Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes to present a special seminar from her highly acclaimed work on Social Media Adoption in Business.

On April 8, 2009, Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, Director of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research (CMR) presented the information most in demand in today�s business community. Attendees heard about the two most popular business groups, the Fortune 500 and the Inc. 500. What they are doing (and not doing!) will surprise you. The social media tools like blogging, social networking, podcasting, wiki�s etc. are the hot topics at every major business meeting in 2009. What kinds of businesses are using these tools and are these tools successful? How fast are businesses adopting social media? Are you running behind? Which tools are most popular? How do you begin? What are the tools that successful businesses recommend? These questions were answered. The seminar included a look at the Inc. 500 and the Fortune 500 in 2007 and again in 2008. The movement in social media adoption is incredible!

Dr. Barnes is a pioneer in social media research. She has partnered with Eric Mattson, a well-known podcaster and Social Media Consultant, to produce groundbreaking studies that are unique in the field. Each study is statistically valid which is a trait rarely found in work in this area. Their ground-breaking work has been covered by Business Week, Inc. Magazine, the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Washington Post, Fox News and many others. Barnes and Mattson are the first researchers to look at the same groups twice, 12 months apart, to produce longitudinal data. Dr. Barnes has been in high demand to give webinars, seminars and keynotes from this social media research all over the US.

"The results of these studies are surprising. While some groups studied are moving cautiously into Web 2.0 technologies, others have jumped in. Some are realizing the potential of these new channels and some have a long way to go."