1) This is why we are blogging - including understanding the intended audience
2) This is who will be responsible for blogging - how much time and energy will be put into it by which team members
3) This is how we will measure the effectiveness of our blog
And then be prepared to iterate on those points. I've seen too many startup blogs with a few[1] posts from the early days, clearly with the best intentions, but then a silence that makes you wonder whether they still exist - better they never blogged.
OK, a blog is often useful since your customers will want you to communicate with them in some way. But worry about doing that effectively before you worry about incrementing some integer on a social networking site.
All your other efforts have an expiry date, like link building is not permanent. Tweets expiry and vanish.
Blog and its content stays just like your website.
With Blogs you are announcing, educating and engaging all-in-one.
I agree.
There are actually valid reasons why companies want to keep information on themselves non-public to not give tips to the competition. Much of this has disappeared on the internet with the general openness. But only some of the rules of business have been re-written, not all of them. Of course if you want to release disinformation that the competition reads that has value, but obviously takes a bit of effort to be done correctly.
Walt Disney assembled Walt Disney World in Florida by setting up all sorts of intermediaries and even flying through various small airports so as not to tip off competition. He went to a great deal of trouble to keep his plans private (and of course there is Apple secrecy as well).
But your blog is (or should be) one way to have a conversation with customer (or potential customers, at least). Blogs aren't just for pushing stuff out, there should be a measure of interaction as well. Ideally, a blog post should spark a discussion...
Effective blogging is one of the ways to do this. The point is not about blogging just for the sake of bloggin. Point is about spreading word about your startup, sharing your experiences, how you do things etc. These things will always intrigue a potential customer or well wishers of your startup.