The Role of Blogs in Consumer Behavior – Knowledge and Direction

This paper explores the role of blogs as a form of social media and how blogs might influence consumers’ behavior. Blogs have gained limited attention so far in scholarly research the focus has primarily been directed at blogs as a communication channel for companies and at what motivates bloggers to engage in such an activity. Little attention has been paid to the meaning of blogs for consumers as readers and how blogs influence consumer behavior. The consumer perspective is crucial to explore to gain a better understanding of the potential of blogs and how companies can manage this aspect of the business. The paper reviews what is known about the reader perspective in a blog context and identifies some research directions to take.