Public Relations and Internet:The attitudes and experiences of small buisness bloggers using bogs as marketing & communication tool.

The Internet has given us e-mail for use in contacting and keeping in touch with editors. It has given us newsgroups, where there can be a liberal exchange of ideas with others who have similar interests. The Internet has given us gads of information and the ability to choose what information is on a web site. It has given us search engines, which are capable of cataloging every word on web sites and directories, which list web sites and their pages. The Internet is shrinking the world. And lastly, it has made it possible for every person to research any subject as thoroughly as desired from his home or office. Thus, it has become an avenue for reaching potential consumers of products worldwide and is an important part of the marketing mix available to every company.

Although weblogs are being promoted as a potentially valuable business tool in the trade press and mass-market business literature, informal surveys suggest that only a small number of companies are actually using weblogs. Reliable academic studies about the use of weblogs in business have yet to appear. I seek opinions and views to contribute to investigate the attitudes and experiences of small business bloggers using weblogs as a marketing and communications tool. . So farThe results indicate that weblogs are being used for many different purposes and that the bloggers believe them to be an effective marketing tool. However, this perception is based more on the bloggers' trust in the benefits of the medium than on any measurable ROI (return on investment). Moreover, there is little evidence that dialogue is taking place with customers, although the literature tends to advance this dialogue as one of the main advantages of using weblogs. More research needs to be done to determine who is reading company weblogs and what their effect on consumer behaviour is.