Commercial Use of Blogs in the Light of Own Research

Background. The changes in the process of communication that have been observed inrecent years have forced companies to look for alternative solutions enabling them to reacha customer. A contemporary consumer does expect to get reliable opinions, recommendationsand relations based on mutual trust. Therefore, using external blogs in a commercialway is an area of growing interest.Research aims. The aim of the article is to determine the level and specificity of cooperationbetween companies/brands and bloggers in the process of communication with a client.Methodology. The article was prepared on the basis of literature review and the authorsown research. The conducted research comprised of 412 blogs and was carried out by meansof an internet questionnaire, which was related to the objective and research subject. Theresearch was conducted in the period between 29.10.2013 - 12.11.2013. The obtained resultswere supplemented with the opinions of bloggers participating in the quantitative research.Key findings. Blogs have a huge marketing potential. However, for the process of communicationwith a client to be effective, all aspects of cooperation between a company/brandand a blogger must be precisely determined, especially when non-standard actions are concerned