Web Sites and Organizational-Public Relationships
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framework for how theorists and practitioners might approach the study of online communications in
particular and relationship building more generally.
RELATIONSHIPS ONLINE
Web sites and related Internet technologies (web sites, e-mail, discussion groups, live chats, etc.)
enable organizations to communicate with users on demand, 24-hours a day, seven days a week (Cooley,
1999; Hume, 2001; Lordan, 2001; Pavlik & Dozier, 1996; Springston, 2001; Wright, 1998, 2001). One
estimate suggests that online customer-to-business contacts will increase from 11% of all contacts in
1999 to 32% of such contacts in 2002 (Dr. Jon Anton, Center for Customer Driven Quality, Purdue
University, cited in Cooper, 2001, p. 111).
Some early writers argued that the Internet should only be used as a promotional tool (Seybold,
1996). Others have viewed the Internet largely as a valuable research resource (Gaddis, 2001; Porter,
Sallot, Cameron & Shamp, 2001; Thomsen, 1995). However, the relationship-building potential of
online technologies was quickly recognized with the widespread adoption of the Internet by the public-at-
large in the 1990s (Esrock & Leichty, 1998, Heath, 1998; Johnson, 1997; Kent & Taylor, 1998;
O’Malley & Irani, 1998). High-tech and dot.com companies were particularly enthusiastic about the
potential for online communications (High tech PR, 2001; Major, 1995; Newell, 2000; Park & Berger,
2002; Weill, 2001). Rheingold (1993) popularized the notion that the Internet overcomes limitations
created by time and space to create virtual communities. Hagel and Armstrong (1997; Armstrong &
Hagel, 1996) extended the idea into the commercial arena by suggesting organizations could create
communities of online customers.
Others have recognized the potential for relationship building online. In discussing how web sites
ought to be evaluated, for example, Phillips (2001, p. 87) suggests “The most obvious question is
whether the site changes relationships.” Spararo (1998, p 10) coined the phrase net relations as “the
intersection of traditional direct marketing, public relations and the Internet.” Net relations involve
Convention