Who said PR agencies are slow to catch on social media?

While doing research for my first contribution to the Belgian Press Relations Center's newsletter, I was reminded 3 studies done recently by major international PR companies in the social media field:

• 'The business value of blogging' - a 30 page- pdf by Mark van der Wolf from Lewis PR (which was also referred to at the Euroblog07 in Gent and at the IAB European Blogging Workshop). Delivers an interesting 4 step guide to blogging and insights on the European and Asian cultural differences concerning blogging attitude.
• An explicit 'Corporate blogs are still outsiders in Belgium one page by Leads United (which initiated the debate over blogging organised by the BPRC in April).
• and the 'New wave of advocacy' from Weber Shandwick, introducing the 'badvocates' neologism, opposed to the brands' advocates.
  

The greedy me particularly enjoyed Mark's "Blogs come in different flavors".
Implying that " any decision on blogging should therefore start with an in-depth analysis of the business benefits that the various types of blogs might bring to a company." Mark, you've been warned, I'm going to use this- probably unquote ;-)

All of them are definitely worth reading. And now time for a guide on ' Crisis blog- the best practices' :-)