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"So here goes. Three years ago, we wrote a big story-but missed a bigger one. We focused on blogs as a new form of printing press, one that turned Gutenberg's economics on its head, making everyone a potential publisher.Blogs, it turns out, are just one of the do-it-yourself tools to emerge on the Internet. Vast social networks such as Facebook and MySpace offer people new ways to meet and exchange information. While only a small slice of the population wants to blog, a far larger swath of humanity is eager to make friends and contacts, to exchange pictures and music, to share activities and ideas."

— "Beyond Blogs," BusinessWeek, May 22, 2008.

Blogs (abstract of web log) and social media on the Internet are a phenomenon most of us are only beginning to come to terms with. Nearly all corporations now experiment with some form of social media ranging from the ubiquitous blog to podcasts to online video (video blogging) with an adventurous few pioneers (the likes of Phil Lempert) dipping their toes into the 3-D virtual world of Second Life to explore the vast opportunities for business applications and consumer connections.

When Google purchased YouTube in 2006 for $1.6 billion, a paltry sum compared to Google's overall worth, it helped to legitimize the value of new forms of social media and personal communication on the Internet. The YouTube purchase was prescient of a growing cultural interest in personal online communication and foresaw subsequent applications for social networking sites. According to web metrics specialist comScore, 80.4 million viewers watched 3.42 billion videos on YouTube in the month of February 2008. Compared to its video cousins, the lowly web diary or blog continues to plod on. Blog-follower Technorati says it currently tracks 112 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of "tagged social media." Blog pundits theorize that there are only about 15 million active blogs.

A hint as to the influence blogs (in whatever form they take, written or video) hold and why business should not dismiss its potential, can be found in a Technorati description of a blog:

"Some blogs are intended for a small audience; others vie for readership with national newspapers. Blogs are influential, personal, or both, and they reflect as many topics and opinions as there are people writing them. Blogs are powerful because they allow millions of people to easily publish and share their ideas, and millions more to read and respond. They engage the writer and reader in an open conversation, and are shifting the Internet paradigm as we know it."

Dear Diary: To Blog or Not to Blog?

While the number of active blogs is a very small subset of the total blogosphere, commentary covers the full spectrum of events and issues in culture, lifestyle, economics, politics, environment and entertainment, and more. It is not unusual to find a CEO chatting it up with analysts, employees and consumers alike.

Amidst many controversies (for example, should corporations pay employees to breezily pen musings formerly controlled by the public relations office), we find even buttoned-down media, like The Wall Street Journal, sporting over 28 topical blogs, each depicting the figurehead photo of contributing authors who are enabled, within the context of "blog breeziness" to expound on beats as diverse as law, politics, family life vs. work and sports. Blogs, it's safe to say, have at the very least, transformed traditional journalism from a one dimensional form of passive consumption (all the news that's fit to print) to one of immediate, informal, fast commentary with a conversational tone.

Sample Tinderbox Blog Post: Fresh, AmazonFresh
http://blog.tinderboxthg.com/2008/02/amazon.html
Tinderbox posts regular commentary on a broad range of cultural trends.

Along with their real-time ability to communicate trends (e.g., "news") about nearly any new or under-examined topic, one of the fundamental positives of corporate blogs is their ability to establish a transparent tone reflective of the organization. Such transparency is vitally important for business communications. We see increasing interest in companies and brands that provide a clear view of operational elements. Our Tinderbox blog is used to playfully communicate snapshots of potential trends occurring in the context of culture. As the following table illustrates, while there are many positives to having a blog, there are just as many reasons to not have one.

Blog Next: Micro-blogs, Social Connections and Authentic Online Communities

Blogging is still changing and evolving. One form of evolution has taken the form of micro-blogging enabled by services such as Twitter and Tumblr. These community-driven sites enable bloggers to communicate on a micro-scale by quickly posting text, links, photos, videos and other data by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web. The operative term around micro-blogging sites is the notion that users can publish their micro posts to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted community chosen by the user.

Tumblr is more like a social networking site: You get to know other users by seeing them on your dashboard. It's unclear just how much sites like Tumblr will grow, but for now, it's a jumping off point for personal blogging.

The possible next step for blogs lies in the notion that consumers will still develop personal voices online but in different ways. This may be true for business as well. Without a doubt, social networking, regardless of the form it takes (whether it is the basic test-driven blog to the visually engaging YouTube), has been integrated into our personal and professional lives.

Blog's Bottom Line

Blogs are part of the brave new world of social media. Collaborative tools such as blogs, wikis, social networks and virtual programs such as Second Life can play an instrumental role in marketing, advertising, research, product innovation, customer service and so much more. The development of social networking has transformed the way companies communicate and collaborate with its consumers. By developing new ways to network online, corporations and consumers alike are able to define and deepen their online presence and move away from more impersonal forms of interactive media.

For the business world, today's use of social media tools in step with more conventional communications strategies means that corporations can attempt to stay at least on the curve of online innovation, as consumers adopt, and Internet innovators create, new and different techniques of networking and communicating within ever-smaller communities.