Let’s get it started… Kevin Dugan brought to light this outstanding McKinsey Group study. Three quarters of the 2800 respondents said their businesses were moving towards social media. Of that group, half were CxOs. If you don’t think businesses are moving towards social media, then perhaps this study will change your mind. Kevin says, “The bottom line is that businesses realize the benefit of ‘the conversation’ and are investing in the technologies that help them achieve it.”

Via Pownce: Paull Young has worked with AMEX to build a great Second Life initiative to save the rain forests. This just -posted YouTube video highlights that campaign. An awesome use of social media for a great cause!

Eric Eggertson reminds us that all of the controversy around bloggers (in comparison to journalism) taking graft may not be really a fair argument since journalist themselves are abusing the rules of engagement. Check out the five most common abuses by journalists. For the record, blogging is not journalism, there are no rules. While free to do as they wish, bloggers who consistently buck ethical trends risk losing their readership, or they attract readers with similar character (golden rule marketing).

Shel Israel and other “A-List” bloggers got into a heated discussion about whether or not blogging was in decline. The possible reason? Well, it’s the rise of social networks. Shel says, “Naked Conversations focused on blogging because, way back in 2005, blogging was the only social media power tool. It’s a very different story now.” Partner-in-Crime Scoble says social networks are blogs anyway, just different in form.

Brian Oberkirch says Twitter’s got a huge round of funding coming. Look for some serious utility coming to reader’s number one network of choice. For the record, Oberkirch also pleads bloggers to stop the Jaiku/Pownce/Twitter WWIII smackdown. Personally, I’m fascinated by the technologies and think they do compete for readers/consumers time and usage. It’ll be interesting to see what the poll’s final tally is at the end of the week, and the resulting intelligent maps.

Locally, Buzz Bin friend Alan Smith’s problogging (welcome, WineSmith) for the Greater Washington Initiative. His best recent blog post highlights how NYC real estate firms are plugging big bucks into DC, to the tune of $4 billion. It just goes to show you, DC really is a boom town.

On a different note: Beltway bloggers, there’s a meet-up this Thursday. New Media Nouveaux Keynote speaker Toby Bloomberg will host a blogger-meet-up vis a vis Success in the City the night before the conference. Toby’s the author of the nationally recognized Diva Marketing Blog (currently ranked 1,678th blog in the world by Technorati).

Also Aaron Brazell of Technosailor fame (ranked 2,788th) will be there, too. The blogger meet-up will be at the Brio Tuscan Grille at Tysons Corner Center in McLean, VA on July 12 at 6:00 p.m… Spread the word, and we’ll see you there!