The latest big tech titan to launch a corporate blog is Dell, but it had to be surprised that it's latest communications effort wasn't that warmly received by the blogging community. That's one of the tough lessons companies are learning these days as there are rules and expectations in place on what company blogs should be and shouldn't be. The first rule is to make sure there is a strong business case for the company's blog and make sure it presents the corporate image that's all so critical today. Then, it might prove useful to look around at how some of the big players, including Apple and Microsoft, have approached blogging and the tough lessons they learned during the early days. It's not a quick and easy communications venture, but experts say it's one that can work well if given enough strategy and planning time.

For more on making a corporate blog work:
- see this article at BusinessWeek