Blog?

The word "Blog," makes many people cringe, roll their eyes or go huh?, but many companies are praising the application of a Blog on there website for many reasons.

Do you remember when you were younger......let's say grades K-5.  Our teachers had us write book reports every week, month, etc..  I used to hate reading books I didn't have any interest in and then somehow produce a page or two summary of something I fell asleep to every night.  Granted I pulled it off, but never really felt I gained any knowledge from it.  I view blogging in a similar way, but the great thing about blogging, just like many other social networks is you pick and choose the blogs you want to be a part of. 

For example my co-workers and myself frequent these blogs:

General Online News

Wired.com (http://www.wired.com) - Provide multiple blog categories for News, trends, how-to's, reviews about latest technology & it's relation to business, communication, culture, and more. Check out their blogs, reviews, various sections, and subscribe to their RSS feeds to have headlines delivered to you.

Slash Dot (http://slashdot.org/) - News for nerds, stuff that matters.

Website Design

Web Designer Wall (http://www.webdesignerwall.com/) - A pretty wall of design ideas, web trends and tutorials - Calling designers and web developers!

Web Development

Script and Style (http://scriptandstyle.com/) - A web design and development resource with links to help you grow as a designer and developer.

Flash Development

Kirupa (http://www.kirupa.com/) - A technical resource that provides easy-to-understand tutorials for Flash/ActionScript. C#, WPF, Expression Blend, PHP, Photoshop, and more!

Search Engine Optimization

Google Webmaster Central Blog (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/) - Official news on crawling and indexing site for Google.

Leisure

ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/main) - ESPN.com provides comprehensive sports coverage. Complete sports information including NFL, MLB, NBA, College Football, College Basketball scores and news.

Most of these blogs are associated with our jobs and are vital in gaining industry knowledge.  The use of the blog allows people to interact on topics, share ideas, new technology, product reviews, you name it, you can blog about it.

With this being said, many business's have found different uses for the blog within their own companies.  In an upcoming blog post, I will be sharing some of the ways fortune 500 companies use blogs to set themselves apart from others in their industry. 

In the mean time post a comment on how your company uses their blog, or even share an article you have read about the different uses of a blog.  I would find it very useful to hear what you have to say. Thanks.