I do agree with your comment that the clever PR person will advise their client to get blogging, but I generally recommend it as a 3rd of 4th step. I usually recommend that they start with 1. start with listening to the conversation, learning/finding the active communities of conversation, hearing what customers & influencers are saying, then 2. start responding to questions and participating through comments, twitter, etc. and making valuable online connections. Then the company can start telling their own story on their blog with a greater degree of success.

Of course, there are success stories that started with blogging but they generally added all three disciplines together (listening, participating and sharing your story through blogging).

Nice blog, btw… you are one of those I envy who somehow finds a way to post new content frequently which is really hard so good job!