A lot of choices have to be made when a company decides to launch an official blog. Among these choices: Who will represent the company on the blog?

If you opt for a single blogger, you need to decide whether to tap someone already working for the company or hire a blogger. eBay opted for the latter, Real Networks for the former. Either way, that individual can potentially become a significant voice for the organization.

Some have argued the danger in this approach: If the blogger leaves the company to join, say, a competitor, the audience goes, too. While this may happen from time to time, I don’t buy it as an argument against an individual blogger. After all, key spokespeople have been changing jobs since long before the birth of the blogosphere. And if readers are as interested in the company as its blogger, they may just find themselves reading two blogs—the original blogger now talking about another company and the new blogger at the original company.

The other approach is a group blog. Some of the best corporate blogs are group blogs, including Direct2Dell, Southwest Airlines’ blog, GM’s Fastlane blog and TSA’s Evolution of Security. FastLane’s key blogger is GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, but other key car executives—mostly people reporting to LUtz—also weigh in. At Southwest Airlines, a number of employees representing the spectrum of jobs at the company were vetted and trained to blog.

Some observers dislike group blogs because they dilute the single voice that can be so compelling on a one-person blog. However, a range of voices from throughout the organization can be equally appealing. There are other benefits to a group blog:

• Nobody is required to spend too much time blogging. A post every couple weeks from each blogger assures a steady stream of fresh content.
• When an issue arises, there is somebody already blogging who is likely to be able to address it based on his or her area of expertise.
• If the blog is determined to be the best channel for a message from the president or CEO, the channel already exists even if the senior executive hasn’t made much use of it. GM’s Rick Wagoner has blogged on GM’s group blog; Gary Kelly at Southwest has done the same.

The most important advantage of a group blog, though, is that it reveals some of the real people in the organization to the public. The blogs listed above have demonstrated the good that comes from letting customer interact directly with employees. There’s also a financial advantage: Define an organization as you will, but without people, it’s nothing. The quality of an organization’s employees will have much to do with the company’s success or failure. Smart people communicating intelligently, candidly, and publicly about their jobs, the company, and the industry can only serve to inspire confidence in investors.

There’s no single right answer, of course; the choice between an individual and a group blog depends on what your company is trying to achieve with an official corporate blog. Weigh your options and choose what’s best for your company, but don’t automatically assume one approach is intrinsically better than the other.