Online Marketing

ALSO CALLED: Internet Marketing, Electronic Marketing, Web Marketing, eMarketing, Online Research, and Digital Marketing
DEFINITION: Astroturfing is the artificial creation of a grassroots buzz for a product, service or politicalviewpoint. Commercially-motivated astroturfing is called "astroturf marketing." Astroturf marketinghas a negative connotation, primarily because disreputable marketers have used deceptive tactics tobuild their buzz by taking advantage of the anonymity the Internet provides.Astroturf marketers typically use  … 
Definition continues below.

ONLINE MARKETING DEFINITION (continued): … Astroturfing is the artificial creation of a grassroots buzz for a product, service or politicalviewpoint. Commercially-motivated astroturfing is called "astroturf marketing." Astroturf marketinghas a negative connotation, primarily because disreputable marketers have used deceptive tactics tobuild their buzz by taking advantage of the anonymity the Internet provides.Astroturf marketers typically use blogs,message boards, podcasts, wikis, vlogs,chat rooms and social media Web sites like MySpace when buildingan artificial buzz. Deceptive astroturf marketing techniques include impersonating someone in thetargeted demographic, creating an entirely fictional character (called a meat puppet) that's meantto appear to others to be a real person.Astroturf marketing is sometimes called green marketing.See also: buzzmarketing