The following is an extract from an article I wrote for Australian Marketing Magazine (Nov 07 edition). The intended audience is marketing and PR professionals but the overall message applies just as well to online marketers who are not currently using blogs as a communications tool

How do you plan to implement your marketing strategy? It's a simple question that anyone working in Marketing and Public Relations tackles with every client or project. Blogging is never the answer alone, but blogs can provide a part of the any marketing strategy.

Blogs can be considered in two ways that are both related to the dissemination of your message; you can either publish your own blog (think in the same space as websites, newsletters, email) or you can build relationships with blogs and bloggers to use in spreading your message (think newspapers, radio, TV).

Using existing blogs to spread your message is a no-brainer, after all you wouldn't ignore regular news outlets as part of a outward looking marketing strategy; blogs are simply an extension of that plan. Depending on what your product is, blogs can often be a better outlet than the mainstream media as well. Consider the Web 2.0 focused TechCrunch (disclosure, I write for TechCrunch). The site currently has in excess of 1.5million unique readers everyone month and has approximately 600,000 RSS subscribers. The 600,000 subscribers may never visit the site so are not counted in the unique visitor total, yet they read the site daily. Those numbers aren't high compared to the large gadget blogs such as Gizmodo and Engadget. Although an important metric, readership isn't always the definitive way of measuring a blogs worth, influence is. A small blog could be read by the CEO's of the Fortune 500 companies, another blog may have amongst its readers the top CTO's in the country.

Is Running A Blog Right for Your Company?

Unfortunately there is no simple answer. In the majority of cases the answer would be yes.

In considering whether blogging is right for your company, you must consider your corporate or client's communications strategy, including its goals and contingency planning.

First and foremost blogs are a low cost way of connecting with existing and potential customers, peers and the media. Consider running a blog in the same way you would run a newsletter, bulk email and media releases; a blog is another communications tool in any marketing or PR department's tool belt.

It should be noted though that in function blogs do work differently, even if at their core they come back to being a communications tool that stands alongside others. Blogs as a medium tend to be more informal; this isn't a strict rule but blog posts work best when they don't sound like a media release. In terms of reaching your customers they are more of a person to personal direct method of communication. Writing in the first person works best.

That informality can be both a curse and a blessing, depending on the individuals at each company. Blogging works better when it's raw and personal, not carefully structured, edited then considered in a five person meeting. Preferably they should be written by someone involved in the company/ client itself, for example the CEO, Managing Director or Department Head.

The second reason for considering a blog for any company is one of contingency planning. It may sound ominous but consider a story breaking in the blogosphere that is damaging to your company. The Kryptonite Lock case is one example but it doesn't have to be that extreme. How will you respond to negative press from blogs? Traditional media can work, but it isn't always the best answer. Blogs are ultimately the biggest ongoing conversation on the planet, bloggers write, link and comment to other blogs, and they don't always respect nor listen to messages delivered by traditional communication paths. The best contingency plan your company can have in terms of negative publicity from blogs is by being part of the conversation; not by starting a blog overnight (although sometimes it's better late than never), but by already having an established blog, a presence from which you can engage with customers and anybody else operating in this space. Blogging is always the best way of getting your message out to other blogs.

The case against blogging isn't clear cut; some would argue that not everyone has something to say. As someone who has spent time in PR and Marketing positions I'd suggest that a company or client who has nothing to say probably shouldn't be in business. Everyone has a story, from the smallest sole-trader business through to multi-nationals.

If you're Joe the Plumber who is turning away work and spends 60 hours a week fixing toilets you probably don't need a blog; a small business of that size with ample work doesn't need a marketing or communications strategy. And yet Jan the Florist works in a hyper-competitive vertical and creates amazing flower creations. Jan could easily blog about her creations, including pictures demonstrating what she is capable of.