Star Tribune: Businesses use blogs to help get their name out there

In this article, Dave Weinberger, long time Internet guru, speaks to the benefits of business blogging.

"If companies allow their employees to blog, [they] have the opportunity of engaging their customer in the sort of genuine conversations that build real customer loyalty,' Weinberger said. 'There is a risk that a weblogger will criticize a product, but in the post-marketing world of the Internet, being frank even when negative can build a stronger relationship than when they are mindlessly positive."

It's very simple. Real sounds real. Fake sounds fake. People know the difference so why try to fool people in the first place with advertising and PR blather when you could hold a conversation directly with your customers?