Companies could maintain a good dialogue with customers, the press and other contacts through a blog, according to a business technology specialist.

Editor and co-founder of Social Media Portal Rachel Hawkes said that blogging could be used as a focal point for companies, also allowing a company to keep in touch with its shareholders on a less formal basis.

She continued: "Brands should also strive to have multiple people tasked with the responsibility of managing the blog, which ensures that content can be frequent and also represent a broader picture of the organisation."

Ms Hawkes added that both large and small businesses were becoming aware of the power of blogging, with many stakeholders putting money into social media after seeing its success in the workplace.

A recent study by user-generated internet search engine Technorati found that over one million blog posts were made every day, covering 81 different languages in 66 countries.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.