Only five percent of companies regularly use a blog, according to a new study released by WebTrends, maker of the most complicated, unfriendly online traffic metrics software I have ever used.

WebTrend's report, which polled 200 marketers, found some 78 percent of them never (ever) used blogs.

NickSharp, VP and general manager EMEA, WebTrends, said: “Blogging is muchmore than a “nice to have” in business today. Corporate blogs can be very effective communication tools within or on behalf of a corporate community. Not surprisingly, more firms are paying greater attention to what bloggers are saying about them. A dissatisfied customer airing negative views can damage corporate reputation over night.”

Well, exactly.

Just four percent of marketers told WebTrends they use podcasts, but that medium commanded the highest satisfcation - 44% - higher even than WebTrends' own core area of web analytics (42%), search optimisation (29%) and viral marketing (14%). Twenty-nine percent of those who used blogging were satisfied.

Some of these figures sound awfully low, suggesting only a minority of marketers are satisfied with every single type of communication medium.