Organizational blogging

This post is related to Shikha's post below on museums and social networking sites. I work at a much smaller organization downtown that recently launched a blog as an offshoot of its regular website. While it's not the same as Facebook or MySpace in that the aim is not to create a visual web of fans and friends, the blog is certainly another example of social media in that it relies on users' interaction, multimedia content, and constant real-time updates. The blog is so new that we don't know yet how popular it is or what its potential for growth might be. However, as Shikha indicates, we did feel that it was important to do what we could to leverage this low-cost but savvy marketing opportunity to spread our name among new audiences.

One question that I am still having trouble reconciling, however, is that of the balance between our regular website and our blog. Right now, it seems that there is substantial content overlap between the two, mostly in terms of event postings and other news about the organization. Furthermore, it would seem that much of what is posted on the blog (i.e. examples of artwork produced on-site, pictures documenting our special events, general information about our programming, etc) could just as effectively be published on the main website. The main difference, then, seems to be the blog's more informal and conversational voice. (This makes sense given that the blog is updated by a 22 year-old teaching artist as opposed to the website's content which must be approved by the marketing department and the associate director.)

In a case such as this one, what is the point in maintaining both the blog and the website? In an organization as small as ours, there is not the same need to offer transparency and an "inside' look at the organization via an informal blog as there would be at a major institution. Shouldn't the success of the blog just instigate the staff to make substantial improvements to the main website so that it is up to par with the blog? However, if this were done, what role would the blog then play?