Think of your company's Web site as a billboard—you post information on it maybe a few times a year and wait for people driving the information super highway to see it.

Think of a corporate blog as a door-to-door (or better yet, computer-to-computer) marketing campaign—a way to let your customers and prospects know who you are and why your company is a leader in its field.

"A blog serves as another way to reach clients and prospects on a regular basis at a relatively low cost," says Scott H. Cytron, an accredited business communicator, president of Dallas-based Cytron and Company.

You may be familiar with blogs (slang for Web logs). These online journals have been around a little while, becoming quickly popular with people who wanted to share their personal experiences and thoughts with the masses, as well as individuals who wanted to disseminate information about their particular cause without going through traditional media. But more and more blogs today are about business.

"Companies use blogs to connect with an audience," says John Cass, director of Internet marketing strategies at Backbone Media Inc.

B.L. Ochman, president of WhatsNextOnline.com, agrees. "Just about every business has a Web site," she says. "Is there any real value (in it) for readers?

"A blog gives companies a chance to really display its expertise, interact with clients."

David Meerman Scott, an expert in how organizations use blogs, offers a caveat. "Unsuccessful corporate blogs focus on the author's own company or own products. An exclusively ego-centric view is just not that interesting," he warns.

"What is interesting is sharing a particular expertise or perspective to get traction in your field. Really good corporate bloggers understand the rub-off effect," Scott says, explaining that blogs should not be used to communicate the same things detailed in the company brochure.

Successful bloggers do not try to hard-sell a product or service, but instead connect the blog to the company by including its logo, contact information or a link to its home page. "People aren't dumb, they're going to know who you are," Scott says.

Blogs can be good vehicles to position your company in your particular market or industry. "People want to do business with thought leaders," Scott explains.

Ochman says she knows of a man whose business is water filtration and uses his blog to discuss potable water issues. Oregon-based Steve Betheil writes that his blog (watersecretsblog.com) is "about the purification, filtering and the safety issues of bottled water, well water and municipal water supplies." One day, he writes about how EPA union workers are calling for a moratorium on programs adding fluoride to the water. Another day, he has a brief entry on how a vodka company found the filtered water from a Scottish river comparable to filtered bottled water.

All the time, Betheil promotes his own filtration service by including logos and links on the blog page, Ochman explains.

She says developing a blog audience through a narrowly focused niche is important—do not try to be everything to everybody. Those who are most interested in the subject are the ones most likely to return to the blog to gain new information, and ultimately become a customer.

There's the Tin Basher, a man who operates a sheet metal company and writes regularly in his blog (butlersheetmetal.com/tinbasherblog), using humor and photos to talk about his ideas, thoughts, etc., with headlines such as "Walking down sheet metal memory lane" and "BBC lets K-9 go rusty."

Scott says the best blogs strive to be interesting to readers, not sell pieces. A caterer, for example, should not use the blog to talk about all the wonderful canapés and great bartenders the company has. "Write about how to have a great party when you have 50 people. You're not talking about catering, but making yourself an expert on throwing a party."

Cass says many of the leading blogging companies have come from the software industry. Macromedia (weblogs.macromedia.com) and Sun Microsystems "have done a great job to connect with customers and gain value through blogging," he says.

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