Considering launching a business blog, or looking to improve one you have already? Yahoo!'s blog guru gives some pointers.

Done right, creating and maintaining a corporate, executive, employee or product/service blog can offer several benefits to your brand. A blog can:

• Give your business the human touch
  Created by real employees working on the front lines of your business, your blog will be the human face of your company. We humbly believe that Yodel Anecdotal is one of the most human corporate blogs around.
• Get your customers engaged
  The best business blogs offer readers the ability to comment on posts. It shows that your company can take, and even host, criticism. And you can gather a lot of valuable information by paying close attention to your readers' comments. It's like having an always-on focus group.
• Offer a window into your brand culture
  While most corporate communications tend to aspire to be all things to all people (read: bland), your blog can and should have a unique personality that reflects your brand's true culture; it's partly about who you are, partly about who you aspire to be. The Southwest Airlines blog Nuts About Southwest is a terrific example of this. In addition, your readers are probably curious about what transpires "behind the scenes." Every company has a story, and your blog is the best place to tell it. Check out this post on the del.icio.us blog and you'll see what I mean. 
• Offer a complementary information and marketing channel
  You're in business to sell, right? Well, mostly. Sometimes what you're selling is you: your brand and your image. Let's say you're in the consulting or analysis business. You work for your clients, but in your work you uncover data others can benefit from. Sharing some of that insight with the interested public (read: potential customers, media, academics etc.) can show your company's leadership in its field while gathering valuable potential sales leads. Forrester's "Groundswell" blog, by Charlene Li and Josh Bishoff, one of my favorites, is an excellent example of how this is done, and done well.
• Allow you to react to critical issues quickly
  Let's face it. Things go wrong. When they do, the first thing your customers want is an answer. Blog posts can be written, vetted and posted rapidly in response to just about any issue. Even if you can't be specific about an internal issue, your blog is a great place to say, simply, "We know there's an issue and we're working on it."

Who writes what?
Corporate blogging is usually a team effort. Some companies allow individual employees to run their own blogs for people interested in their specific fields. Other companies are wary of this. That's understandable. You may want to consider putting in place a flexible editorial process that includes copy editing, PR and legal review. Whatever the case, you'll want to make sure that everyone has clear guidelines. Feel free to use Yahoo's guidelines, available on the web and tweak them to your own purposes as necessary.

Next: The rules