You might have heard about Scobleizer, a blog written by Microsoft employee Robert Scoble. He describes himself as an evangelizer on the Windows team. Scobleizer is one of the best-known “thought leadership” blogs in the techie blogosphere. It’s also one of the top 50 most-read blogs, according to an article in VARBusiness. I checked this out. Scobleizer is #53 out of the top 100 blogs as ranked by Technorati.

Turns out Scoble is one of an estimated 800 Microsoft employees busily blogging… with Bill’s blessing. If you’re still not convinced you can let one or more of your employees loose to blog, consider the power of 800 evangelists talking about your company and your products. OK, maybe not always in positive terms (yes, that’s allowed; Microsoft bloggers can be critical of the mother ship). But they’re creating buzz, starting conversations, making connections with customers, prospects, the media, you name it. Isn’t that a large part of what you want out of your PR and marketing efforts?