Most of Michael Lent's article is very informative. In the interest of full disclosure, he teaches at my Alma mater. Boomer Sooner!

I do think he takes some qualitative positions at times and tries to extract quantitative warrants from those positions. I'm not exactly excited by that. For example when discussing the numbers over how much traffic blogs get. He posits that some of the traffic has to be more personal like close friends and family members. Probably true, it's a fair assumption; but then he puts a number on his qualitative position. He then says that 1 in 20 of people in america spend a serious amount of time with bloggers. Again it might be true, just warrant-less is all.

The most important point that doctor Lent makes is that a company's blog must not be anonymous and must be updated regularly. I think those rules are key. He cautions companies not to jump in to starting a blog, and discourages strategies of implementation until more evidence and research can be done. I'm less pessimistic, I think trying is low risk with big rewards, except in particularly unique circumstances. I think the money of one ad campaign put in to employing a "mascot" blogger for the company. Exactly what kind of personality a company chooses depends on the brand and audience of the particular company. But if done in a smart way I think it can have an impact that is at the very least longer lasting than your average ad campaign.