A number of industries have embraced business blogs en masse. Yet, I meet executives all the time who have never looked at a blog, let alone considered starting one.

The time for investigation is at hand. Estimates of the number of blogs are iffy, but run as high as 70 million worldwide. Whatever the number, blogs are spreading like wildfire. Some experts predict business blogs will eventually replace traditional Web sites altogether. That may sound incredible, but there’s no doubt blogs are changing the nature of business communication in a big way.

That being the case, businesses need to do two things:

Learn about blogs and the many ways to use them, and
Determine whether now is the right time to start blogging.

Learning. The best way to learn about blogs is to read them. Google Blog Search, now in beta test, is a familiar way to look for blogs in your particular area of interest. The search process itself can be very helpful in determining how much blogging is already underway in your industry. Several good non-technical overview books are out, including one I liked called “Blog Marketing”, by Jeremy Wright.

As you explore blogs, you will quickly see they behave nothing like Web sites. Web site communication is one-way; blogs are discussion forums. Web sites are full of big-picture marketing jargon; blogs are personal and plainly written. Web sites tend to radiate nothing but positive spin; blogs put it all on the table, good news and bad.

Timing. Even if you know everything there is to know about blogging, you still may not know when to pull the trigger. If your industry already blogs heavily, you probably don’t have much choice. But if your industry has not yet beamed into the blogosphere, your decision comes down to whether you want to be a leader or follower in that space. On the plus side, the first bloggers in a particular niche usually wind up being the most successful. Having a reputation for thought leadership within your industry will attract business, even if your company is relatively small. On the negative side, building an audience will be challenging if your customers and other business partners don’t blog. In addition, blogs take a big, ongoing time commitment. Blogs require daily or near daily posting, and comments must be reviewed and responded to quickly and thoroughly.

I talk to executives in a variety of relatively low-tech industries that seem to be in a blogging no-man’s land. Their customers are older and may be just now getting comfortable with email. They value personal contact and phone calls, and wouldn’t read a blog if you paid them. But these executives are starting to encounter a new group of decision-makers with the opposite mentality, people that can’t imagine life without email and would only use the phone if their life depended on it. Bridging the gap between these two customer types might be, in the end, the best reason to start blogging sooner rather than later. More on blogs to come.