A recent APCO Worldwide and Council of Public Relations Firms study demonstrated that 48 percent of bloggers think it is OK to get paid to blog and not disclose it (found in an old copy of PR Week). It just blew me away that so many bloggers could fail to see the implications, especially at this late date in the blogosphere (image by Joe Schlabotnik).
If you are getting paid to blog and you don’t disclose it, then you have no credit. If you get busted, all credibility is gone. You are a pay per poster, and your readers won’t care. Smart bloggers get this.
There’s not much difference between a pay per poster and a sock puppet. Someone with a fake handle schilling for a client. Ethics cut both ways.
Bloggers are not journalists, and this particular failure to understand such implications is another example why. Amateurs don’t understand what makes pros better, including integrity.
Of course, paid bloggers shouldn’t necessarily be punished for it either, they aren’t trying to be journalists. They are bloggers, just less credible ones! But if they want to be credible then full disclosure is necessary.
Ironically, 96 percent of PR people adamantly insisted that full disclosure be given in such situations. How do you like them apples, PR industry haters?
Geoff Livingston’s normal Friday post ran today as The Buzz Bin will livecast BlogPotomac tomorrow through ooVoo.
Geoff, I’m pleased to see that this study shows that 96 percent of PR people believe in full disclosure. I’m privileged to know many great PR practitioners with high ethical standards who do great work in educating others about the ground rules of social media. It’s true that right now many people revile the PR industry (I am not one of them) in the same way that being in advertising at the end of the ’60s was seen by outsiders as an immoral profession (it was not). However, no matter what profession you are in, there will always be individuals who will fall outside of good practices, influencing perceptions about that profession. Just look at how people loved to hate lawyers a while back.
It is up to leaders in the industry to be vigilant about educating those within its ranks and to set the standards of behaviour. And, it is equally important to listen to the complaints coming from outside of the profession because only then will you be able to address the negative perceptions about PR so that the acts of the few don’t sully the acts of the many.
Not sure I agree with your choice of words, Geoff, but i think I agree with the point you’re making.
I get paid a portion of the advertising revenue from the blog I write, but don’t feel compromised any more than I’d feel compromised if a publisher paid me royalties for writng a book, or a news service bought my photos.
Being paid by a company to write about their products or services would be another thing. That’s the distinction you’re making too, isn’t it?
Absolutely, Eric. i think making money through advertising is a blessing for a blogger. But getting paid to write up a product is a sin… or at least much less credible.
The issue of disclosure is a huge one that has flown somewhat under the radar. Thanks for flagging this, Geoff.
Marketers and media are pumping the the power of Moms’ product recommendations through Mommy blogs, not pointing out that a good percentage of these recommendations are either paid posts, free samples proferred by agencies, or they are written in return for some type of “link love” from a central site.
There are exceptions of course – but much of the buzz, particularly for suddenly “hot” products, comes about this way. This is a form of undisclosed advertising that is impacting consumers – particularly Moms – more and more.