Book Review: The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

Instant survey (under 30 seconds):

1. Do you run a business?
2. Do you have to communicate with customers, clients or employees?
3. Do you blog?
4. What are you waiting for?

If you're like most executives or entrepreneurs, you're probably somewhere between:

What's a blog?
Why would I want to blog?
and
How do I get on the blogging bandwagon?

For the uninitiated, a blog is an online journal. Short for web logs, blogs started with Internet geeks logging web pages and adding their own annotations. Then new blogging software like Blogger.com and TypePad made blogging almost as simple as sending an email. What was once the province of teenagers sharing their diaries, spread to kitchen table journalists... marketers and CEO's blogging company news and opinion.

As spam oozed out more and more legitimate email marketers, blogs began to look like an attractive alternative.

One of the main advantages of a blog is having an ongoing "conversation" with your public. Unlike formal websites, blogs are by nature more immediate and "transparent" (open and candid) than static websites. They are also interactive--inviting comments from readers--and viral--inviting readers to forward blog posts to friends. Many are about specialized areas of interest.

One blogger stands out as midwife to the birth of the blogging movement Debbie Weil. (Yes, I know that "midwife" sounds gender-specific, but it ain't necessarily so. Anyway, I like the image. "Obstetrician" sounds cold and stiff. And Weil is anything but either. )

If you read this far, stop now and get The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil. Like her popular blog the book is clear, instructive and focused. No rambling self-indulgence here. Weil is a teacher who isn't afraid to lose the class by smiling..... But she wants to make sure you pass the test.