“Everyone is too afraid to use the Internet to buy things.”

Do you remember when they said that? It wasn’t that long ago.

Look at us now. People can buy and buy anything on the web. The fear, really the fear of change, is gone.

They said that television would destroy the cinema. That did not happen. Movies are a completely different form than television, but we didn’t realize it at the time. Both television and movies survived and now feed on each other.

In hindsight, we all see what was perfectly obvious.

Now they say that blogs or weblogs are taking over the Internet.

A blog is effectively an online journal where you, or a group, can record your inner thoughts and comment on a topic. Anyone has access to read your journal entry (known as a post) and can comment on it.

For much more detailed information on blogging, see the Wikipedia entry for “Blogging.“

You surpass yourself 474 million search results if you enter “blog” in Google.

Part of the reason for the attraction of blogging is its ease of use. It only takes a few minutes to start “blogging.”

You first sign up with a blog server, like Google’s Blogger, SixApart’s TypePadblog, or you use WordPress.

You choose a page template that you like. There are several very good ones available completely free. Then post your first post.

The last step is to inform a blog directory each time you create a new post (this is called pinging). Services like Pingoat and Pingomatic are sites that can ping other directories on your behalf.

People search these directories using blog search engines and browse blogs similar to websites.

Do Businesses Really Use Blogs?

Company executives use blogs. For example, Bob Lutz, vice president of General Motors, has his own blog. Other GM people also contribute. IBM Vice President Bob Sutor and Boeing Vice President of Marketing Randy Baseler also write their own blogs.

Employees of companies such as Microsoft, Google and the Hewlett Packard blog.

When blogs Used in a positive way, it shows your clients and prospects your corporate personality and helps build rapport.

What are the downsides of the blog?

The CEO of the company should not blog. That’s because there can be pressure to signal future events. Or worse yet, if they cast a clanger, it can spread around the world very quickly.

Another potential downside to blogging is that you have no influence over what others put on their own blogs about what you’ve written.

You just need to look at some of the comments General Motors received on Bob Lutz’s blog when they started a discussion about seat belts to see how heated things can get.

Companies may be concerned that employees are spending too much time writing or reading blogs. That means there must be a blogging policy in place to prevent such abuse.

What is the advantage of a blog?

A blog can position someone, or a company, as an expert. But people can easily pass off other people’s work as their own. So it really is a case of “buyer beware” when reading blogs.

So will blogging be a success in attracting and retaining customers?

The short answer is that it depends, and the reasons are:

1) It’s just another marketing communication channel – it can be used well or not. More like how PR is used.

2) For some companies it is too public

3) It is completely without editorial control.

4) Requires a commitment to regularly update and verify and respond to comments.

It has been said that consultancies and other organizations dealing with knowledge and intellectual property benefit the most from blogging. That’s because they can demonstrate their ability and expertise to your market in a different way than other marketing tactics.

But really, why should it stop there? The General Motor blog is useful for communicating new model launches and responding to customer feedback.

In fact, there really is no practical limit to who can use blogging to communicate with clients and prospects.

But in the end, is blogging a dead end?

The business blog is definitely an important communication tool that every business should seriously consider as part of their marketing arsenal. But it should be seen as another business tool whose bottom line is: “Do you get more sales or lower your company’s costs?”

If you can’t offer at least one of those measures, business blogging deserves to fail.

I have been blogging for over a year and found that I have had thousands of views. I do not intentionally get any sales from that. But that’s because I am writing mini articles and will eventually use them as the basis for my next book.

So in the final analysis, blogs are another communication channel for companies to have the ability to take theirs and have you do PR, word of mouth, viral and internet marketing for them.

Internet publicity it has become big business. Suppose blog to do the same.