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A reason to blog is a perfectly valid place to start a discussion on blogging.

They aren't playing anymore, but many of you have probably seen the commercials "just Google Pontiac." That's how General Motors decided to tell consumers how to find information on their products — their brand; their Pontiac brand. Just Google it.

I search the web for a lot of things. And particularly, I Google people. A person coming in to interview for a job. I Google them. I use Google to pre-screen them. I get a feel for who they are, what strengths they have, what they are interested in. Maybe they have blog where they post items that would be relevant to what work I would want them to do. Or posts in a forum. I also Google anyone that I am going to hear a talk from. I want to know what vantage point they are coming from. I want to know their area of expertise. I want to see other presentations they've done or read articles they may have written. Maybe at that talk, I meet someone that I found interesting. When I get back home, I Google them. Maybe they have a blog that I'll find just as interesting and I'll want to follow it. Maybe I'll even leave comments there and participate in their "community."

So, what if you Google me?

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You are a brand. You are your very own personal brand.

So what does any of this have to do with blogging?

A blog is an excellent place to grow and promote your "brand." It can be the centerpiece of your online identity. The place where, if someone "just Googles you," they end up.

You may have articles you have written; they're published on the Internet in one place for some magazine or report; or maybe you have several places that you have published papers in. You may have given presentations or talks at conferences and those slides are up on the conference's web site somewhere. Maybe you have an online "ePortfolio" that lists research grants awarded, works completed, whatever. Not only that, but you know people; people at this University, colleagues at other Universities, people in the local business community. A blog is where you put this all together.

But how does that make a blog different than any other web site. You could open up Word, or Dreamweaver, or Frontpage and you could find somewhere (like filer.case.edu) to publish a bulleted list of all of this. So what makes a blog different than that?

A blog makes it easier to keep your website healthy, active, up to date, and relevant. You aren't just a plaque or credentials. A blog system has taken the notions of a "personal web site" and it paved the cow paths making everything easier to keep up to date with content. So instead of just a web site that's a list of items about you, a blog is where you engage with these ideas and engage with others.

So lets say that you did a study of Hezbollah in 2002. And you published a research paper about some aspect of Hezbollah and it got published online in the magazine "Middle East Research Papers the Magazine." Well, if you had a blog, today would be a good day where you would post links to the recent news items about Hezbollah and you would link back to the paper published at the magazine and you would put it in context. And you would show relevance with what is happening now and what has changed or hasn't changed or transpired since the publishing of your paper.

That was a bit of a contrived example, but here's another contrived example. Say you're a botany professor, and you're giving a talk at The Society of Botanists. A blog is where you would post that you're giving the talk, and after the talk is where you would post the slides and notes to your presentation. And all the while you are posting on your blog, people are commenting on your posts. You're responding to their comments. People are linking back to your blog from their blogs in posts talking about what your post was about. This is the building of a community around you — you as a brand.

This is how a blog is different than what was commonly known as a regular "personal web site." It makes it easy to update a web page, to keep it relevant, and to pull together you — what you do, who you are. You as a brand.

I just talked about other bloggers linking to your blog's posts. Here is a graphical representation of what is commonly called the "Blog-O-Sphere," and it shows all the inter-linkings that occur.

What I've been describing is a "professional" blog. My work blog would fit this description. But this is certainly not the only reason to have a blog. There are other types of blogs.

An "outloud thinker" blog would be like Mano Singham's blog. A place to formulate ideas, jot down thoughts, engage with a community of other people. Another type of blog is a social blog. A lot of people use the Case Blog system this way. They posts pictures of themselves in Africa and what they are doing. They talk about the wonderful Memorial Day picnic they hosted and what the toddlers are up to. "Journal" type stuff. Pictures of your cats doing funny things.

It should be noted that these types are not mutually exclusive. Actually, it's frowned upon to only post in a "professional" manner. The community wants to read about your perspectives on your areas of expertise. But they want to engage YOU and not a carefully doled out piece PR or research stuffiness. A good rule of thumb: always include a couple posts of cat pictures.

So, now lets take a look at the Case Blog system, and how you can go from no blog to first blog posts in a short series of clicks and some typing.