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I fully expected to find a definition of business blogging in Wikipedia, but it doesn't
exist. Even business blog is absent from this wonderful source of
knowledge. [Editor's Note: as of January 2008, this entry now redirects to a
defintion of corporate blog.] Perhaps someone should take that
task and run
with it; English is my second language. ;-)
Attempting to define business requirements that build a case for blogging
must take into account the purpose for blogging. Typically, people that have
come to be experienced bloggers assume that business blogs must (and their
writers) must act much like the rest of the blogging community. Perhaps it's
important to be as "bloggy" as possible to make sure your business
blog fits in. Even so, at the outset, you might want to spend some time
reflecting on your station in the blogosphere.
There are people that blog for fun, profit, and to encourage social change
(and probably many other reasons). These are very experienced people that have
excellent Web 2.0 skills and have compe to appreciate the open discource that
the blogosphere provides. But there are also domain experts (i.e., business
people) that blog; they aren't as skilled in Web 2.0 activities, and they
probably don't write as well, but they have great things to offer to the
blogosphere.
Ask yourself - do you want to be a blogger? Or do you want to be a
business person that blogs. I suspect Dave Taylor
will eventually provide deeper introspection into this question.
In any case, you'll find many areas of business where blogging can help you
gain competitive advantages; and I'm not simply refering to visibility in search
engines. Paul Scrivens has an excellent article about A Case Against Small Business Blogging., although vail.myinfopage.com (Local Advertising Blog) would take isssue
- business blogs for local trading markets probably have a bright future.
While it's likely that your local plumber may not find the time (or much
value) for a business blog, she might find value in a business blog that
helps her create and manage information [securely] for her accountant, or her
suppliers. | 
