Blogging for Business

Usually I just place a book review in my Amazon sidebar 'thing' (to the left and down on this page).  But occassionally, I like to create an actual post for a book I thought was particularly good and/or relevant to stuff I'm working on.  Blogging for Business by Shel Holtz & Ted Demopoulos is one of those books.  In my opinion it's a good read for those people inside an organization who are responsible for setting a strategy for blogging.  I particularily like how the book doesn't get lost in the hype of blogging.  There's no "blog because it's cool" aspect to this book.  It sticks to an important first principle that I apply to all the IT work I do - let the business lead.  Blogging is no different and Blogging for Business captures.  If I may, a quote from early on is:

"The best business blogs were implemented in support of some business goal. Determining the kind of blogs you might consider begins with a review of your goals and issues in order to identify where your opportunities may lie. One kind of blog you should never launch is the "let's launch a blog" blog. Any company blog should be viewed as a part of the company's communication strategy."

To me that is an important starting point and I was glad to see the book go from there.  I think if you are getting into blogging as a small, medium or large sized business, this book should be on your list to read.  You'll appreciate the content and I liked the tone of the book itself.  How to get it?  Well, I'm not much of a physical-bookstore-kind-of-guy anymore, so for folks in Canada click here, for US readers click here.