The benefits of corporate blogging are once again in the news.  The world is finally realizing the power and potential of blogs to change their business.

"When done well, a blog can help establish a reputation for thought leadership and provides a human face for your customers," he says. "People like doing business with people, not with companies."  Stuff

With so many large companies allowing, and even asking, their employees to blog, many corporations are learning to take an in-depth look at their blogging policy. 

"Even if the posts are not meant to be critical, bloggers can stir up hornets’ nest if the posts contains comments that reflect badly on their companies or the writers, or pinpoint unmentionables like company secrets.

Sure enough, there have been dozens of cases of workers were warned or fired because of things they wrote on blogs. In a survey by Proofpoint, more than 57 percent of executives at 332 large companies said they were concerned about blogs as a source of trouble for their companies."

Companies must take care when negotiating with their bloggers.  Readers want the inside scoop behind the company.  They need to feel like they are getting that. 

"The risk of executives over-exposing their egos in corporate blogs is less of a danger than "scrubbing" by companies’ public relations teams, he reckons. 

"Good blogs are straight from the hip. If they seem sanitized you’ll get clobbered in the blogosphere."

The "blogosphere", the global network of bloggers, will come down hard on sites which aren’t authentic.