Blogs are Business

We all knew the blogosphere was a part of our lives when friends sent us links to their “new baby blog,” “getting married blog” and other personal milestone blogs. 

We also knew that blogs were becoming part of business news and information as we began to monitor blogs as part daily routine - similar to the way we check e-mail, most of us have set up a feedreader to help us keep up with our favorite blogs.

And as proof that blogs are part of business life… 

As some of you know, Factiva prepared a Business Terms index (click on first small thumbnail) for The Financial Times Deutschland throughout 2005. We saw the term “blog” rise from 9th out of the 45 words we were tracking in January across the German media, and move to number 1 by the end of 2005. As the article points out, the term “blogs” was the most widely mentioned business term in December above terms like Risk Management, Crisis Management, Corporate Governance, Turnaround, ERP and Wikipedia.

This was the German press.  When applying the Business Terms Index across all of Factiva’s sources, the term “blog” moved from number 4 in January to number 1 in December 2005.

Overall in 2005, the term “blog” ranked second out of a list of 45 business terms.

A frequently used business term and a growth phenomenon, blogs are a source of business news and information, and an increasingly important part of our personal, group and enterprise information collections. Blogherald estimates that there currently are over 100+ million blogs. CNet News.com estimates that the number of blogs is doubling every 5 months at the rate of roughly one blog a second.

Comments

[Jeremiah Owyang]

Clare

Wonderful observations and analysis --you're spot on. I remember last fall a google report showed that the top phrases with the word "blog" in it was "what are blogs"

Times have changed in just a few short months, blogs are rapidly becoming part of a method for companies to have real honest converations with customers ---like right here.

I like the sources you provided for blog growth globally, have you seen Dave Sifry's report from Technorati "the State of the blogosphere" it's worth checking out.

Even despite all the hype, it's really important to remember that blogs are NOT important, what's important is the converations that happens between them. In just a few years (or maybe months) blogs will evolve to the next tool, perhaps audio, and maybe video --this is just the start.

kudos to you for being a C level blogger, I'm impressed!

[Deima Elnatour]

Blogs within themselves are nothing more than another evidence of the social life of information. Information has human ends regardless of how or why it gets generated in the first place. Therefore, for all information regardless of source and means, it is people, in their communities, institutions and organizations who ultimately decide what it all means and why it matters.

Blogs support and reflect this social phenomenon, which is simply built on the “community of practice” foundation. Communities of practice are the very key that make some blogs very successful while causing others to fail and disappear. Members in this sense do not just become members by acquiring information. Membership of a community of practice requires developing a disposition, demeanor and outlook of the practitioners of that community.

When speaking of business and blogs, it is not wild to think that every company in the near future will have an official blog. One that is mainly used as a public relations venue while allowing bi-directional communications and mediated discussions. The question then remains to be around the identity and meaning of the “community of practice” of business blogs!