The second issue on the Ogilvy BlogStorm was concerning the ethical approach of blogging and the blogophere. What can companies do? Should they do it, and if so how should they do it? What shouldn’t they do? Are there rules? Who sets these rules? What’s the position of marketing and how can marketeers use this new channel in order to reach out to their consumers in an acceptable way? How can you deal with ‘the blogosphere’ if people are writing about you? Let’s line up some different opinions.
First we must clearly state that there are four players in this field. The blogger, the company, the marketeer and the consumer/reader. Each player has its own system of values, of opinions and rules. A consensus must be found between these four in order to determine the right direction to guide your project into.
Consensus is very difficult to achieve, because there will always be people who dislike something because others like it. Criticism will always exist. A golden rule is to keep your readers close, but your critics closer. ALWAYS perform ego-searches to find out what others are saying about you, about your products or services.
The discussion at Ogilvy’s pointed out to me that there are as many opinions about advertising or marketing through blogs as there are bloggers. Therefor, what Bart from [Netlash] pointed out has some serious value : Basically, you’re going back to one-to-one marketing. Direct Marketing. If you’re planning to get involved, do it in a very personal way. Honesty is the only way to harvest respect.
Another confronting conclusion for marketeers is that with the growth of the blogosphere, the changes in the field of marketing fundamentally mark the relocation of ‘power’ from the marketeer to the consumer.
So let’s line up some different ideas :
I’m a company, I have a product and I want to ‘do something’ with blogs. How does that work? First of all, try to predict the outcome of your actions. The blogosphere is a place of open communication. Blogs are means to communicate. But the big difference with regular websites is that with blogs, communication goes both ways. Communication becomes interaction.
Ask yourself :
- Is this product worth interacting about?
- Will it generate additional values for my brand/product(s)?
- Will those values help accelerate my product’s growth cycle?
- What is the target group I want to reach, and do they surf?
- Are there ‘other but likewise’ projects online from competitors?
- What was the blogosphere’s reaction to these blogs?
- Is this what I’m aiming for? What can I learn from this ?
Verify for yourself, if you’re about to blog :
- Is my product ok ? Is it working ? Are there problems ?
( be sure bloggers will discover it, sooner than expected )
- Am I honest ? Do people know I’m marketing a poduct ?
- Is there a way to interact ? Can it be moderated ?
- Is the content original ? Make sure you’re not imitating too hard.
- Is the concept structurized enough? Anticipate ! Think ahead.
( don’t start a marketing blog if you don’t know where it’s heading for )
Learn to use things like Technorati, del.icio.us and Google (or Yahoo) to track info about yourself or competitive companies. It’s a must !
I’m a marketeer, I don’t have a blog but hey, I can pay others to blog my content. How does that work? It doesn’t if you don’t come clean with it. People will find out and your brand will suffer from it. But there’s no shame in sponsoring a blog. As long as you do it legit.
Provide the blogger with correct information and materials, but never send in preformatted text, unless it’s an official press-release the blogger can quote from. Authenticity is very much appreciated, so is freedom of speech. If there’s something wrong with your product, than it’s not the bloggers fault, and you can’t keep him from blogging the thruth. Isn’t it normal that you need to deliver a product that’s flawless? I think it is. Sure, there can be some problems, and then you can use the blogosphere to help you fix them. That is called beta-testing. There’s absolutely no shame in that. Just be honest about it.
So, ok. I’m an honest marketeer (heheh), and I have a product I want some people to blog about. Now what? Aha. You have an interesting product? Great. Contact me and I’ll check it out. But don’t spam it around. Don’t send it to 10.000 people at once. That’s not how it goes. Then you’ll get bad publicity from the start. Here’s some rules :
- Select a limited number of blogs you want to ‘leak’ the news to.
- Contact those bloggers, one by one.
- Ask them if they want to receive mail about your new products.
- Be polite, think of it as communicating with your clients.
- Be aware that you’re opening communicative channels. Act like it.
- Provide correct data. Bloggers hate liars and cheaters.
- Provide NEW things. Things to come. Make it worth blogging about.
- Don’t go around positively commenting on posted items. We’ll know.
- Stand back and enjoy the ride. If you’re product’s fine, you’re all set.
I’m a blogger, and I hate marketing blogs. I hate those stupid characterblogs. It’s fake, it doesn’t feel right. I’ll protest against it. How to deal with this attitude ? What if your brand is blogging and some hate-comments pop-up in your search queries? Pretty easy. Either you don’t react, if the situation doesn’t call for it. People have the right to differ from opinion. If the blogger is spreading false thruth (read lies) it’s recommended to react. Do it corporately. Be brief, direct and to the point. Counter the lies with facts and leave your best regards. Express your feelings of sympathy for his point of view, but clearly state he’s wrong and prove it. Ask him to communicate, to interact. Start a dialog. Invite him to explain is griefs personally. Leave the name of a representative, with an email address. That’s all. Never EVER engage in emotional backfiring. That’s not done. Do not post false replies in the comments as anonymous user or guest or with a nickname. If the IP gets tracked to you, you’ll hang, even if you’re right. Honesty, transparency, devotion. Keywords to cherish. Counter the lies with the truth. It can’t be more simple.
If the blogger is right, don’t hold back. Interact. Express your feelings, do something about it. Customer Service is the your greatest concern now. The faster you help this blogger, the better your company’ll look. Mistakes are inherent to mankind. It’s in our nature. Dealing with those mistakes in a proper way however, makes all the difference. Mistakes are opportunities to improve yourself, your products, your business. State clearly you appreciate the fact this blogger pointed out the error, flaw, shortcoming of whichever nature. If his language was aggressive, find out why. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Dig this out, and straighten it out. With the highest priority.
To the hater/blogger : It’s just like with the websites in the beginning of the internet. The select few always feel endangered by ‘the others’. This sort of technology-egoism should be gone by now, you’d think. But it isn’t. With what right do those bloggers claim the blogospere to be theirs? If marketing is done in a good way, there is absolutely no reason to be hostile against it. I agree with you that spamlogs aren’t ok. That unethical blogs should be removed. But surely, there can’t be any harm found in trying to use a popular medium to reach out to your consumers in a trendy, original way. It’s up to the marketeer to make it work. And if you don’t like it, disney.com is just six characters and a ctrl-enter away.
To the marketeer : A good tip : If you want to release a product and are thinking of promoting or supporting it with a blog, it’s a big advantage to have a blog already. It gives the new blog backup and very needed credit.
Never hide the fact that you’re doing marketing things. There’s no shame in that. How else will people find out about your product? It has always been a tendency of marketing to follow technology very closely. Whenever new means of communication are discovered, very shortly after it marketeers will have found a way to use this technology for promotional benefits.
The only thing the blogosphere is afraid of is the pushing, overtaking personality marketeers tend to have. Bloggers fear the blogosphere will become saturated with marketeers who try to trick the readers into buying things or signing up for things.
Never forget blogs are meant to be informative, interactive and user-aimed. You’re dealing with an audience that is very sure of what it doesn’t want. Make sure you have things they want. Info. Fresh, relevant info they can comment on. Keep your audience happy.
How about editorial advertisement? What with content-placement? Be warned and very, very careful. Inform yourself about the audience, the blogger, the blogosphere. Never get into this if you don’t have a clue of how things work in blogoland. You need to fully comprehend how to interact how to react, how to prevent. Otherwise consequences might be hard and merciless.