As the end of the 4th quarter approaches – a year after “official recession-dom” – everyone is talking about blogs. How they’re free… search-engine friendly… and extremely effective for creating two-way communication.

And a lot of companies are now scrambling to start something up. People that are effective bloggers are in high demand. Don’t believe me? Read Douglas Karr‘s latest post on Talent Zoo: Your Company is Going Under, and You Could Have Stopped It.

Now my only remaining question is whether or not the late-adopters will get anything out of jumping on the bandwagon now. Established blogs (and bloggers) have already established themselves as authorities and gained a following. And there’s no use doing something unless you do it right. I guess we’ll see!

What exactly did people do before Facebook? Much less Gmail (and GChat) oh, and AIM. These social networking/communication tools make my life *that* much easier to get in touch with people. So, piggy-backing off of this article from Joel Postman over at Talent Zoo, I’d like to share some advice on how exactly to use these communication channels effectively.

• Connect with people you already know, be weary of “friending” strangers.
• Be professional – even if it’s a personal networking site.
• When sending messages, ask yourself, is this message about something that will be meaningful to the recipient?
• When in doubt, don’t.
• Focus on making the most of your contacts, not making the most contacts.