Blogging for Business

With readers flocking to their Web postings, execs are finding blogs useful for plugging not just their products but their points of view
(from Business Week Online)

excerpts:
Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of server maker Sun Microsystems (SUNW ), first suspected that his blog was a success when his salespeople began reporting that customers were reading his posts and sealing deals faster. Then, the blog started getting a surge of traffic from users with e-mail addresses ending in "ibm.com" and "dell.com" -- folks who work for Sun's rivals. Schwartz saw that as irrefutable proof that his blog, started on June 28, was a gold mine (see BW Online, 8/4/04, "Don't Quote My Blog on That").

Some six weeks later, he's a firm believer that a blog -- which generally consists of diary-like entries that are posted to the Web -- is a must-have tool for every executive. "It'll be no more mandatory that they have blogs than that they have a phone and an e-mail account," Schwartz says. "If they don't, they're going to look foolish."