Comments on: Mahalo Mr. Solis

By: Ethics in Social Media: A Glossary | Bare Feet Studios

Ethics in Social Media: A Glossary | Bare Feet Studios — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:17:09 +0000

[...] and financial interest. The FTC is looking into the practice as well, as I blogged about here and here. Here’s a good example of a PR professional (Todd Defren) who discloses when he is Twittering [...]

By: Hawaii Officially Dips Toes in the Waters of Social Media | Bare Feet Studios

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:42:45 +0000

[...] aware. Paying people to come here and write about us has its own issues that I addressed here and here. Measuring Social Media Campaigns I agree with Derek (a commenter on PBN) on the point that [...]

By: David van Sunder

David van Sunder — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:59:25 +0000

I totally agree that having a rude or jarring ad at the end of Beach Walks would totally take the audience out of the experience. That’s part of what makes those small ad networks tough to use. They usually have very generic advertisers that don’t truly fit specialty blogs or podcasts. So, the blogger/podcaster either has to continually pass on opportunities or risk losing members of their audience. You need something that fits well, like the episodes where you had the advertisement with the yoga chair. That worked very nicely.

The problem is that ads like that arrive only infrequently through serendipity. As for going out and getting those ads yourself, it can be done with lots of hard work. To make it worth doing though, the audience has to hit a certain threshold.

I think there is an answer out there for even the small bloggers/podcasters, but I don’t think it has been found yet. Or if it has, I haven’t heard about it yet. Most of the decent networks take such a large cut, that what’s left to the small producer is hardly worth bothering the audience over.

By: Roxanne Darling

Roxanne Darling — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:44:39 +0000

@ David Van Sunder – Thank you for sharing your process of research online. This really lays out the challenge – that as we agree is so easily handled.

As for the smaller bloggers – also a great point, and something we have experienced personally with Beachwalks.tv. I think the tech is rapidly improving tho to build ad networks that small bloggers can join – that deliver truly content-relevant or audience-relevant content.

We just never wanted a semi-rude ad for someone like godaddy to be the final moment a Beach Walks viewer is left with – as you can understand I think. The discussion moves things forward though, so we’re on the way to better solutions.

By: David van Sunder

David van Sunder — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:15:57 +0000

I agree with the FTC that there needs to be some disclosure going on. Otherwise, for very little money, companies can blanket the internet with favorable reviews. That makes it much harder for people to trust any reviews they see. That’s part of the reason I read so many reviews whenever i make a purchasing decision. I have to weigh the credibility of each reviewer and make a weighted decision based on all the reviews in aggregate.

Roxanne, I agree with your idea that having some sort of standardized, visual way to denote that a review was paid for, would be ideal. That should go at the top of the review and then at the bottom there should be a disclosure of what type of compensation was received.

Even better is the route of having long term sponsors of blogs. Unfortunately, this leaves out all the smaller bloggers who would never receive that type of endorsement. Either because they have such eclectic topics or just don’t have enough visibility for a company to make that overture to them. For those people, it’s going to be small occasional offers of gift certificates, promotional contests to lure in more readers or review products.

If those bloggers want to be seen as credible, they’ll have to prove to their audience that they are up front about any compensation they receive that might influence their opinions. That means disclosing how they received every product they review, even the ones they purchased themselves. That way nobody will wonder if it was provided to them and that they merely neglected to mention it.

By: Roxanne Darling

Roxanne Darling — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:33:15 +0000

Keeping the conversation going. Here is a new-ish business to facilitate blogger product reviews. Read the FAQ to get a good sense of the issues involved and how they are approaching this situation. Companies pay essentially to be vetted and have contact with bloggers, who opt-in as reviewers. The guidelines are not mandatory at this point tho they do clearly explain several best practices.

http://www.viralconversations.com/faq/" rel="nofollow">Viral Conversations