Cash for comment blogging? Oh the humanity!
Recently I had the great pleasure of chairing a blogger discussion panel in Malaysia. The panel was part of a larger forum that looked to answer the question -- Does New Media Influence the Way We Communicate Today?
It was a lively discussion, featuring three of Malaysia's pre-eminent bloggers who looked at how they view PR and how PR companies and corporations can best interact with them. Each had thoughts to share and the audience (a mix of PR agency folks, journalists, corporate communicators and bloggers) quietly listened to the opinions.
However, at one point in the proceedings, a 19-year-old blogger made a comment that had the crowd sitting up and paying attention.
Very causally, the blogger added that it is right to be paid to blog on particular topics. "There's nothing wrong with that. And anyway, I'll still write what I think." This was followed by: "No, I don't think I need to tell people I'm being paid to blog."
The pause was palpable. Scanning the room, you could see the old school PR folks struggling with the very idea. It brought back bitter memories of those editors who had the audacity to connect the purity of editorial with the "dark side" of advertising sales.
Whereas we in PR would typically decry mainstream media who make this crass connection between church and state as "tier three" or "not influential", our young blogger made a fair point. The reality is, their blog is influential and this influence is built on a trust established with their community of loyal readers and contributors. And it is clear that corporations increasingly would like to be associated with this young influencer's community.
The 19-year-old blogger shrugged it off. "This is how it is," the blogger said.
This got me thinking. My first reaction was that this somehow flew in the face of the popular wisdom that surrounds blogging. For some time now, we've been preaching that blogging is enabling freedom of expression. It is creating a legion of "citizen journalists" who write for the pleasure of writing and supporting communities who no longer believe the "facile happy talk" of corporations.
It appears that somehow between breakfast and lunch in April 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, the pedestal upon which we've placed blogging has started to crack under the pressure of capitalism.
And why are we surprised? What's fundamentally wrong with bloggers wanting to make a buck? Look at it from the bloggers' point of view. They've developed an audience who wants to read their output. They've given up their spare time to post, to comment, to participate, to entertain -- so why not seek compensation?
In Singapore and Malaysia, there are also well established blog advertising communities such as Nuffnang that place advertisements on blogs. So what's the big deal?
In this case, it is clear our blogger is clearly going beyond banner ads which are a well established part of the internet landscape. In an age of authenticity, when people are looking to blogs for alternative opinions untarnished by corporate messaging, taking this tack raises the question of whether people will continue to read if they know that posted content is the direct result of corporate spend.
The key to maintaining authenticity is always going to be a declaration that the content (either positive or negative) is the result of a commercial transaction. The blogosphere's cache is littered with the carcases of blogs that have failed to reveal their corporate origins.
My advice to the 19-year-old blogger? Sure, take the money. But maintain faith with the community that has created your notoriety. Take a lesson from "dead tree" media and break out a section of your blog for "sponsored features" or run a small note at the bottom of the post acknowledging that "company X provided the product for your use".
In this way, everybody wins. Those that don't care about the differences between "sponsored" and "regular" content will continue reading your posts. Those that care can choose not to read the sponsored pieces. And companies that can't garner your interest on their merits will find a way to be part of your community.
But let's not forget a golden rule of communication that harks back to Neanderthal times. Simply, that if you aren't true to your audience, you may lose it.