Susannah Gardner (Vancouver, BC) is the co-founder and creative director of Hop Studios Internet Consultants (www.hopstudios.com), a Web design company that specializes in custom Web solutions for content publishers.

Prior to running Hop Studios, Susannah worked in the Online Journalism and Communication Program at the University of Southern California. Susannah also spent four years at The Los Angeles Times as one of six editors responsible for launching the newspaper’s website.

Susannah speaks frequently at conferences and seminars about blogging, blogging technologies, and other related fields. She has spoken at SXSW, BlogHer, and the Northern Voice Blogging Conference.

Susannah, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge about blogs with us. I’d like to start by asking if you think it's useful for companies to have a blog.

That's tough to say for certain -- I think many companies might benefit from having a blog, but it simply isn't going to suit every company out there. For instance, there are industries that have to be very secretive, very protective of what they do (aerospace comes to mind) and so they have a very inwardly focused corporate culture. Because blogs are so much about breaking down walls and opening up with new viewpoints, for these industries a blog just doesn't make sense. The most successful corporate or business blogs are those where the company can really get behind the idea that customer input and feedback -- conversation -- is worth the risk that they might get some negative criticism at the same time. The company really needs to be willing to let go of the control they are used to having in more traditional methods of communication with the public via formal press releases, newsletters, reports, and advertisements. This medium is not about control!

If companies have a blog, what useful features should it have?

Well, the best possible thing a company can do is make sure they have a compelling and interesting person to be the voice of that blog; good intentions are not enough to attract an audience! In fact, I'd go so far that other bells and whistles like podcasts or polls aren't necessary if you have someone with a smart, engaging viewpoint creating blog content. Having said that, I'd always recommend that a company blog allow comments -- it isn't much of a blog if shut down the very thing that sets a blog apart from a regular Web site -- and of course if you're going to allow comments, you also need to read and respond to them.

Technologically speaking, a good blog will also have some spam-fighting tools in place, as well as an RSS feed -- at a minimum. Nice extras have proven to be things like email newsletters that can be used to remind readers to come back to the blog periodically, the occasional guest blogger, and maybe a contest or two once in a while!

Should companies use an external blog service or internal?

Why not both? In fact, for companies who are very new to the idea of blogging, an internal blog can be a great way to get started, solve the technical issues, and figure out how to use this medium effectively -- all out of the public eye. You don't want to turn on a public-facing blog if you really don't have a clue about what you are doing! And of course, many companies are using internal blogs to reach out to their employees in the same ways they might want to reach out to the public, by providing access to unique viewpoints, to create connections, or to simply give their employees a voice.

What are the "dangers" of blogs that companies should address?

Most companies are concerned about two possible outcomes: legal issues, or negative criticism. Legal issues are actually more likely to arise on the personal blogs of their employees -- that's where we're seen people really put their foot in it, and sometimes get fired as a result.

Putting a policy in place that allows your employees to have personal blogs if they make it clear they are only expressing personal opinions on them might be the best possible way to let your employees have their free speech without unintentionally getting themselves in hot water. Having said that, most legal issues are easy to avoid if you have a good idea of what you're blogging about, what you shouldn't blog about, and you stay away from "hot button" issues like politics or religion. Criticism is the more usual scenario. If you open the door to feedback, you have to expect that not all of it will be positive. However, I'd like to suggest that they way in which a company deals with negative criticism on their blog -- or on other blogs -- are actually a real opportunity.

If you deal with it constructively, and can actually improve the situation for an unhappy customer effectively, and you do so publicly, you earn a lot of credibility, good will and reputation points for the company. In fact, I'd say acknowledging problems, apologizing and correcting them is a way more effective strategy that ignoring them or deleting them, neither of which will do you any good at all.

How should employees protect their privacy in their personal blogs, so that it won't negatively affect their jobs?

If you're an employee with a personal blog, you can do a few things to keep yourself safe. First of all, put a disclaimer on your blog somewhere that makes it clear that you are blogging as a private person, and that your opinions are not those of your employer. That will go a long way to making your employer a lot happier about the blog if they come across it.

The second key thing is probably not the mention the name of the company where you work, definitely don't talk about your co-workers, and be sure that if you do talk about work you are aware of what you can and can't say or reveal about what you do or what your company does. You obviously don't want to give away your company's trade secrets.

If you think your boss would be objective about it, why not run the idea of the blog past him or her, or even show your boss a few of your posts so that you know whether you're getting into a sensitive area or not? Be smart about what you talk about, and always, always remember that anything you put on your blog has to the potential to be read by anyone, now or in the future. Yes, that means your boss. Or your mom. Don't make the mistake of thinking "no one really reads this so it doesn't matter what I put up here." If it's public, on your blog, anyone can read it.