Bloggers are more of a threat than people realize, and they are only going to get more toxic. This is the new reality. — Peter Blackshaw, Intelliseek (which has a blog !)

Steve Rubel is right. Forbes blows it.

According to a rather alarmist cover story, bloggers are a veritable lynch mob. Why? Because bloggers have the power to create “swarms,” which could be a benefit or threat to the target.

Blogs started a few years ago as a simple way for people to keep online diaries. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. It’s not easy to fight back: Often a bashing victim can’t even figure out who his attacker is. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this new and virulent strain of oratory. Microsoft has been hammered by bloggers; so have CBS, CNN and ABC News, two research boutiques that criticized IBM’s Notes software, the maker of Kryptonite bike locks, a Virginia congressman outed as a homosexual and dozens of other victims–even a right-wing blogger who dared defend a blog-mob scapegoat.

But as Steve said, bloggers “can be a company’s greatest allies and evangelists if AND only IF we take the time to take them seriously and engage them in dialogue.” He advises businesses to ignore Forbes’s tirade and judge bloggers for themselves.

Other bloggers buzzing: Blogspotting, Jaffe Juice , Chris Pirillo, NevOn, Below the Fold…

How is the value determined?

Blog, moblog, permalink, RSS — confusing? Read this quick reference guide/article. It’s helpful for the non-blogger or newbie.

If you run a big company like IBM, you might want to draft a few employee blogging guidelines just to be on the safe side. Jeremy Wright has the scoop on IBM. A few good ones:

Use a disclaimer, respect copyright and fair use laws, protect confidential and proprietary information, protect IBM’s clients, business partners and suppliers, don’t pick fights (no flaming!), and most important, don’t forget your day job.

Read the whole post.

One can never be too specialized. BusinessBlogWire is a blog that covers corporate blog news. Excellent idea.

(Via Micro Persuasion)

I always advise my clients to write and submit articles to generate traffic and establish expertise in their niche. Fellow consultant Wayne Hurlbert recently blogged about this topic:

By writing and submitting informative and interesting articles, on your topics of interest, free long term publicity for you and your blog are achieved. Articles have a very long life expectancy on other websites. Website owners are constantly seeking fresh and informative content for their own site visitors. Your articles can provide them the content. In return for the free article, your blog or website receives a return link.

It’s not unusual for a long forgotten article to send brand new visitors to your blog. As the reader of the article discovers you and your ideas, the attached link to your blog included with the writing, sends the visitor to find out more.

Here’s a service that will help you write articles, but in my opinion, such services may not be necessary. If you already have a business blog, select a few posts, edited them (shorten/lengthen), add a few more relevant keyword phrases, and submit. Submission sites won’t pay for articles, but as Wayne wrote, your articles could lead to paying assignments. And more customers.

Whenever I see flashing images or text on web sites, I’m reminded of tacky, faux-cool web pages from the 1990s. Remember web page creation services like WebSpawner?

Kevin at LexBlog blogs about flash, and although I didn’t have the facts, I somehow knew it intuitively: Google hates flash. He writes:

Flash sucks for search engines, there’s just no other way to put it. Law firms and professional services firms use as much flash to do pretty things on the first page of their Web sites as just about anyone. And I assume it is not because they like to do things that suck.

Here’s the deal. Google indexes content - text it can see on a Web page. Web pages with a flash file often include little, if any, text. The result is that Google cannot tell who you are, what you do nor where you are located. That’s not good.

Flash is not good for SEO, and it’s tacky. Did I mention tacky?

BlogOn’s “The Business of Social Media” conference is history, and the blog is being updated. I recommend you download and read a paper on corporate blogging called Blogging in the Enterprise (PDF).

Previous post: BlogOn 2005

Fellow blog consultant Paul Chaney is soliciting input on current trends/issues related to business blogging. He believes important issues include employee blogs, blog spam, and blog ad revenue.

I agree that those are important, especially employee blogs. If your business is blogging, do have employee blogging guidelines? If your employees have personal blogs, how does your company deal with them?

Most bloggers with traffic meters on their blogs have discovered the power of search engines. For some, search engines bring in over half of their visitors, and it’s quite easy to optimize web sites to generate even more.

Mainstream media (MSM) are discovering the power of search engines, which are an important reason blogs are more accessible. Search engine optimization per se is not the focus of the story I link to, but in my view, search engine traffic is partly responsible for the popularity of blogs. From the AFP:

Internet “blogs” get a boost from the big search engines, which make the personal journals more accessible and move them toward mainstream journalism….Previously, search leader Google said it launched an engine tuned to scouring blog entries for fresh news and views.

While blogs have long been frowned upon by traditional media as amateurish, analysts say the public is increasingly looking to blogs for a fresh view on news.

Blogs and traditional journalism are natural enemies, it seems, but as blogs become mainstream, MSM will have to adapt.