Whilst blogs and RSS are causing a PR revolution in corporate America, the UK is only just starting to get the message, a new survey has revealed...

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Blogs – simple syndicated websites – have revolutionised corporate communications for Fortune 500 companies like Disney, Avon, FedEx, Motorola, and McGraw Hill. And an increasing number of global brands realise that with 27% of Americans (according to Pew Internet) using blogs for news, it is vital to get their story out in this arena.

The Vice Chairman of General Motors – Bob Lutz – has even started a personal blog.

The technology behind blogs - RSS - means that companies can communicate faster and more effectively internally and externally.

They are not alone - in the daily Blogpulse survey the number of global blog users has passed 10 million and is growing at 13% a week!

But in a survey conducted by the UK blog monitoring company Market Sentinel Ltd released in May 2005 it was found that only one of the FTSE100 UK blue chip companies syndicated their news releases with RSS – BT. And not one of them has taken the step of launching a corporate blog.

Market Sentinel CEO Mark Rogers reckons that the UK bluechips are missing a trick. "Any large company or brand receives thousands of comments and references in the blogosphere."

"The result is that when customers or partners do a Google search on a company or brand name they are as likely to find a negative comment as they are to find the company's own message. The big UK companies need to get blogging."

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You can read more about business blogging in this article from The Sunday Times 8th May editon: Firms Line Up To Rocket Into The Blogospehere.

In The City Interactive: Are You Content? - 7 June 2005
Mark Rogers, CEO of Market Sentinel, is speaking at In The City Interactive - Are You Content? on Tuesday 7 June. He will be looking at the impact of convergent technologies on businesses in the digital era.

Blogging: A Real Conversation? - NMK Event, 28 June 2005
This event will explore the increasing importance and influence of blogs – as sources of trusted opinion and as a barometer of the shifting balance of power in media publishing. Find out more about Blogging: A Real Conversation? on 28 June 2005 at 01Zero-One in Soho.

About Market Sentinel Ltd:
Market Sentinel Ltd is a privately held British company founded by the co-author of RSS – Ian Davis, and the co-founding commissioning editor of BBC Online – Mark Rogers. Market Sentinel offers web & blog monitoring, online PR and issue management services to a variety of blue chip and public relations companies. To contact them, email: sales@marketsentinel.com