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

Do you remember when they said that? It’s not that long ago.

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

They said that television would destroy the cinema. That didn’t happen. Movies are a completely different form of television, but we didn’t realize it at the time. Television and cinema survived and now both 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 innermost 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 about blogging, see the Wikipedia entry for “Blogging.“

you outdo yourself 474 million search results if you enter “blog” into Google.

Part of the reason for the attraction of blogs is their ease of use. It only takes a few minutes to start blogging.

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

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

The final step is to report to a blog directory every 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 companies 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.

Blog of employees of corporations such as Microsoft, Google and Hewlett Packard.

When blogging it is used in a positive way, it shows your current and potential clients your corporate personality and helps to establish a good relationship.

What are the disadvantages of the blog?

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

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

You only 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 a blogging policy must be put 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 are blogs going to be a knockout blow to attracting and retaining customers?

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

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

2) For some companies it is too public

3) It is completely without editorial control

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

It has been said that consultancies and other organizations dealing with knowledge and intellectual property benefit the most from blogs. That’s because they can demonstrate their skill and expertise to their 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 isn’t a practical limit to who can use blogs to communicate with customers 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 you have to look at it as just another business tool whose ultimate measure is: “does it get more sales or does it reduce the company’s costs?”

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

I have been blogging for over a year and have found that I have had thousands of views. I intentionally get no sales from him. But that’s because I’m 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, so businesses have the ability to take yours and have you do the PR, word of mouth, viral and internet marketing for them.

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