I have been invited to chair a new Federated Press course on corporate blogging, to be held in Toronto, September 25 & 26, 2006.

I will also be speaking at their 3rd Annual Media Relations Course, to be held in Toronto on September 5 & 6, 2006.

(New York, NY, June 26, 2006) -- JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, reveals that 35 percent of large companies plan to institute corporate Weblogs this year. Combined with the existing deployed base of 34 percent, nearly 70 percent of all site operators will have implemented corporate blogs by the end of 2006.

According to a new report, "Corporate Weblogs: Deployment, Promotion, and Measurement," currently 64 percent of executives spend less than $500,000 to deploy and manage corporate Weblogs.

"Site operators should leverage existing Web content management best practices and functionality to decrease total cost of ownership, promote unified branding and increase site security," said Greg Dowling, Analyst at JupiterResearch and author of the report. "They can also realize considerable cost savings while mitigating deployment, management and maintenance concerns inherent in implementing additional stand-alone Weblog authoring systems."

The new research finds that Weblogs are underused for generating word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing opportunities. Only 32 percent of marketing executives said they use corporate Weblogs to generate WoM around their company's products or services.

"By engaging prospective customers in active dialogue, companies can showcase their expertise and domain knowledge, creating a forum for communication of their strategies and visions," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterKagan. "In doing so, companies can generate buzz around their products or services, while eliciting feedback and collaboration from product evangelists."

http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studies/cmrblogstudy.pdf

A survey published by Nora Ganim Barnes, from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Her report, Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere (PDF format, 60 pages, 1.32 MB) suggests that blogs will make or break your business.

more..... a great quote by Rupert Murdoch

"To find something comparable, you have to go back 500 years to the printing press, the birth of mass media – which, incidentally, is what really destroyed the old world of kings and aristocracies. Technology is shifting power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are taking control."

The expression “public relations” was first used by Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, back in 1802.

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 --- July 4, 1826) was the third (1801 --- 1809) President of the United States, second (1797) --- 1801) Vice President of the United States, and an American statesman, ambassador to France, political philosopher, revolutionary, agriculturalist, horticulturist, land owner, architect, archaeologist, slaveowner, author, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia.

Many people consider Jefferson to be among the most brilliant men ever to occupy the Presidency. President John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962, saying, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." Achievements of his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.