So I was at my tax accountant’s a few weeks ago. We were talking about my chosen profession, and how much the world and the way people communicate have changed. He talked about his e-newsletter—he feels it really helps him connect with his clients. The he asked me what I thought about blobs.

He explained his son has a blob, that other tax accountants he knows mention their blobs often, and that everywhere he goes everyone seems to be talking about blobs. And could I tell him, what exactly is a “blob?”

This story is funny for the obvious reasons, and even more so for the fact that a blog—if not nurtured and fed appropriately—does very much resemble a blob. But his question also set off the bells and whistles in my mind: it reminded me that for many people, in business and otherwise, blogs, social networking and everything associated with Web 2.0 still very much resemble a globular, gelatinous mass that has yet to reveal its true power and value.

People don’t know what to do with it. Some people are even scared of it. Heck yeah, they are. It is scary to go online and see four or five letters added in front of your company name desecrate all that you’ve worked for.

(Yes, it’s true, if your company is widely known there is a @!*%yourcompany.com, or an ihateyourcompany.com out there)

It is scary to think that you might stumble upon how your customers really feel about your products and services—and that other people might, too, including your employees and competitors. It is, in fact, so scary that many companies’ leaders pretend that all of that conversation, all of that hashing and opinion-shaping and critiquing and conversation—doesn’t exist.

You’re not one of them, I hope?

If you are, and you think your lockdown is doing you any favors, start with this HBR article If You Want to Lead, Blog from Jonathan Schwartz (President and COO of Sun Microsystems, whose blog can be found at  www.blogs.sun.com/jonathan).  Let it be your first step in joining the conversation.