It may be hard to get the large PR agencies to pay attention to blogs, their impact and their potential. When you’re number 11, though, it’s easier to be a bit more nimble. MWW Group, which bills itself as the 11th largest public relations agency in the US, has launched Blog 360, “a new specialty practice with focused expertise in blog marketing.” The practice includes a partnership with Steven Morgan Friedman, identified as a leading blog expert, “among the first to develop blogs for corporate use.” MWW labels Friedman a “pioneer.” I’ve never heard of him. You?

You have to wonder how anybody could have a focused expertise just yet; how soon can somebody claim to have a focused expertise in podcasting? Still, it’s interesting to see an agency establish a marketing practice focused purely on blogs. “Blog 360 is a component of MWW’s Marketing-360, an approach which is grounded in the belief that all communications activities must reach target audiences at every point of contact in order to impact a brand,” according to Michael W. Kempner, MWW’s president and CEO. According to a press release, blog marketing “will become a new subset of the products and services that MWW offers through its core practice areas.” The release also notes that the service will include a “proprietary influencer measurement program.”

Introducing a digitally-focused practice makes sense to protect market share. According to David Davis, who makes predictions for the PR industry on the UK’s Creative Match site, “The emergence of the new generation of digital age public relations as a serious threat to the ‘old guard’ will be the most exciting development in the global PR business in 2005.”

???In the past year or so there has been increasing evidence that they are winning major new business in competition with the large established agencies because they are offering clients fresh faces, fresh strategic thinking and fresh ideas and more importantly they are more attuned to the digital age. This trend will accelerate in the next 12 months.”