Although rarely talked about blogs are used almost as often as private internal tools as they are external marketing and PR tools. There are tens of thousands of companies who have intern blogs designed to aid those who work for the organization, ranging from sales blogging reports to HR related issues.

However I don’t necessarily want to talk about those issues today. A post over at experience matters got me talking about the practice of blogging on how it effects internal branding efforts. In this case the blog is an external marketing tool, read by the public and published by employees of the company Critical Mass.

It was mentioned that they have an editorial board as a method of generating ideas, which was met with a variety of different reactions. However it really got me thinking about the process of writing a blog by members of an organization can really make a dramatic difference in the understanding of the brand internally. The process of thinking about what is valuable to your brand enthusiasts and readers, the voice of the brand, and the message in order to produce quality and relevant blog posts is an extremely effective way to educate people on the brand itself.

In order to write an effective blog post you have to think about your readers (who are all advocates, potential customers, or interested parties in your brand) and what type of content they would find valuable. This process of discovery is very relevant to discovering what is important to your target market. What messaging and types of content is valuable to your target market, online and offline. How do these people want to be communicated to? and with what voice?

By assigning those who communicate with people outside the organization to writing blog posts, you end up teaching them how to “wear the brand” when they make contact with others. The values, voice, and messaging will be clear as everyone will have had to think and focus about how to communicate in a way that is true to the brand.

While there are other ways to promote internal branding, this method is proactive and keeps your brand stakeholders engaged and communicating with those who are happy to listen and respond. Rather than simply do seminars, activities, and other hokey methods why not acclimate everyone to the brand message in a way that has multiple benefits and is organic, authentic, and real?

First it was the phone, once upon a time it was a new technology that altered how people communicated in a life changing way. Now it is the internet. Only the internet has a much greater impact.

Not only has emailed revolutionized the way we communicate, but the internet itself has opened up a chasm of different effective and more productive ways to communicate. Wiki’s, instant messaging, forums, blogs, social networks, email, virtual conferencing, chat rooms, the list goes on.

Yet some people want to stick fast to an age old worn and torn method, the meeting. I have never been a huge fan of meetings, they suck up way more time than they are productive. Travel, preparation, concentration shift (twice), delays, small talk… often times you spend more time with the tasks surrounding the meeting than meetings themselves.

Granted there are times where meetings simply are the only way to accomplish specific tasks, and are completely valid. However they are performed way too often.

Seth Godin recommends skipping at least one meeting a week, see how it impacts you for better or worse. My estimate is that in almost every occasion you can find better ways to communicate the same information quicker and more clear than holding another meeting. Work schedules, reporting, and continual information exchange will save everyone time and keep people updated all along a project not just at specific intervals.

At BlogFire we use project Wiki’s that allow clients and internal contractors alike to watch and update the progress of the project with out requiring a two - three hour disruption. However there are many ways to archive the same effect and cut down on unnecessary meetings.

There has been much debate over the value of twitter as a viable marketing tool. While no doubt the early adopters tend to be younger and tech focused, their is a real possibility that twitter could become popular enough where it could be a real way to reach consumers. The real time multi-channel nature of the platform provides real potential. If not twitter, then the service/app that takes it’s place.

The key to all of this speculation is the adoption, and by who. So when someone posts some research and information about the twitter usage numbers it raises a few eyebrows.

The important numbers? 1 million users, and 200,000 active users per week (posting an average of 15 tweets a day).

While it certainly hasn’t hit the participation level of blogging, facebook, or linkedin it shows very real potential. When services such as twitter start to reach a critical mass they gain steam at a very rapid pace. Is twitter a service that anyone with a cell phone would use? It is a possibility, as twitter allows a very real and easy way to stay connected with people you care about regardless of time.

Remember there was a time when the only people who used e-mail were the techie early adapters.