Context and Disclosure: Keys to Success in Compensating Bloggers - Jory Des Jardins - MediaBizBlogger

A report released this week by Forrester defining guidelines for socalled quotsponsored conversationsquot set off a maelstrom of commentary among digerati and social media watchdogs The title of the report quotWhy You Should Pay Bloggers to Talk about Your Brandquot didn39t increase the comfort level of anyone who has been pondering the merits of such conversations as a means to generate authentic word of mouth There39s an alarming lack of nuance in the industry when it speaks of compensating bloggers and a tendency to toss even the most thoughtful initiatives into a quotpay per postquot bucket which often really is quotpay per endorsementquotMy organization BlogHer was one of many sources for the Forrester study that recommended considering compensating bloggers we need to acknowledge our own role in this debate one that is increasingly brought up among social media evangelists inside companies and smart marketers weighing the question Should bloggers ever be compensated in some form for coverage Our answer is yes Paid reviews by influential people can play the same role in social media as they do in every other medium The keys to success are context and disclosureWe don39t believe that the discussion is being framed properly for organizations to come to their own best conclusions It39s time to look at the finer distinctions between compensated programs that have emerged as social media enters awkward adolescence To us the question is not whether anyone should ever compensate bloggers it39s under what circumstances should you compensate them And if you do compensate them what are your obligations and theirsWe39ve noticed that some of the debate around this issue stems from oversimplifying terms For example quotSponsored Conversationsquot has been used to refer to any bloggerinfluencer coverage that results from any form of compensation cash free product even conference swag BlogHer also uses the term quotsponsored conversationsquot but wouldn39t apply that term as broadly Forrester includes not only authentic interactive discussions but also product reviews and even paid linking under the umbrella of quotsponsored conversationsquot This allinclusive approach triggers wholesale suspicion and rejection because we all intuitively know some of the examples aren39t really quotconversationsquot at all authentic or otherwiseBlogHer39s opinion Say what you39re doing and where you39re doing it via transparent guidelines disclosures and standards Sponsored conversations can39t be confused with organic conversations that happen to mention a brand but such campaigns can still be entirely valid provided it39s transparent and relevant As quottraditional mediaquot veterans my partners and I hold editorial as sacred According to our community guidelines we could never place even relevant conversations in our editorial areas if they were initiated by brands Instead we developed a section of the site BlogHer Special Offers devoted to opportunities to discuss and yes endorse product We disclosed how and why we launched Special Offers to our community Segregating our sponsored content has never hurt our site or our sponsors the most highlytrafficked areas of our community Website are often our clean welllit sponsored discussion pagesReviews compensated or otherwise can be done well but we distinguish reviews as a different animal from sponsored conversations we conduct and present sponsored conversations differently For example when we held a sponsored conversation for a brand that wanted to be associated with smart economical grocery spending we didn39t ask our community to join us for a discussion of how the sponsoring brand contributed to smart spending That would make for a pretty lame conversation of limited value to users and certainly wouldn39t lead to authentic word of mouth Instead we hosted a conversation in BlogHer Special Offers about smart spending no brand discussion required Comments ensued As did sponsor happiness Everyone winsLet39s apply this logic to one of Forrester39s examples of a quotsponsored conversationquot a recent Kmart campaign in which a blogger was offered a 500 gift card to write about his shopping experience with the retailer In our opinion the campaign39s problem was not that it was a quotsponsored conversationquot rather than an organically generated event that just happened to tie to a brand experience Instead the problem with the campaign was that the sponsored conversation was integrated with the organic or what we would call quoteditorialquot conversations happening on the chosen blogs Therefore it was confusing and out of context with the kind of content usually found on those blogs If the wrong kind of comments ensue those from confused and alienated users everyone losesSo if sponsored conversations are different from compensating bloggers to review a brand experience then how or when is it okay to compensate bloggers The truth is that many bloggers want to review stuff sharing opinions on products services media political candidates that39s second nature to bloggers And sponsors want to be reviewed Companies knew even before our 2008 social media study quantified it that women online turn to their blogging friends for product advice and purchasing recommendations What we wanted was to ensure balanced coverage full disclosure of the relationship and appropriate clearly marked contextual placement on our site and theirsOur analysis resulted in two kinds of review programsPaid reviews Writers are selected based on demographic relevance and compensated by us at a standard workforhire rate regardless of her opinion of the product Reviews must be posted on a blogger39s openly disclosed paid product review blog or in a separate section of her main blog that she designates for paid reviews She must disclose that she was compensated in her post she must post a button on her site that discloses her reviewer relationship to BlogHer and she must not run any advertising on the review pages There are many bloggers who will no longer entertain any other model because they consider themselves writers and want this kind of financial acknowledgment of their quality writingOpenUnpaid reviews Writers are selfselected and though encouraged to do so are under no obligation to write a review after receiving a product or service BlogHer cannot guarantee the number or demographic relevance of the bloggers who do opt in or that reviews will be balanced but we will not allow content that is factually incorrect or abusive to be posted to our siteWe believe there are advantages to each option and that both are valid Either way bloggers are not being paid to endorse products but to honestly test try and transparently review products Paying our reviewers increases the likelihood that a client39s product will be reviewed by a relevant influential bloggerEven organizations that oppose the practice of paying bloggers for anything acknowledge gray areas in defining compensation Many brands that don39t pay bloggers to write about their products do provide free samples expensespaid trips even link love in the form of a shoutout on the corporate blogWe applaud Forrester for taking on a very complex subject that has become increasingly relevant to marketers and publishers seeking the most viable models We must also help in the effort not by refusing to innovate or rejecting opportunities to partner with bloggers but by requiring disclosure insisting on contextual relevance and working with both the brands and the bloggers who feel the same wayAs cofounder and President of Strategic Alliances for BlogHer Jory Des Jardins is an innovator in online advertising women39s media and Internet entrepreneurship Jory can be contacted at jorybloghercomRead all Joryamp8217s MediaBizBlogger commentaries at Jory Des Jardin MediaBizBlogger

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Context and Disclosure: Keys to Success in Compensating Bloggers - Jory Des Jardins - MediaBizBlogger

Publish date

Channel

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

More Videos:

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Context and Disclosure: Keys to Success in Compensating Bloggers - Jory Des Jardins - MediaBizBlogger

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

The payment was successful

Cookies