Tell someone that you have a blog, or that you think they should have a blog, and you’ll get met more often than not by blank stares.
What’s a blog? Too often, we describe it as a place where people are able to publish whatever they want on the web.
From Wikipedia:
The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger[58] on 17 December 1997. The short form, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999. Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used “blog” as both a noun and verb (“to blog,” meaning “to edit one’s weblog or to post to one’s weblog”) and devised the term “blogger” in connection with Pyra Labs’ Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.
In talking with local businesses about their web strategy, I’ve stumbled on a much simpler way to explain blogs.
A blog is a web site that you can build quickly and can change as frequently as you want at virtually no cost.
That gets peoples’ attention: You mean I can update my web site whenever I want?
Yes.
That’s the underpinning of Web 2.0, social media and community: the ability to change frequently and at minimal cost.
Blogs are not just publishing platforms; they are application platforms for activating social connections.
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Jon Fine of Business week lays out an 
