Surfarama

I've been noticing a growing number of 'blog consultancies' popping up, and to be frank it just seems a bit like selling snake oil.

Blogs, as content management systems, are not exactly rocket science, so you don't need a blog consultant, just a web dude.

Blogging, as a communications practice, is a bit different to traditional business communications, but still, all you really need is some simple advice...

If you are a small biz and want to communicate better with your market, just start by listening and you'll soon get the swing of things.

If you're a large corporate and your communications department doesn't grok blogging then you should buy them a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto, because real blogging does require some new perpectives. Once you've got that 'markets are conversations' culture going on then you should start listening, and after that you can start blogging. Sure, you might want to create a charter for internal bloggers so they know what the boundaries are, but you hardly need a Blog Consultant for that.

UPDATE: What big companies will need is actual bloggers. Committing to the conversation means writing, and commenting, and responding, and being part of the conversation. In my experience this will be one of the biggest hurdles for corporates with traditional sales and marketing functions...no one will have the time to maintain a blog. To which I would ask why they don't have time to engage customers! Still, that's the reality. To get past that inertia and make blogging part of the 'way we do things around here' it will require dedicated resource.