So what have I learned about blogging in relations to my PR major? I’ve learned that the business market have been using it as a communication tool. Major companies are creating blog sites where they have their employees blog. Remember the whole controversy with Apple? They really didn’t know what to do with a blog. And there are PR companies that really are bad when it comes to using blogging to attract their market.
Wal-Mart has been under scrutiny because of bad press from planting a blog with a couple posing as real people going on a RV trip called "Wal-Marting across America". The couple would use Wal-Mart parking lots as a free camping ground for their RV. During their stay on Wal-Mart grounds, the couple documented it on their blogs. They wrote about how the employees love working at Wal-Mart and their great work conditions there. It was later discovered that the couple were hired by Wal-Mart and when bloggers found out about the scandal they were infuriated. Wal-Mart does not understand the mechanism of a blog; Blogs are not advertisement but a form of communication and that is why Wal-Mart has not succeeded in the blogosphere.
But I still shop there because where else can you buy 20 packages of Hoho's for a little over two bucks? The "Walmarting Across America" blog does attract negative press but I don't think it affects their business because their items are really cheap and people will still shop there.
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