Assignment # 1

1.) The business uses for blogs is practically endless. For organizations, it's a way to expose, advertise, educate, maintain, and get feed back from consumers about their products and services. Although this can be bad and good, it's a way for companies to see what the consumers are thinking and quickly. With that, marketers can advertise on these popular blog sites and really aim at their target market. These blogs are already grouped into categories like entertainment, sports, technology, dating, traveling, and more, which makes it easiers for marketers to reach certain audiences.
2.) Advertising and marketing shouldn't be too traditional. I think people want to see something new that will grab their attention. People go to these blogs, because it's a topic they're interested in. So the products and services being advertised should be very creative and eye catching. Traditional advertisements, like commercials, may be boring or too long for consumers to even notice. I think incentives and promotion is what is driving the marketing and advertising on these blogs. People want to know what you've got for them, especially if they're going to stop what they're doing. Obviously, the traditional concepts of marketing and finding your target market to advertise to should remain when it comes to blogs, but I think this is an opportunity for marketers to be more creative and explore more advertising methods.
3.) I don't think blogs are fads at all. They're only going to get bigger and more popular. This is where businesses are headed and it's beneficial for both the consumer and the company. And afterall, blogs are free. This is the way of the future...internet business exchange and communication. And I think blogs do just this.
4.) I think I'd like to see a blog for the marketing department, but it'd have to be interesting. I'd like to see a rate your professor section, textbook coupons/sites that sell cheap textbooks, example projects and/or papers, and student activities and club sites. This would more likely interest students than the beachboard site. Advertisements should be kept to the school basics though so it remains "an educational" blog. When advertisements get to off the wall it's easier for students to get side tracked. This would be a neat blog to try out though.