Chancen und Risiken von Weblogs für Unternehmen

摘要

Based on daily changes to the internet, today’s information and communication technologies, the invasion of weblogs in Germany 2003 and their powerful rise in the US since the terror attacks of 11. September 2001, the thesis addresses the blogosphere and its power in influencing decisions of businesses. Therefore the purpose of this study is to examine opportunities and risks of weblogs for companies and to look at the benefits of weblog monitoring.Following a literature-based analysis, this thesis provides a definition of blogs and differentiates between blogs and other other online available information and communication tools and makes the importance of weblog screening for enterprises obvious. The demonstration of a weblog monitoring process corresponding to today’s market and media research standards should show how companies can be informed about the everlasting discussions in the blogosphere. The thesis also deals with pro and contra arguments of blogs for organisations and presents famous case studies of German and American blogging history. This is followed by an overview of the advantages of weblog monitoring for companies and is based both on personal experiences and literature based facts.The findings suggest that weblogs, when continually observed, could be used as entrepreneurial decision-makers. Recommendations for further research have been also made by suggesting that the importance and power of weblog entries should be taken more seriously by businesses.