Blogging to Build Business

Thanks to Steve Rubel, whose "Micro Persuasion" blog today points out an article by David Hayes in today's Kansas City Star that assesses the rising use of blogs as a strategic communications tool by business.

From Microsoft to Monster.com to Sprint Nextel and General Motors -- blogs are being used in old-tech and hi-tech companies to communicate better with customers and with internal audiences.

Obviously, allowing or encouraging a company's own employees to blog raises the risk of less centralized and controlled communications. But it also can allow for more immediate and effective communications.

Robert Scoble should be a boss’s worst nightmare. He’s been known to openly criticize the company he works for, with thousands of opinion-leaders listening in. In the process, he’s become one of his company’s most publicly recognizable employees. But, at the same time, Scoble and a group of employees like him have done something millions of dollars in advertising couldn’t. They’ve made Microsoft Corp. — long considered to be one of the most predatory businesses in the world — seem a lot more human.

Read the whole article here.