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Kamla Bhatt, is a researcher and a technology trend watcher. She is also the host of a popular Internet radio show: http://kamlabhattshow.com

There are millions and millions of blogs out there but just a few of them belong to the corporate blogs category. And, yes there is a difference between personal and corporate blogging. "Corporate blogging is when any sort of business sets up an official, branded blog. It could be a team of people blogging, a high-level executive, an employee who's an expert in social media like a community evangelist, or anyone else internally," says David Berkowitz, director of Emerging Media and Client Strategy, 360i, a New York-based search marketing company (www.360i.com). "Corporate blogs are company-sponsored sites that are conversational, organised by time and transparently written by employees, executives and/or customers," points out Steve Rubel, senior vice-president, director of insights, Edelman Digital (http://www.edelmandigital.com). Rubel provides strategic advice to Edelman clients like Unilever and Microsoft.

There are many good reasons to have corporate blogs. These include a new, untapped channel to create brand awareness, connect with customers and end-users, recruitment, media relations or simply to put a human face to a faceless corporation. A great example of a company that succeeded in putting a human face to itself was Microsoft when Robert Scoble was part of their corporate blogging imitative. Scoble succeeded in breaking down some key misconceptions and barriers among Microsoft's large user community.

Corporate blogs have been slow to evolve when compared to personal blogs and one reason could be that companies are unsure about how to craft their corporate blogging strategy combined with how much restraint or freedom they need to exhibit when sharing information with the public. But, perhaps the biggest reason is the poor return on investment. As one VP of product management of a New York-based interactive marketing company pointed out, “How do I carve out the time from my busy schedule to plan and write the blog? Plus, how do I measure my return on investment on the blog?”