Consumer Generated Advertising in Blogs

Blogs are the newest and potentially most attractive online media available to marketers. This chapter discusses the unique nature of blogs and the growing power of consumer generated content. This raises a number of questions as well as new opportunities. As the authors point out that existing literature on blog marketing only discusses the possible advantages of using blogs as a marketing tool and the addition of blogs into the marketing mix. However, the problem is that these studies totally ignored consumers’ perception towards blogs that carry advertisements. The rise of advertising companies that have stepped in to fill the gap between companies and bloggers, are discussed. Some examples of successful blog advertising campaigns are also provided. This chapter also presents a conceptual model that examines the salient factors that are likely to influence consumer attitude towards blogs and towards advertising in blogs, and more specifically on sponsored posts on blogs. It is hoped that this chapter would encourage other researchers to take a look at this unique media which in turn will help shed new light on how blogs are enabling a new model of consumer collaboration and consumer generated advertising

Personality, internet addiction, and other technological addictions: an update of the research literature

There has been a significant shift from the view that addictions are disorders involving compulsivedrug usage to a view that non-substance related behaviors may now be considered addictions. Thereis evidence to suggest that people are showing signs of addiction to non-substance-related behaviors.Research into technological addictions, such as internet addiction, smartphone addiction and socialnetworking addiction has exponentially increased over the last decade. Understanding how technologicaladdictions relate to personality and key individual differences is important. This chapter providesrenewed empirical and conceptual insights into technological addictions and how they may be relatedto different personality types and key individual differences. The complex nature of personality andtechnological addictions is discussed together with areas for future research