There’s big news at the Blog Council, said Andy Sernovitz in an email today:

Blog Council Announces Dell’s Bob Pearson To Join As President
Goal is to accelerate sharing of best practices and build social media as a discipline utilized throughout the Fortune 1000

The Blog Council, the world’s leading forum for large companies to share best practices in social media, announced that Bob Pearson has left Dell to become its new President. Pearson was previously Vice President of Communities and Conversations at Dell, where he oversaw the company’s social media efforts worldwide.

[…] Blog Council members are heads of social media at Fortune 1000-size companies who share best practices as they pioneer these programs. Members include Cisco, GE, Dell, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, The Home Depot, Procter & Gamble, and Walmart.

[…] Pearson is widely known as the leader of one of the first major social media programs at a global enterprise. His work at Dell is considered the model for how big businesses should work with blogs, communities, and other social media.

The Blog Council is a project of GasPedal, the consulting firm of which Andy Sernovitz is CEO.

I’ve not met Bob Pearson but I have spoken to him, notably in an FIR interview in December about Dell’s focus on small businesses in the UK via social communication channels like SmallBusinessAdvice.tv.

At Dell, Bob was responsible for IdeaStorm, Direct2Dell, StudioDell and other digital initiatives so it will be interesting to see what his departure means for Dell.

Still, figuratively speaking, Dell’s loss is the Fortune 1000’s gain as Bob certainly has a clear view of what social media means to large organizations and how he sees its role:

Social media represents a disruptive set of technologies and techniques that will transform a company’s business practices, improve conversational capabilities with customers and empower employees to learn and share their knowledge in real time. In the years ahead, we will see social media evolve into a discipline that companies use throughout their organization – from marketing to technical support to human resources.

See the Blog Council’s formal announcement.

Related post:

• FIR Interview: Bob Pearson, VP Communities and Conversations at Dell: December 7, 2008.