Keeping Your Brand Squeaky Clean in the Evolving World of Influencer Marketing - Jory Des Jardins - MediaBizBlogger

We say it to bloggers all the time, and now we say it to you: Be picky.

A group of PR professionals who have been working in the social media space shared with me that they were starting to understand how bloggers must have felt in earlier days, when marketers began to glean how effective bloggers could be as brand influencers and reached out to them with free product, offers, and lots of poorly written copy trying to coax them into mentioning their client's brand. Today, these PR professionals are being pelted with proposals by bloggers who want to work with them. The challenge? Some of these bloggers are good fits with the brands PR agencies represent, and others … not so much, a touchy issue made significantly worse by the conduct of a few bloggers.

"Some of these bloggers would basically say, 'give me free product or I'll write about your competitor," one PR guru told me. I've heard of other stories like this recently from marketers, describing behavior by bloggers that could kindly be described as unprofessional but is ultimately unethical. And if said writing occurs in the blog's editorial space, the reader suffers too (see my partner Lisa Stone's piece to the blogging community explaining how this occurs).

While I think it's an unfortunate inevitability that some will abuse—and potentially lose—the privilege of having engaged readers, I'm heartened to see that marketers are thinking long and hard about the right influencers to work with, not necessarily the biggest, or the loudest. We on the new media side have spent a lot of time telling marketers what they are doing wrong when engaging bloggers, but not how to handle bloggers that inappropriately engage them.

I've written before that brands who help bloggers out during tough times will benefit, but let's clarify a bit further what I mean by "help out." Social media is currently under scrutiny by the FTC, and a recent Wall Street Journal piece that showcased a variety of brand/blogger arrangements—some of which stretch the emerging best practices of leveraging influence beyond recognition—indicates that we as an industry need to be even more vigilant about what constitutes authentic, truthful relationships between brands and bloggers.

My company uses community guidelines to evangelize to bloggers that they are publishers, and not only have the right, but the obligation to set their ethical policies, be transparent about them and adhere to them. But it isn't just bloggers who have responsibilities: Brands and agencies need to take the same care to set their standards, not only of proper disclosure for sponsored content—organizations such as Forrester, WOMMA, and Blog Council also have established standards that provide solid guidelines—but also for the types of blogger that they choose to engage.

We've always held the position that it's ultimately the shared responsibility of the publisher and the brand to uphold the integrity of content. So while we don't believe there's one universal publishing standard for blogs, we recommend the following when working with bloggers:

1. Avoid Quid Pro Quos: I've said extensively that brands must not engage with bloggers with an offer of free product or compensation in exchange for an endorsement, and vice versa. Bloggers who demand product in return for a guaranteed endorsement and threaten negative repercussions if they are ignored are playing a dangerous game with brands and should not be encouraged or engaged. In fact, I would recommend that even competitive brands work together on this one and keep each other appraised of any such poisoned pills. There are too many excellent bloggers with strong personal and network publishing guidelines that forbid such behavior for marketers to have to put up with this.

Soliciting brands as a blog-advocate can and has been done in a professional manner. Many of the women who are attending the BlogHer Annual conference this year actively reached out to brands, and asked for sponsorship for their trip to the conference. We certainly have no desire to impede legitimate partnerships between brands and bloggers, but we did feel it was important to give guidance to these bloggers, so we issued guidelines for proper engagement on both sides. We think this will deliver value for brands, while avoiding potential infractions, like a blogger's failure to disclose a relationship.

2. Deliberate selection: I don't know too many bloggers like this, but I've read a few who will promote anything. ANYTHING. And these bloggers are the prime targets of marketers who defer to the numbers-game strategy of blogger outreach—spray a press release out onto the Blogosphere and see who responds. But exactly how much influence do you think a blogger has if she's promoting hot dogs one day, while talking about a vegetarian diet the next? The latest iPhone app one day, while talking about her Blackberry the next? We recommend taking the time to read bloggers, get to know them. Don't go to some artificial A-List you find on the Web, but rather begin to create your A-List of bloggers who share your values and care about the the kinds of products or services you provide.

Speaking of A-Lists …

3. Don't rely on "Blogebrities" and shout-outs: If a "big" blogger sings the praises of your product without requiring compensation, or agrees to represent your product as an advisor or spokesperson, happy days and congratulations! But don't consider your marketing plan a failure if you don't get an "A-lister" to mention your product, or if you get mostly smaller bloggers to notice you. For one thing, many big bloggers got big by sticking to their knitting and not using their blogs to endorse, or even mention, products. You want to find bloggers, big or small, who are interested in a related topic, or who may have mentioned your product in context of something important to them, and whose readers trust them.

Avoid such benchmarks as "50 positive blog mentions", or a metric that relies on a specific type of feedback. We've worked with bloggers who, rather than singing a brand's praises on their blogs, have provided them with private feedback. One blogger told me a story of being so pressured by a PR firm to alter a neutral mention of a brand on her blog that she did, rather negatively. Even more important to brands than these bloggers' public influence is their desire to ultimately have the brands win. This leads to strong influence later, and someone who will be willing to point you to more vocal advocates.

4. Don't make it all about the swag: Don't get me wrong: I love good swag. And I encourage our sponsors to provide memorable goodies for our events. HOWEVER, when swag becomes the basis of a relationship with bloggers, beware. Because the minute you stop providing it, you've lost that relationship.

At the end of the day I wouldn't turn down blog-praise about how creative and cool my giveaways are, but even better would be praise of my brand and product.

The blogosphere is professionalizing, and a few unethical, bad apples shouldn't detract from the terrific harvest of blogger enthusiasm to share legitimate blog links with the brands they support. Given the astonishing growth in the number of women who say they have bought a product based on blog advice – 85 percent of women who read and write blogs, up from 63 percent last year – the right blog partnerships are well worth the investment.

But marketers are right to tread carefully and be vigilant about weeding out the relationships that will sustainably build influence and value to brands and readers.

Like I said: Be picky.

As co-founder and President of Strategic Alliances for BlogHer, Jory Des Jardins is an innovator in online advertising, women's media and Internet entrepreneurship. Jory can be contacted at jory@blogher.com.
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