The Blog Council is a new alliance of corporate bloggers, designed to address issues that are specific to creating, operating, and using blogs in a corporate environment. The council, which was announced today, was founded by AccuQuote, Cisco Systems, The Coca-Cola Company, Dell, Gemstar-TV Guide, General Motors, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Nokia, SAP, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and Wells Fargo.

Organizer Andy Sernovitz (founder and former head of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association) wrote in an email, “This is the first voice saying that companies have a right to participate in the blogosphere, and do it under their own terms. Companies will blog well and ethically…but they will do it differently than personal or small business blogs.”

Sernovitz emphasized the corporate focus of the Blog Council, pointing out that the group would not include vendors, indie bloggers, or small business bloggers. The focus is clearly on large companies with global brands and far-flung communications, and blog-management issues. He says large corporations blog differently than smaller organizations.

Topics of interest for Blog Council members include: managing blogs in multiple languages, dealing with large numbers of employee bloggers, understanding the impact of consumer-generated media on brands, engaging with bloggers who write about companies and brands, and crisis communication in a corporate blog environment.

Sernovitz’ company, GasPedal, will run the Blog Council on behalf of its members. The council isn’t a non-profit trade group, but a business council, similar to those run by the Gartner Group, Forrester Research, and The Conference Board, according the the council’s FAQ.

The Blog Council Web site says the group will hold an unconference in Orlando, FL, January 22, 2008, and that it will be open to corporate bloggers.

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