When should a company start blogging?

Recently I've been talking to a few friends about corporate blogging. And I thought this may make a good blog entry. So here it goes.

My current thinking is that a company should start blogging as soon as it is known to the public (i.e. out of "stealth mode") and have insights to share with its customers, potential customers, and the public at large.

Should a company wait for the "perfect moment", "perfect blog entry", "perfect ..." to start blogging? I don't think a company should wait as I think Bruce Mau got it right in his "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth",

"9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere."

I don't think there is a "right way" to corporate blog. There are as many ways to blog as there are different companies, different personalities and personal tastes, preferences, etc. for different blog writers and companies. Ultimately, companies will find their own voices in time. The voice should be identifiable (there has to be a person behind a blog entry, not just the anonymous "corporation"), and this voice has to be real, authentic, and passionate.

Here are some of the corporate blogs that I read. It should come as no surprises that they can be quite different from each others,

• The Legal Thing - by Mike Dillon (Sun Microsystems' General Counsel) (first entry - "This should be interesting")
• KR Connect - by Kevin Roberts (CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi) (first entry - "One From The Heart")
• The Google Official Blog - by various Google executives
• OpenSkies - by Dale Moss (Managing Director of OpenSkies, a new British Airways subsidiary flying transatlantic flights) (first entry - "It's official! Project Lauren becomes OpenSkies.")
• Photo Matt - by Matt Mullenweg (Founding Developer of WordPress)
• on the Java Road - by James Gosling (Father of the Java Programming language)

Start blogging now to share your insights with your customers, potential customers, and the general public at large. It's not just a blog, it is a conversation.

Begin anywhere.

P.S. I hope you've enjoyed and learned something from my first entry at infoport. If not, well, there is always the next blog entry.

P.P.S. It was not an accident that the "Blog Council" was not mentioned in the main blog entry. I thought Jeff Jarvis has covered Blog Council's challenges well in his "It's not just a blog" entry. It also seems strange that the Blog Council doesn't even have a blog. (big smile)

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March 7th, 2008 Update: eBay has added a new blog for "Desktop".