The New York Times puts in its two cents on corporate blogging. Surprisingly, Fortune 500 CEOs have been slow to get on board: Sun Microsystems’ Jonathan Schwartz is the sole example. Arguably, other CEOs are ignoring a powerful tool:

Capital markets function as they should when the flow of information is strong and unimpeded. Mr. Schwartz has shown ably that for the chief executive sincerely interested in increasing information flow to the fullest range of stakeholders, a blog is a hydraulic wonder.

Among the conspicuously silent: Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Steve Jobs. And then there are the perils of half-hearted attempts:

[Whole Foods CEO] Mackey has made a total of six posts over the course of 10 months, and these consist of reprints of speeches and interviews and similar materials created originally for a different purpose. Using blogging software to park a reprint once every two months does not a blog make.

Large corporations are spending enormous amounts of money on advertising and public relations campaigns that arguably (if, for example, the authors of Naked Conversations are right) cannot produce nearly the return on investment as honest conversations with customers. It might help to think of blogging as the stock market’s verbal incarnation. Further (chant after me): customers crave market transparency.

Speaking of the market, Jonathan Schwartz used his blog effectively to mollify investors after Sun’s quarterly earnings were down—but not by spin and “marketese”:

After the earnings release, Mr. Schwartz itemized on his blog the many positive developments that he sees in the company’s business. Viewed alone, it would be easy for unhappy investors to dismiss. But read as the latest installment of candid self-evaluations of the company’s strategic initiatives and performance, Mr. Schwartz’s optimism exerts a tonic effect.

To adapt a political phrase: it’s the honesty, stupid.

Here’s an amazing blog by tailor Thomas Mahon, a small-businessman who takes his craft and makes it fascinating. There are countless lessons to be learned here, but I think the following elements are especially important:

• Mahon’s blog is honest and personal.
• Mahon is genuinely interested in sharing his craft, and he does not shy away from the nitty-gritty of his process.

The effect of combining these elements is to accentuate a potential customer’s appreciation of the product. Tailoring is, after all, a very personal service in which customers are interested in paying for customization and personalization (to return the idiom to its source, in having things tailor-made for them). Mahon’s blog brings us even further into this world—where quality and personalization are connected; without trying too hard to market anything, he is both advertising his service and adding value.

A blog entry (what else) on how to optimize a blog for search engines.

Writing may be the way to begin blogging. But blog talk radio, that’s taking it to the next level.

After reading, and re-reading, this Salon article on Amazon Mechanical Turks (an emerging class of cyber-serf), I still can’t understand why anyone is willing to work for such negligible amounts. If you want extra income, a paper route or shift at 7-Eleven would be much more lucrative. But there are plenty of takers, and their pennies add up.

Like comedy, the secret to great viral marketing may be timing.

Play it close to the vest, or your viral campaign will be found out by a rapacious cyber-community of camera-phone-equipped bloggers, eager to play proverbial Pasteur against your infectious efforts. This NY Times article shows how slipshod viral marketing is easily undermined.

Being an avid history student, I remember that one of the key differences between Viet Nam and the numerous wars that had preceded it was the role of the media. Not their presence, but their role. Every war had correspondents, but Viet Nam had them out with the troops reporting from the combat zones and successfully presenting a less sanitized version of war. I don’t need to go into the cultural ripple effect such reporting had.

It has continued to evolve. Now reporters are embedded with soldiers, not just observing them in action, but sharing their lives and their deaths. Yet, there are still gaps. Soldiers are the ones who physically make war, but they are far from the only group affected by it. The “civilians” far outnumber “combatants,” yet seem helpless to affect the outcome, or even be heard.

What about a blog?

If you have doubts about the efficacy of blogging—as a social force, a relay of emotions, or effective communication—I think the following silences most of those concerns.

Mana is in her mid-20s and has been blogging from her home in Beruit since the conflict began. Just hearing the details of her life during this chaos redefines my perception of what a war looks and feels like, not to mention the comments her posts generate…wow!

OK, I don’t really believe that, but it is interesting to know blogging has become significant enough for academia to express its interest with a published study. You may have come across some snippets taken from this report in papers or on the Web the last few days. However, the full report has lots of interesting tidbits about bloggers and the world they inhabit. Read it and then I would love to hear comments.

The ad industry’s regard for its audiences was, according to one critic, more the former in the ’40s and ’50s. Today, it has taken a hard hairpin toward the latter. We used to respect the audience, now we stoop to shock. Sure, sex sells, but it was tease, not sleaze, that got the job done. Not so today.

Astroturf is the phony grass responsible for so many NFL shin burns. Astroturfing is a techno-neologism for attempts by flaks to engineer campaigns that give off grassroots appearances. It has more than a few communications pros up in arms.

Read more about efforts to mow down Astroturfing.