Blogger

There's a tipping point where a technology becomes SO hot that it is actually hipper to avoid it than to use it. Perhaps you were waiting for blogging to reach that tipping point. Well, forget about it: blogging is here to stay.

That doesn't mean that you have to become a blogger yourself. I have friends who have gotten rid of their TVs, friends who refuse to use cell phones, even friends who don't even seem to use a regular phone (or maybe I just don't make it through their call screening). There is no technology so compelling that everyone has to use it.

So feel free to give blogging a miss....once you have tried it. All I ask is that you take fifteen minutes (really -- only fifteen minutes!) to set up a Blogger account and write one really short blog post. It can be about anything you want: a short bio, a paragraph about the movie you saw last night, or a page-long rant about your pet political peeve. (Just remember that whatever you write reflects on you, and perhaps also on your organization.)

If this doesn't feel like a comfortable, easy way for you to communicate news or a key message to your colleagues, members or the general public, that's ok. (Though you might get a lot more comfortable with it once you've tried it a few times.) You can go back to distributing your news via e-mail, fax, or even passenger pigeon -- whatever works for you and your audience. But you'll be making a conscious, strategic choice to stay away from blogging, because now you'll know exactly what it is and how easy it is to use.

But I'm guessing you'll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to get your message online this way. So keep exploring! You don't have to stick to Blogger -- you can try out Wordpress, TypePad, or any of the other great blogging tools out there. And you can find lots more advice about the strategic impact of blogging on NetSquared.