Sun's Schwartz: Leaders Can't Survive Without Blogs

Sun Microsystems President, COO and chief blogger Jonathan Schwartz today made the grandiose statement that blogging is essential for business leaders.

"If you want to be a leader, I can't see surviving without a blog." He added that "authenticity is paramount," and said executives have to write their own blogs because those who have ghost writers won't be effective communicators.

Whew! Down Sparky! Blogs are a tool, not a panacea. Because blogs make publishing to the Internet so simple, and because the software is robust and database driven, these simple websites are here to stay. blogs bring customers closer, build trust and help establish authenticity in a world that now has less than six degrees of separation.

But blogs are absolutely not for everyone. Just like websites, blogs need compelling content to build an audience. Publishing a blog is a time intensive project that requires writing and research. Blogs that aren't well written and frequently updated will simply be ignored. There simply is no such thing as a perfect marketing tool, or an effortless way to build traffic to any site, including blogs, no matter who writes them.