Few of the 50-odd people who gathered in Tysons Corner this week to talk about blogging seemed willing to discuss the state of their love lives with the general public. No one wanted to rant about the United States' foreign policies or dissect the significance of reality television as a postmodern art form. They didn't even want to chat about what they had for dinner the previous night, a staple of many detail-rich blogs.
Instead, these suit-coat-wearing men and high-heeled women gracefully sipped chardonnay while figuring out how blogs could increase their business revenue. Yes, like most everything else that begins existence as a hip underground trend, blogging has gone corporate.
Blogs (short for "Web logs") sometimes take the shape of online diaries for the lonely hearts set or digital soliloquies for those who seek an audience for their sometimes-hourly musings. They've also acted as a sounding board for would-be political pundits and pseudo-experts on any given topic.
But for Debbie Weil, owner of Wordbiz.com Inc., a D.C. consulting firm that helps companies polish their online marketing strategies, blogging is a way to connect with potential customers. Her blog (www.debbieweil.com), touches on a wide variety of topics -- industry statistics and innovations, but also her dog's recent illness. All of it, even short submissions linking to other Web pages, is written in a breezy, intimate style. And that, says Weil, is the difference between a business blog and a corporate newsletter.
"Good blogs are authentic, credible, very human, candid and personal in the sense that it's usually one voice," said Weil. "A blog doesn't have to be clever, but it does have to be useful."
Few business bloggers can say how much their daily postings affect the firm's bottom line, but most assume that customers who check in regularly will be more likely to purchase a new product or be faithful users of the services offered.
One theory tossed around at the New Media Society event Tuesday night was that e-mail marketing is dead and business blogs are rising up as the replacement. While the medium may not be in its grave yet, powerful spam filters that block out corporate e-mails have certainly limited its effectiveness. But some proponents of blogging say the new business-development tool can succeed in ways e-mail never could.
"I don't think e-mail is dead. I don't think it's any more difficult than it was two years ago; I just don't think it was ever that effective," said Bill Kearney, a Bethesda technology consultant (www.wkearney.com). "It's definitely sort of a nontraditional public that has largely wised up to marketing speak -- they can smell it from a hundred yards away."
There are more than 1.2 million blogs on the Internet, according a "blog census" maintained by the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education, but there is little data on how many of them are devoted to business issues.
Meg Hourihan, co-creator of Blogger, the blogging tool acquired by Google, and co-author of "We Blog: Publishing Online With Weblogs," believes that businesses are only beginning to realize the capabilities of instant publishing.
"I would say it's still frowned upon by some big corporations who are concerned about their public image. 'Will customers be confused about what employees are saying about us, versus the corporate communications office?' " said Hourihan (www.megnut.com). "It has huge potential. On any corporate page, having a Web log on the home page, it makes perfect sense, even if it's just to direct people to other pages. It's a way to highlight the timely content on their site."
Some bloggers list their sites on their business cards and other marketing material, but like all blogs, business blogs are promoted mostly through links on other blogs. People who read one blog are likely to read others, so bloggers often endorse sites about related topics.
Some business blogs provide a way for companies to update consumers on movements within their firm and products being developed. Research companies such as Gartner Inc. and Jupitermedia Corp. have analysts keep blogs on issues affecting the industries they study.
But, Hourihan said, not all corporate blogs have to be made available for public viewing. Some of the most effective company blogs are posted on internal networks, or intranets. These can help different business divisions connect or allow employees from disparate offices to share information when working together on a big project. Top corporate executives can use blogs as a way to develop relationships with employees, even if it is a mostly one-way conversation, she said.
Other local bloggers include Scott Knowles, an employee with TMP Worldwide who writes about marketing practices at websense.blogspot.com, and Gary Price, a library and Internet researcher who promotes his consulting business at www.resourceshelf.com. Larger corporations such as Macromedia (www.markme.com/mxna/bloglist.cfm) and Fast Company (blog.fastcompany.com) also keep blogs to promote their businesses.
Kearney said these internal blogs are useful to employees because they can be active about getting the information rather then being inundated with mass e-mail and fliers written in stiff management jargon.
"You've got the potential of people taking their own time to go and look at it," said Kearney, who added that blogs must be, above all, interesting to develop a loyal readership.
Gayley Knight, founder of the Web development company Connecting Links, set up a blog for the council members of the Montgomery County town of Somerset. Citizens loved having intimate access to their elected leaders, she said, but the council members couldn't find the time to update their blogs regularly. That blog has largely fallen off, but Knight is beginning a new one as she assumes the presidency of the Women Business Owners of Montgomery County.
"It seemed like it'll be a good way to not only tell what was going on [outside the organization] but also allow people to start using it in their own businesses and make it work," said Knight.
"I think you could find that your customers start returning. Business Web sites do not function the way they were envisioned during the dot-com gold rush. I think they'll return to the blogs, because if you make it useful . . . you're going to be able to not only manage content, but help people."
Ellen McCarthy's e-mail address is mccarthye@washpost.com.
