(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...Apparently 48% of bloggers think that’s a good idea. That’s according to the bloggers who agreed with the statement directed to PR execs “It is okay to compensate bloggers for writing about my clients, but it is not of to me to tell them to disclose the payment” as interviewed by APCO Worldwide and the Council of PR Firms. The forty-wight percent may ot be a majority, but it is a plurality. Sixteen percent had either a neutral or no opinion on the matter. That means 36% percent had problems with the idea of bloggers getting pay for play.
PR people were against he idea of paying bloggers by a whopping 96% - 4%. That’s the camp I fall into.
The Pay Per Post model is controversial, but it’s transparent. I’m not much for paying bloggers period, but transparency is of full importance. What we have here is potentially a serious stumbling block. We view bloggers to be, in part, journalists who cover certain issue areas and are therefore the ones we’re going to target. Yet they see their blogs as their personal domain, one that they had never expected to get pitched about - but perhaps secretly wanted to earn money from.
Many bloggers have little idea of what constitutes journalistic integrity, but nevertheless maintain a sense of pride in what they produce. This can translate into them not wanting to be a shrill or a marketing piece for a product or service without some form of payment. To PR people, that seems wholly counterintuitive.
The problem is that there are no established groundrules between the PR industry and bloggers. The PR industry as a whole has its own standard while each blogger has his or her own standards. And generally we have to follow the bloggers lead - or move onto the next blogger.
Filed under: A-List Bloggers, Blog Counter-Messaging, Blog Messaging, Blog Policies, Blog Ranking, Blog Strategy, Blog Training, Blog of Personality, Blogger Code of Conduct, Blogger Effect, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Ethics, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Blogger Service, Blogger Support, Blogging, Blogging Policies, Blogosphere
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Sure we can pay them, but it’s not PR, it’s called advertising and it should be disclosed as such.
This is a downward spiral that is growing quickly. If bloggers are not getting paid directly for posting entries on their blogs, they are motivated by elevating their Google PR and are posting half-assed entries that are meant to make their blog appear more active. This in turn will result in more indirect payments for their posts by Google or some other company’s ads they have placed on their site to ruin the aesthetic quality of an already overused and widely available Wordpress, MT, Blogger, etc template. For many, blogs have basically become one of the many get-rich quick scams available on the internet.
Where does it stop if companies like PayPerPost encourage non-transparent posts about products or clients on blogs? PayPerAmazonReview to artificially boost review ratings for products? PayPerFacebookApplicationDownload to gain greater exposure for your pointless app that no one would download without getting paid for?
Hats off to those bloggers and businesses out there buying into the whole radical transparency trend, and standing for integrity and promoting ethics on the playground that is the internet.
I would say that you shouldn’t pay bloggers to post out of a desire for authenticity. As Jennifer stated in her session today, people don’t trust companies, they do trust friends (or even strangers!). Generally when we read a blog, we assume it is coming from an individual. By paying the blogger, we are losing some of that authenticity. We have to question the motivation and truth behind the post.
Naturally many bloggers are not going to turn down free money — but the next question should be about ethics. What would you post about? I heard Marsha Collier speak at the iCitizen client symposium my company put on recently. She stated that she won’t use AdWords because her own brand is so important to her. Being able to cultivate trust and respect is of utmost importance. While some other bloggers may not be quite so vigilant in this respect, it’s still something to think about.
Nice seeing you here, Andrea. Welcome.
You’re right, people do trust friends, but they also trust companies if they are branded well.
People do trust brands, they do trust companies, and they are devoted to brands — Apple is a perfect example of brand-devotion that is so passionate that any attack on Apple for not being green or sustainable is either ignored or distrusted as some sort of slander campaign.
I have to admit that people are a lot less anti-corporate than you might think… people actually are well-branded, considering how devoted people are to sports teams and to their fave beverage, etc…
So, back in the day when I worked for Wal-Mart and we did outreaches to bloggers, people who were a little in love with Wal-Mart would fall a lot in love with Wal-Mart when we reached out directly on Wal-Mart’s behalf, as their voice, from on-high.
So, before you assume that people are the only influencers, you have to spend some time on how devoted people are to their celebrities (Oprah, the View, Regis, etc) and to their brands (Yankees, Coke, Apple, Prius, etc).
Hello again Chris,
I suppose I must have missed the point of the post then? I wasn’t stating that individuals were the only influencers.. if anything, perhaps I was painting with too broad a brush to assume bloggers [that could get paid] were all individuals? I don’t understand where brand allegiance comes into play, unless you feel you’re justified paying brand advocates b/c they would be advocates even without receiving payment?
I wasn’t addressing the post at all, I was just addressing your comment. So, I was just having a conversation with you. Besides, the article was written by Jonathan Trenn, and not me. However, people who do have a strong brand allegiance don’t need to be paid. To be honest, I was seriously just responding to your comment without having really read through Jonathan’s post.
So, I was only addressing this one line in your comment, “people don’t trust companies, they do trust friends (or even strangers!)” so please only take my comment from just this paragraph:
I will try to address the rest of your comment and actually read the blog post a little later today or tomorrow.
Sorry for the confusion.