Can Blogs work for your company? Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business—including yours. It doesn't matter whether you're shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon us, blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite. (And yes, that goes for us, too.)

Are they just for the idle surfer or is it the ultimate marketing tool? More and more people are using social sites and bookmarking them to keep updated, so much so that the big players are sitting up and jotting down a few notes. As businesses, we are all looking for new ways to connect with our customers. Could this be the solution to this economic slump? Probably not, but it is definitely an opportunity to find out what our customers are thinking.