The Economist carries an interesting article reflecting on how blogging has entered the mainstream.

Many pioneering “A-List” bloggers are apparently turning their backs on blogging because the medium has become too big, too impersonal and too blase. Yet blogs themselves have blossomed – new forms such as micro-blogs (Twitter) have evolved, and traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television now update their blogs faster than their core channels.

Perhaps the clearest sign that blogging is maturing as a medium is its embrace by the business world.  Companies large and small now view blogs as just another business tool that is well suited to diseminating their corporate mesaages internally and externally.

Just came across a useful free report from Schneider PR listing some of the key ingredients for a successful business-to-business (B2B) product or service launch.

Based on their survey results, the top ten success factors are:

1. Create a documented launch process.

2. Set a separate launch budget and make sure
it is adequate to meet the launch challenges
you face.

3. Establish your launch budget as early in the
product development phase as possible.

4. Keep your launch budget stable
throughout the implementation phase.

5. Determine your launch performance
measures before the launch begins.

6. Measure the “right” success metrics.

7. Include the “right” external launch
professionals on your team.

8. Fight for bigger budgets.

9. Educate your sales force and other internal
audiences about your new product or
service. Also focus on distributor, retailer or
dealer education.

10. Spend money on word-of-mouth campaigns
rather than on advertising.

That last point is particularly pertinent to small businesses – instead of blowing your limited budget on generic, me-too advertising, you should instead concentrate on creating a “buzz” around your product in the right circles.

Used properly, web engagement tools likes blogs, wikis and forums are ideal for initiating such word-of-mouth campaigns. Indeed, a majority of the subjects in Scheider’s study listed their online campaigns as being far more critical to the success of their new product launches than advertising.

Click here to download a copy of Schneider’s B2B Launch Survey report.

Having designed and launched a few blogs for our small business clients, I’ve learned that for the blog to succeed, the designated blogger or bloggers must develop a sustainable blogging ‘workflow’.

The workflow details – or ‘blog blueprint’ – is naturally fairly unique to each blog, but they all begin with a similar general template. The first step is to clearly define the goals of the blog. Next, you need to establish a set of processes that help generate a steady flow of relevant topics and content for the blog. Finally, practices to effectively promote the blog to its targeted audience will also need to be established.

A recent post by Chris Brogan describes the mechanics of developing a sustainable blogging workflow in some detail – well worth a read for tips on how to improve your own blogging habits.

According to Forrester research, spending on Web 2.0 applications is set to boom in North America and Europe. Releasing its survey findings at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, Forrester believes that traditional enterprises are finally starting to embrace this “fundamental new way” of communicating with employees and customers.

Such traditional consumer giants as General Motors, McDonald’s and Bank of America have already embraced tools like RSS feeds, blogs, podcasts and social networking. Analysts estimate that more than 60% of North American and European companies will make Web 2.0 a priority in 2008. It looks like the smart money in the Web 2.0 economy will be on the Enterprise side.

While the big investment focus in the Web 2.0 space remains in North America and Europe, the conditions are ripe for such applications to establish a foothold in Singapore. The promise of island-wide wireless broadband access is slowly becoming a reality, and a host of innovative mobile devices have begun to show up on our shores (although we are still awaiting, with drooling anticipation, the official appearance of the much-desired iPhone here).

The key Web 2.0 categories are: Blogs, Mashups, Podcasting, RSS feeds, social networking, widgets and wikis. Though much of the development in these technologies have been focused on engaging the youth / geek markets, the real winners will be those companies that can leverage these technologies to solve real business needs; thereby taking a bite out of the multi-million-dollar revenues that the traditional business-software industry commands.

BusinessWeek has updated its “Blogs Will Change Your Business” article that was published in 2005 just as the blogging phenomenon was taking off.The social web has evolved quite a bit since 2005 – Wikis, Social Networks, Podcasts & Video Blogs have emerged and are being adopted as credible business tools; Twittering is no longer just for birds.You can read the full updated article here.It is a rather long and rambling article, but the bottom line is: the Social Web is here to stay; the role that social media will play in business is an evolving story, but there is no denying its already significant impact on how businesses communicate with their extended communities.

Harvard University’s faculty of arts and sciences will start posting its professors’ academic papers online . This content can be crawled and indexed by search engines such as Google Scholar and can be freely accessed by anyone with an internet connection.The ostensible reasons for this move is to give academics more control over their intellectual property and to circumvent the spiraling costs of academic journals which traditionally disseminate such scholarly knowledge. One side-benefit, though, is that it will further enhance Harvard’s online presence as this vast knowledge repository will undoubtedly be a powerful search engine magnet.Your business need not be an Ivy League institution with a multi-billion dollar endowment fund to take a leaf out of the Harvard playbook.

A recent New York Times article discusses how blogging can be a low-cost, high-return marketing tool for small businesses. Blogging is particularly useful for consultants and professional services firms who need to position themselves as experts in their fields.

The examples discussed in the article show how small companies can use blogging to good advantage, but it does require good writing skills and not inconsiderable time commitment. To be truly effective, companies must formulate a cohesive strategy for their blogs and build a sustainable content pipeline.