ABSTRACT
In the workplace and increasingly on digital media, customers expect companies not only to respond to them, but they expect it to be fast. Another complication is the prevalence and importance of non-traditional digital media as sources of information and the increasing influence of bloggers and other citizen-journalists who increasingly have a great deal of credibility and reach. Through digital media consumers are able to directly connect and voice their opinions to brands not in private conversations, but surrounded by the hundreds, thousands and possibly even millions who are connected through the Web. One of the consequences of the increase in digital media has been that print media have faced shrinking revenue from both of their traditional income streams: ad revenues and subscriptions. Native advertising or branded marketing is a new term for an old practice – inserting advertising into the existing media alongside news stories in order to get the story out.
