To better communicate with employees and customers alike, large and small companies alike are taking to the blog. In the consumer world, the ubiquitous blog derived from the tech term weblog is a free form method of exchange with Internet readers while in business they have become a tool to give information about products and services. Use of corporate blogs will grow as customers come to expect that the same type of communication used in their personal lives will be available elsewhere, most industry watchers believe. While the blogosphere gains most attention for the sites related to politics, entertainment or an individual’s personal musings, the boundaries have expanded to include Fortune 500 companies to smaller firms, such as information technology provider SADA Systems in North Hollywood. “The nature of blogs makes two-way communication possible and makes it easy for us to submit information and news in a plain format and automatically displayed wherever we wish to display it,” said Tony Safoian, president of SADA Systems, The company’s SADA Speaks blog began in August and presents a mix of company and industry news that is updated at least once a week as a method of displaying the company’s knowledge and understanding of the industry. A survey by JupiterResearch found companies with revenues of $1 million or less were more likely to use corporate or employee blogs while larger companies had the resources for more expensive efforts The study released in June, showed 44 percent of companies with revenues of $1 million and less used a blog and that 30 percent allowed employees to keep a blog. For the companies with revenues above $1 million only 24 percent maintained a blog and 22 percent allowed employees to keep one. First adapters of corporate blogs, however, lean toward those that are online savvy or have websites used for research. Legal issues “If you are a technology company, for example, doing things online is second nature to you,” said Marty Shindler, an Encino-based management consultant on business issues for creative and technology companies. JupiterResearch analyst Emily Riley said that while more than a third of companies now use blogs for internal or external communications, extremely high profile ones are hesitant about posting information to the public because of liability issues. “In any situation where a company’s marketing efforts are bound by regulations, a blog falls under that,” Riley said. Biotech giant Amgen, Inc. faces such a situation. The Thousand Oaks-based company currently does not use a blog for communications but has been looking into it during the past year. Unlike many consumer products companies, Amgen is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about what it can say about its products and that has to be taken into consideration, said spokeswoman Sarah Rockwell. “We need to make sure we are compliant within guidelines about communicating with the public about our products,” Rockwell said. SADA, of course, doesn’t fall under such scrutiny. Nor does Yahoo! Search Marketing in Burbank, which premiered a blog in October coinciding with the launch of its new sponsored search platform. The division takes the responsibility seriously, setting up an editorial calendar of what topics to write about but also remaining flexible enough to address a hot topic; allowing reader comments to the content; and a goal of updating the site twice a week. “It’s not about repurposing a press release,” marketing director Robin Zucker said “It’s about understanding what several hundred thousand customers need to know and want to know from us.” It’s a strategy that Riley supports. The key to a successful blog is not to talk down to people and to make the content different from what the public relations or marketing departments give to the press, Riley said. “Otherwise it is just a redundant effort,” she added. While it is often the marketing department that first adapts a blog as a communications tool, Riley said she encourages that employees deeper within a company be involved to make it more interesting and appealing to consumers who are looking for more information. Executive updates SADA Systems and Yahoo! use employees to update their blogs but the executive suite has joined the blogosphere as well. There are a number of top management at major companies blogging their thoughts and observations. Jeff Wiener, the senior vice president of search and marketplace for Yahoo! is among them, maintaining a blog since March 2005. Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, Mark Kingdon of Organic, Inc., and Bob Lutz, vice chairman of General Motors are among others. “If a CEO wants to say something and they don’t want to send it via e-mail, they can post to a blog and get it through a company internet, a company website or internal web pages,” Safoian said.