Research reported in the Wall Street Journal into blog readers and the fact that reading a blog can become habit forming. Many people tend to follow a routine. When travelling to London I always stand on the same spot on the platform. I used to buy a daily newspaper. Now I do not. I take my information via online news services, blogs and recently Twitter.  

Interview with Guy Kawasaki and the authors from Forrester Research and their new book ‘Groundswell’. Groundswell is not available in the UK yet but from reviews in the US looks a great book looking at the rise and rise of social media and organisations can use it to enhance internal and external communication.

Sally Falkow on the latest research into maximising PR coverage online – don’t just distribute your release online but optimise it for search engines. There has been a lot written about the social media version of the press release. Sadly many PR agencies are strong on the people and communication skills but have less developed IT skills. This research shows how SEO added to a traditional press release can have real added value online.

David Wilson reports on the latest research from the USA on how women are reading and commenting on blogs because of their relevance and authenticity. A great quote “Several recent surveys indicate that our trust in institutions is declining. We are losing trust in the government, politicians, the media and many corporations. But as it turns out, we trust each other,” said Elisa Camahort Page, BlogHer co-founder and COO. “The blogosphere is increasingly becoming the digital ‘kitchen table’ where individuals can sit down to have an authentic conversation about all the topics that affect their daily lives - from household products to presidential candidates.”

Mike Butcher and start-up technology companies are in the US visiting IT companies and VC’s as part of WebMission08 to see how it is done over there. Follow their progress on Mike's blog and Twitter account to see who has gone.  

Shel Israel interviews the Twitter guys. After seeing it as a total waste of time I have been using Twitter for a few weeks now and found it invaluable and great fun. I saved getting caught by a rail delay by someone Tweeting that there was a problem further up the line. That alone made it worth using as I was not late for my meeting. I have also been able to find new data sources and research resports because the people I have chosen to follow are knowledgeable in areas I am interested in. Looking for somewhere to eat the other evening in London I posted a question on Twitter and got a response within 15 minutes advising me of a local place. Last week I linked up two people at the same conference using Twitter.