Assuming you are talking to Swiss corporations–In my experience, their entire corporate culture is driven by a classic marketing approach: You tell people, you make them buy, you impose your strategies on people’s behavior patterns, sending a message in only one direction. The idea of blogging and allowing people to comment content freely is of course a scary thought for many companies. So I would say that until today, in terms of blogging, this fear is still dominating the Swiss economy. It’s the main reason why many see blogs as a PR channel and not much more.

I think if you focus on this one point in your introduction and maybe add one or two lines or hints of your presentation content, you will pick up the audience where they are standing now. You are doing this already, but it could be much more direct and less cluttered with side notes. I always tell this myself for my own writing: make it simpler. Straight sentences, each for one thought.

Len’s version isn’t bad. It already implements some of the ideas above.

Good luck with your talk!

I guess the example of what Robert Scoble professional Blog brought to Microsoft is quite impressive.

I think it has been estimated it would have costs Microsoft about US$50M should they have to set up a communication campaign with a similar benefit.

This could be used as the concrete example Michael is talking about.

Good luck for your talk !

cecil (http://ceciiil.wordpress.com)

The link:
http://tinyurl.com/3dlyhf

Blogs are now widely understood to be way more than self-indulgent diaries, but many companies which embrace blogs and other social media fail to achieve anywhere near the expected beneficial results. Why is this?

Stephanie Booth, a veteran blogger and social media practitioner, will share her insights on how companies can avoid common pitfalls and succeed in social media. Though blogging requires no more technical skill than sending an e-mail, successful corporate blogs operate within a culture of openness and authentic human dialogue that is often at odds with normal corporate communications. Thus, when a corporation starts blogging, it starts changing. And where that change might lead, no one can know with certainty. Not every corporation is ready to take the leap.

Booth will detail successful strategies, such as identifying a particular need or set of problems which can be addressed with social media. She will make clear what it takes to learn the “blogging culture” and how much time it takes to maintain a successful blog.

Her presentation will highlight methods of introducing blogs in a corporation. She will use real-world examples taken from existing blogs to illustrate nuances of the blogging culture, and how your corporation can successfully join it.