scratcher.
However, key questions remain for the company or organization. Should we blog? What should we blog about? Should our CEO blog? For many organizations, it's a question of resources - or that's the perception at least. For others, the focus is the potential for negative exposure.
Ultimately, as we discuss these questions with clients, the "to blog or not to blog" question boils down at least in part to audience. At a minimum many kinds of organizations need blogs simply to connect with new or existing customers or remain current vis-a-vis close competitors; while others leverage blogs to pro-actively advance (or sustain) message or respond quickly to a crisis.
There are a variety of reasons a company or non-profit would consider blogging and some are more compelling than others. At the end of the day, every organization needs a plan on how to maintain and grow their blog and be able to clearly articulate the role the blog would play within the overall marketing and communications mix. We have observed too many blogs which fall flat due to lack of timely content, management support or a well-intentioned but incorrect understanding of what a blog should be. Overly "wordsmithed" company blogs that lack candor and a degree of informality are likely to be off-the-mark.
A half-baked blog is in fact worse than no blog at all.
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