The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched the Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog, a five-week-long blog about pandemic preparedness. Participant bloggers include some of the nation’s most influential business, health care, faith- based and community leaders. This online event is part of a new campaign to help Americans prepare for a potential influenza pandemic and engage U.S. leaders in the challenge to help others prepare.

“The conversation about individual preparedness for pandemic flu must extend nationwide through all possible channels, including social media and the Internet,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. “The blog summit is an innovative and efficient forum for bringing together leaders for a lively discussion on the pandemic preparedness movement.” The blog marks the first time a Cabinet Secretary has blogged while in office.

The pandemic-focused leadership blog gives national leaders the opportunity to participate in an ongoing and critical conversation about the potential impact of a pandemic on individuals, families, communities and workplaces. A few of the participant bloggers include Pierre Omidyar, Founder and Chairman of Ebay and Co-founder of Omidyar Network; David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service; and Greg Dworkin, Founding Editor of Flu Wiki and Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology and Medical Director of the Pediatric Inpatient Unit at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Conn.

The Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog will continue through June 27 and is open to the public and media. Comments are welcome and encouraged.

Originally posted on June 6, 2007 @ 11:22 am

PRWeb, an online press release distribution newswire and a Vocus company, announced the launch of “BlogThis,” a new social media tool enabling bloggers to easily post and comment on PRWeb press releases in their blogs.

Part of PRWeb’s growing social media toolset, “BlogThis” leverages the growing influence of Web 2.0 technologies to provide additional online visibility for PRWeb press releases. Bloggers can link their PRWeb account to their personal blog, providing a shortcut to post commentary on PRWeb news releases to their blog.

“As blogs and other social media grow in importance to public relations professionals and marketers, PRWeb continues to pioneer new methods to enhance the online visibility of our customers’ press releases,” said Joel Baker, PRWeb’s President and COO. “BlogThis increases the interaction between social media and our customers, facilitating the process for bloggers and increasing the potential coverage for our customers’ press releases within the social media world.”

Originally posted on May 10, 2007 @ 7:44 am

PR Newswire announced a partnership with Umbria, a market intelligence company that specializes in blog research and consumer generated media (CGM) for market insight, to provide clients with a comprehensive blog measurement tool that allows them to assess the impact of online consumer conversations about their company, products and brands.

PR Newswire’s MediaSense Blog Measurement, as the service is called, uses Umbria’s proprietary technology, and allows PR Newswire clients to track blog conversations around a press release or a news topic, and monitor how these conversations grow and wane. Umbria’s patent-pending technology is unique in how it analyzes blogosphere discussions and provides a graphical assessment of the conversation tone and participant demographics.

“The advent of citizen-generated media has both delighted and confounded public relations professionals,” said Dave Armon, chief operating officer, PR Newswire. “As the leading communications service provider for corporate, government and public policy PR officers, PR Newswire views bloggers and their readers as additional key audiences, and this new tool provides our customers with actionable feedback on how their messages are resonating with audiences in the blogosphere, which is 75 million blogs strong and growing.”

Originally posted on May 3, 2007 @ 11:56 am