I like yogurt. So much so that when I heard about a blog from yogurt company Stonyfield Farms in New Hampshire, I surprised myself by thinking: Even I don't like yogurt enough to read an online diary about how to market milk curdled by bacteria.

But blog, short for web log, technology is best harnessed by the open-minded. I was an instant fan of Stonyfield's approach. Instead of trying to plug their products, they layer their blog with posts on healthy living, parenting hurdles and grass growth. ("Compost has made the biggest difference in the amount of feed produced per acre.") The company hired a full-time blogger to update daily.

Raising kids and yogurt doesn't have much in common, but Stonyfield saw a link: Parents want to stay healthy in the face of family stress, so wouldn't an article on giving birth in water (a real post) keep Mom glued to the comments thread?

If businesses don't wake up to this point that's already tipped, they'll miss an opportunity to show the human face of the news releases. Corporate blogs, written for the public rather than for employees, have become virtual coffeehouses to bounce ideas to interested web surfers. And the best blogs rarely masquerade as websites designed to lure cursors to the Buy Now page.



On board the corporate blog-wagon are companies you knew would lead the charge: Google, IBM, Intel, Sun Microsystems, GM and Microsoft - which has a roster of staff writing blogs relating to their fields. These blogs aren't popular just because friends refresh an executive's blog to check their daily schedule.

Code language is a hot topic at Google and the Netflix blog keeps readers updated on DVD copyright protection news. Content moves away from PR language and into everyday chatter.

Forget playing catchup. The smartest CEOs are initiating blogs to generate traffic and reach customers cynical about a website's modus operandi. They're getting top search-engine results. The lazy CEO is clicking on his favourite business blog, sighing and wondering if he'll ever have the time to do the same.

Corporate blogging consultant Debbie Weil told me that corporations shouldn't hesitate for a second. As someone who is also writing a book about blogs, Weil has seen her share of hits and misses and knows the benefits of going online and interactive. "It's low-cost, easy and spreads word-of-mouth buzz," she says.

Advertising used to do the last, while being anything but low-cost and easy; now this new tech trend is trumping the technique of yesteryear even though its online diary format has been stereotyped as trivial and fleeting.

Think this is a passing fancy? Consider the stats from respected blog-industry observer Technorati, which reported that the total number of blogs is doubling every month. A new blog is created every second. More than 14 million blogs populate the Internet.

More often that not, someone in your business is writing a blog. It might be full of rants against those darn trans-fat producers. Or it could be pictures from Aruba. Maybe this worker is already posting opinions about her boss. Why not funnel that creative energy into a form that lends itself to blending conversation with policy? A revealing post on a company's future business plans can attract as many visits as the next day's post about lunchroom protocol.

Explaining it that simply makes blogging look like an easy process, but it takes more than just vigilant updates. A progressive company will find an employee who embraces new technology, enjoys writing, scans the web for news about their field and has something to say.

The blog will post discussion starters on industry innovation, as well as throwing in the first-person I when the moment calls for it. Some blog readers love to learn about an exec's inner life, while others prefer to gain insight into the business nitty-gritties. Get personal when it's natural and reveal opinions gradually. Establishing relationships with blogosphere explorers is like the buyer-consumer bond: A comfort level must be reached.

Then there's the official policy issue circling the corporate-blog water- cooler. Debate rages on how restrictive business blogs should be: Should bloggers be liable for revealing trade secrets in a post? What is considered appropriate content?

Yahoo's policy is an early model: "Be respectful of your colleagues, get your facts straight, provide context to your argument and engage in private feedback."

That policy would have saved the jobs of some corporate bloggers. A systems administrator at the Manitoba Health Sciences Centre was fired for writing on his blog: "Sitting around doing nothing for 3 hours while being paid: Priceless.”

An associate product manager at Google attended a sales conference and compared the drunken revelry to a frat party. He was fired two weeks later.

It will be up to every corporate blog where to draw the line, especially when that blog goes from zero to hero. More visibility means more potential relationships, but also increased scrutiny.

Some people are saying the corporate blog is the new focus group, but I think there's a more important revolution: The corporate blog is the casual news release. And I'm not talking as an incarnation of advertising.

Damage control can make or break a company, and a corporate blog can act as conduit from CEO to customer - no media filter needed.

That downsizing announcement can finally be addressed in a way that speaks to the issue rather than around it. And a blog can collect comments from readers, so the CEO can see how their words are directly affecting the public.

And here's the fine print as suggested by Rebecca Blood, author of The Weblog Handbook: CEOs must write blogs themselves. Hiring a full-time blogger might ease the duty, but it's hard to look transparent when IT grads are posting opinions on internal policies they had nothing to do with. "Discrediting your reputation puts you in reverse and it's hard to gain back that trust," Blood says. Then again, Stonyfield managed to hire a blogger without facing consumer backlash.

So what are you left with? Blog now and keep it honest and friendly, but not too friendly. Entries that contain office gossip can land writers in boiling water, even though blogs remain fresh through entertaining details. CEOs should write their own blogs ... or hire someone full-time.

Confusion is a normal reaction and, in retrospect, it's understandable in the face of a peaking technology many are still under-valuing.

No guidebook on corporate blogs works for every company, which puts the onus on CEOs (or CBOs - chief blogging officers) to develop their own mandate. The only necessary direction, though, is forward.

(David Silverberg can be reached at silverberg@businessedge.ca)