Blogging: Understand Where Other People are Coming From

So your company has decided to launch a blog to communicate with its customers, so the rest should be a piece of cake right? It's not as easy as it sounds. Blogging on controversial topics can very often stir up emotions and comments. Looking through my reader this afternoon I came across this post from Marshall Kirkpatrick in which he explains how simply understanding where people are coming from can help make you a more effective communicator.
This idea doesn't just stop with blogging though. Communities, social networks, forums, discussion boards, and any other forms of social media that render conversations should be treated the same way. Let's face it. Different viewpoints exist in the world, and so companies must learn to treat responses fairly in order to communicate more effectively online.