ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the blogs which very quickly moved on beyond other websites to encompass any and all subject areas that took the interest of the bloggers. The boom year for blogging was 2002 as it moved from minority interest into the mainstream of the Internet. With regard to using blogs as part of a social media marketing strategy, although it might actually be a person, in the main the words individual and author can be replaced by either product, brand or organization. Although exact figures are not available, it would be reasonable to assume that the last two categories monopolize the readership numbers. Effectively, the commercial blog replaces the individuals views on life with the organizations views on anything it wishes to comment upon although an individual can be presented as the voice of the organization. As bloggers are normally evangelists on their chosen subject and often early adopters in reaching new markets with brand awareness.
