I love the Financial Times. They always make me feel good about the crap I've been spouting at my ever-sceptical colleagues for the last two years.

In this case it's Scott Morrison, the tech industry watcher in the US for the FT, who pens "The rise of the corporate blogger" in the Business Life section (see page 12, or available online). Unsurprisingly focused on tech companies, he nevertheless gives a good round-up of why executives need to understand corporate blogging.

He says that the companies who have been oft-criticised by independent bloggers (most recently, think Dell and Land Rover) are now "trying to figure out how they can take advantage of this new medium to attract attention, cultivate customer relationships, respond to criticism - and perhaps sell a few more computers, cars or aircraft along the way."

Morrison says, "Today, most companies craft carefully controlled messages that are transmitted to the public via the mass media. The advent of blogging is starting to make companies think about how they will be expected to engage their customers and employees in two-way conversations in real time - whether they like it or not."

After the obligatory Kryptonite case study (no self-respecting journalist would pass this one by), Morrison goes on to offer some advice to companies wishing to enter the blogosphere. He recommends establishing a system on the corporate intranet as a first step. Good advice, but to be honest, you're not going to learn much about your customers' expectations this way - it's a good way to get executives familiar with the medium, but I know plenty of companies who would actually be taking a bigger risk by talking to their employees than they would talking to their customers!

He peppers the piece with some good anecdotes, mainly from the tech sector (including HP's comment-pulling saga and their positive reaction), before moving on to legal risks, clearance and approval pros and cons, company guidelines (shame he missed ours), before reaching the central question: "With so much downside, what is the upside?"

His answer: "Blogging is transforming the way companies communicate and, for a customer, direct contact with an employee is so much more preferable than dealing with a huge faceless behemoth", a conclusion supported by references to Microsoft and their uber-blogger Robert Scoble.

In all, a good piece from Morrison and a great piece for those of us desparate to get company and agency communicators to understand that blogging is no longer the realm of geeks and spotty teenagers.