One in Ten Small Businesses Will Be Blogging

A joint survey by Hewlett-Packard and Harris Interactive has found that 10% of small businesses plan to include blogs in their marketing plans, and 16% plan to invest in blogs over the next two to three years.

Although one can interpret this as saying that 90% of small businesses are not considering blogs, the 10% who are are early adopters, not unlike the first wave of businesses who got on the Web in the mid-'90s. Most likely these businesses are either technology- or media-related, and with a blog-savvy customer base.

However, Anita Campbell of the Small Business Trends blog notes that most conventional blog formats are ill-suited for business use. She suggests that instead of the usual diary metaphor for blogs, small businesses view them as press rooms, categorizing posts by topic rather than date, including search features, and integrating shopping-cart tools. It seems like there's an emerging business opportunity for business-oriented blog hosting services and blogging consultants...