A new survey released by Synovate eNation demonstrates that 8 in 10 Americans know what a blog is and that nearly half have visited a blog.

You’d have to live under a rock in today’s 24/7 media environment to not know what a blog is, and I’d bet that the number who have visited blogs is actually higher. Reading about this study made me think of a client meeting last year. The CEO of a company was asking for digital guidance, but told me he was tired of hearing about blogs and didn’t want to discuss them. About three slides into the presentation I took a glance at his computer screen and was surprised to see a blog on the monitor. I asked him what the site was and he replied, “oh, it is just some guy, he writes every day about current events and politics and is really entertaining. His is the first site I visit every morning.” That was quite the gotcha moment. (And yes, we did discuss blogs after that!)

Anyway, the more important issue really is content. Given user search habits, the delivery mechanism is not at important. What matters is that companies have a push / pull strategy to participating in online conversations. Users access all sorts of web content based on search engine results, including proactive client blogs, microsites, consumer-generated content, and rick-media materials. The key is to have consistent messaging, relevant to targeted groups, in numerous places and formats, that can all be confirmed on a corporate website. And, companies need to recognize that consumers are no longer interested in receiving directive marketing messages, but are quite open to having marketing conversations with companies who are willing to dialogue in a genuine fashion.

Blogs can no longer be considered “emerging media,” especially if 8 in 10 Americans know what they are. And companies can no longer ignore blogs as a significant component of an overall communications strategy.