Jen Evens of Sequentia Communications is moderating the topic of "Corporate Blogs - How and Why?"

The panelists are: Tara Hunt, marketer Debbie Weil of WordBiz.com and Jeremy Wright, president of b5media.com

They are asking audience members for questions.

Audience: Are business blogs just PR vehicles?

DW: Bob Lutz of GM is trying it by allowing the CEO to connect with their customers. It is a corporate communications channel though.

JW: I'm not a fan of it. There is no two-way communication. And I don't see that the company has listened to customers.

JW: Has anyone bought something because of a business blog? No?

Audience: I didn't buy something on the Dell site because of a comment I saw on the site.

DW: In Feb Lutz posted that he was upset about the perception of his brand. He asked the audience how they could improve their company.

Moderator: Can a blog message be translated into a corporate environment?

TH: I don't believe in corporate blogging - I do think they should put themselves out there to see how the market responds. 37signals gets away with a lot because they are a hip company.

Moderator: Mark Cuban was fined for his blogs...

DW: In his case he has an extra hundred thousand dollars and can afford to mouth off. It's a tool to transfer information.

Audience: How does a corporation get involved in blogging when we're damned when we do and damned when we don't?

JW: The blog has to be in line with the corporate strategy.

DW: Wells Fargo's blog was on the San Francisco earthquake and was very interesting.

TH: It's the people within the corporation who do the blogging.

Audience: Our firm's legal department has clamped down on the external blog... What are the top benefits of corporate blogging?

TH: See my book. The number one reason is to have a blog so the company can help control "control" the conversation.

Audience: What are some good examples of enterprise blogs?

JW: HP is doing something good. The best way to get into it is to post an "ideas" blog. Project management blogs are good as well.

TH: If it's just smoke and mirrors but if nothing is being done with it then it's a waste.

JW: One company opened up a venting blog. The CEO could respond. That is powerful.

DW: Boeing has done internal blogs... see Business Week. But everyone should have a blog because it is a good resume.

JW: It is the new resume.

Audience: The blogoshere can be mined to pull in data. Competitors can get corporate data.

JW: It is the cheapest marketing analysis existing. Some tools out there allow you to do great analysis.

DW: Look at blogpulse.com, technorati, and symphony(?) for good data.

Audience: One of the things IBM does is a world jam where they open the lines on one main topic. it is not anonymous. People vent then it becomes very constructive.

Moderator: What are best practices?

JW: Understand the difference between transmission and engaging. Just do it.

TH: In the US 50 Million people read blogs. Find people in your organization who blog. Read blogs.

DW: Look at my book... Use blogs. it is instant publishing. It is a great market research tool. It is a no brainer.

Moderator: We can email a list to the readers.