We're the first ones to remind ourselves and our clients to not get too caught up in championing one kind of online tool or another - rather to define a clear strategy and let the tactical issue of tools selection flow from that. *But* even I gotta admit that we see an awful lot of benefits in using blogs to further the work of policy-focused groups.

We've blogged about blogs a few times (economics blogging, government blogging, lessons for blogging, story of the ONE blog, GlobalVoices, policy blogging and more.)

What we and others see as interesting about blogs is, in brief, that they hasten the velocity of your ideas online, they facilitate personal and conversational content (which most everyone prefers to officious tomes) and they provide a platform for dialogue with interested people around the world. Yes, a blog is just a tool for putting content on a web page, but it's a very powerful tool for that, and one that also really helps to connect with people and with other bloggers and blog search services.

A little promotion - here's a list of a few of the clients we have gotten set up and started blogging. They're covering topics as varied as education in the US, education reform in the Gulf Region and Qatar, international development and global health, and conservation and education.

-Center for Global Development, "Views from the Center" (on development), Global Health Policy, and "Millenium Challenge Account "Monitor Blog.

-National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

-Education for a New Era / Education Reform in Qatar

-National Wildlife Federation / Green Hour

Just by blogging these groups are leaders in their sectors, and I think that if they keep with it they will broaden their audiences and continue to learn a lot that will improve their online strategies.