The impact of advertising, trustworthiness, and valence on the effectiveness of blogs

Abstract

Blogs have seen explosive growth over the last five years. Given this growth, it is important for marketers to understand how they can effectively use blogs to reach their target audiences. We examine the impact of the presence of advertising, blogger trustworthiness, and message valence on the effectiveness of blogs. Our research demonstrates that the effectiveness of a blog is higher when the blogger is perceived to be trustworthy, while the presence of advertising on a blog decreases its effectiveness. Our research also suggests that negative blog posts with no advertisements will be more effective than any other type of blog. Although blogs are a new and unique medium for marketers, our research suggests that the fundamental theories developed in marketing apply to this medium as well. In the absence of blog specific research, marketing managers may be able to extend their current knowledge of the effectiveness of traditional media to blogs as well.