News groups are an essential tool for the marketer. They represent discussions on particular topics and as such are a vital market segmentation tool. Used effectively they provide an ideal communication channel with your target audience.

News groups on the Internet are provided by the Usenet system. Unlike e-mail, which is usually one-to-one , Usenet is many-to-many . To many people, Usenet is the Internet where over 100 million characters a day are entered into the system nearly an encyclopaedia s worth of writing. These are like conversations with a group of like-minded individuals. It is similar to e-mail in style but unlike e-mail, which is one-to-one, it is one-to-many. Anyone can listen in on the conversation and then make a comment. The comment is composed just like an e-mail and is posted to the news group. The comment is then copied around the world, allowing everyone who is looking at the group to see your comment. A reply can either be sent privately to you via e-mail or publicly by adding a comment to the news group. The news group builds up to be a list of messages and by reading through them it allows you to follow a discussion made up from people posing a sequence of comments on the same subject.

Each group will have a style and culture of its own. Some are open to new comments, with others it can be difficult to make a comment without eliciting a rude reply. The best way to understand the...