HBR: blogs a breakthrough idea for 2005

More influential business thinkers are seeing how blogs have become a channel to converse with, influence and be influenced by their customers. 

Here's the Harvard Business Review.

Bloggers are driven by a desire to share their ideas and opinions with anyone who cares to tune in.  That enhances their credibility, making them more attractive to marketers....

Corporate marketers must deal with bloggers differently from the way they deal with the traditional media.    First, they must realize that the blogosphere is not just a place in which to advertise; it is a medium in which to participate. 

Marketers can join the conversation on influential blogs related to their products or companies ---or, even better, they can become bloggers in their own right by hosting blogs for customers. 

Most radically, they can host independent bloggers on their Web sites, essentially trading exposure for reach and credibility...

Blogs are the most conversational of all the forms of media and marketers can't afford to be left out of the talk.

Mohanbir Sawhney on Blog-Trolling in the Bitstream in the Harvard Business Review, Breakthrough Ideas for 2005.