Background and Motivation for Business Blogging

The use of web logs has grown tremendously in a very short period of time. Although blogging entered the world in one form or another more than 10 years ago, it has only been until recently that the more mainstream, widespread acceptance of the technology and practices behind it have had the limelight.

However, the growth of blogging has come in many different waves, each with growing size and impact.

History

The first wave of bloggers was filled with technologically savvy individuals experimenting with new content management and publishing models as well as with academics and other theorists unleashing new ideas onto the “protected” blogging community.

The second wave of bloggers grew out of the second segment of the Internet community, the early adopters that ruled the “newness” of the web itself. These twenty-somethings and the like were both intrigued by the simplicity and flexibility blogging offered early on in the Internet days.

The third wave of bloggers spawned from the release of “streamlined” blogging applications and tools such as Blogger.com and LiveJournal. This phase saw the involvement and commitment of close friends to Phase 2 participants as well as new participation from the exceptionally well-connected teenage and youth markets. Today, we are at the dawn of the next wave of blogging. This wave will be dominated not by consumers, but by business professionals and entrepreneurs.

Today, we are at the dawn of the next wave of blogging. This wave will be dominated not by consumers, but by business professionals and entrepreneurs.

Why Business Blogging?

Although consumers provide a tremendous culture for breeding the Blogging Virus, they are not ideally positioned to participate yet. Consider the following simple characteristics:

• Generally, the business community is more Internet-connected than the consumer community
• The business community is focused on the generation of material, content, andrelated resources on a regular basis
• The business community seeks opportunities to create marketing and publicity utilizing the previously mentioned product and content
• The business community is both open and willing to pay for services that assist in extending or perpetuating a particular concept or message

Clearly, the blogging process dovetails nicely with the needs and objectives of the business professional. In addition, companies selling or developing applications that cater to the blogging industry will tend to focus where there are paying customers.