Is it Wrong for Bloggers Accept Perks?

This isn't exactly related to my research question but nonetheless it's very interesting.

In the 'real world' perks are a part of everyday business, for example movie or restaurant reviewers are given perks all the time. There's a bit of a fuss when a doctor subscribes unproven medicine in order to garner gifts...but on the whole perks go largely unnoticed in day-to-day business.

But will the online community demand/reward a higher moral code?

We tend to trust that bloggers' are giving us their unadulterated opinion but it seems that this unbiased viewpoint is being challenged by corporates trying to swing the buzz in their favor e.g. Moms get freebies to appraise

Is this OK, or is it threatening something that we all hold dear....the truth. I used ask500 to test the water on this (pie chart above) and the results were varied to say the least. One third of the 85 respondents wanted the gift or perk disclosed by the blogger while almost the same amount saw no problem with it....hmmm.

These the two comments that the ask500 poll got:

"Is it OK when your doctor receives cash bonuses and trips to Disneyworld in exchange for prescribing a new, poorly tested drug?....in principle, how would you feel? If you are going to accept bribes, no matter what they are called, you should say so when blogging. dauguy Cancel

Bloggers are not news people. They like to SAY they are, but they are not. Anyone with a computer can be a blogger. Even though the newspapers are disappearing, I think we'll still see people gravitate to those same newspaper's websites for their news. They've just got to keep promoting themselves as LEGITIMATE news sources to help people weed through the opinion-piece-without-evidence free-speech artists sillynilly

I have to admit I was surprised by this...I had an inkling that the online community would demand more from bloggers'. In the past we've seen the online community force Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) to put his company in the firring line to uphold what the community saw as right. Perhaps there just hasn't been a catalyst for this backlash yet, or perhaps we don't actually see bloggers as impartial?

As more and more bloggers' are tempted to endorse products/services and as a result the integrity of blogs/bloggers' comes under scrutiny it wouldn't surprise me if a similar forceful demand is placed on bloggers' in the near future. Or then again may be no one cares that much?

It seems from both the votes and the comment above that regardless of how this issue evolves, transparency will be a crucial element in allowing bloggers' to continue accepting gifts.

It will certainly be interesting to see how it evolves. Do you have an issue with bloggers' accepting gifts?

Insights from Inteview 1

I've just finished transcribing and analysing my interview with @Ophil. At such an early stage in my research rather than putting my personal spin on it I though I'd just give you the highlights from @Ophil's interview and let you make up your own mind.

Ophil on what makes interesting content:
"Stuff that generates an interesting trail, showing me something that I hadn’t seen, yeah stuff I hadn’t stumbled across myself before."

Ophil on comments:
"Sometimes it is just enough that you want to give feedback to the blogger often enough the comments are about engaging in a conversation with a wider community of blog readers rather just the bloggers themselves, the absence of comments is kind of a measure of success. "Moderated or no comments doesn’t buy into the whole blog ideal, it becomes monological, I guess I believe it is a dialogical, a blog is about hey I’m gunna say something talk back to me ya know"

Ophil on the use of blogs:

"I don’t think that blogs are a medium for selling, blogs I think are not a conversion vehicle, you’re not trying to convince someone of your argument, I think that’s what a web page does.

Ophil on providing perspective:
"I have a personal belief that there is no new wheels, everything that you think of has probably got other people thinking of it as well. You can look at it as a way of enhancing credibility, as in 'look there’s other people who are thinking the same way as us but also see there are other perspectives of the same ideas and we’re open to them all.' Um so I think, I’m one of those people who thinks that, transparency to me is about not denying the existence of alternative explanations, so blogs are good to alerting you to that".

Ophil on risk mitigation:

"The act of mitigating risk is sort of the antithesis of a blog. If you can only say good thing or appropriate things, or stuff that fits the mainstream then that’s not a blog, if that’s what people believe and want to say, and if that’s the wrong thing for your corporation then they probably shouldn’t be working for you’re corporation". It's like Good to Greats famous saying it’s about getting the right people on the buss, the wrong people whether they blog incorrectly or treat customers badly it’s going to be revealed eventually".

Ophil on disclaimers:
"I’m not a big advocate of opt outs ya know, I’m not about disclaimers [such as] these views are not necessarily the views of the organisation...well then get your brand off it. I guess it comes back to that transparency thing. If you can’t trust your employees to blog how can you trust them to serve customers...if you feel like you have to disclaim any content of your blog then you probably shouldn't have one".

Hopefully the few quotes above have provided you with some degree of insight

Blogged with the Flock Browser

What Makes Google's Blog So Dam Good?

For some time now the Official Google Blog has been widely recognised as the pinnacle of corporate blogging. It beat rival blogs O’Reilly Radar, Yahoo! Search and the TomPeters blog in Technorati's 2006 world rankings. In 2009 it's the only "corporate blog" to make the Times top 25 blogs. So, what makes it so dam good?

The fundamental factor that makes the Official Google Blog successful is that Google's primary product is a complicated one which needs explaining....and that's precisely what the Google blog does.

It provides insightful, valuable and very usable content that almost everyone with a website would/should be interested in, and it keeps those who want to be "in the know" ahead of the curve, letting them know about Google's emerging services.

sample post: These posts are designed to cover ways to make your website as successful as possible. Over the course of the next few weeks, our in-house Analytics guru, Avinash Kaushik, and others will demystify the world of website analytics and offer tips for getting the most out of your metrics. -Ed.

So surprise surprise the success of the Official Google Blog is directly related to the services which Google provides, hmmm funny that.

One of the interesting things I've come across in the early stages of my research is that if a company's primary site is interactive, personalised and self explanatory e.g. Amazon, or Facebook then having a blog doesn't add much to the average users relationship with that site. However, a blog can add great value to a readers experience with a company, if that company's site is static, non interactive, and they have a complicated market offering.

Amazon is a great example of an interactive website which also has a blog, Josh Catone seems to think that the Amazon web services blog is pretty great because it uses a brilliant personal voice. But I would beg to differ, it's not the voice that really makes a blog worth reading, it's the value of the content to the reader, and to be perfectly honest Amazon's blog doesn't add a whole lot of value to the customer's experience. This is because the average Amazon experience is personalised, interactive and not overly complicated.

A quick reality check will reveal that very few people read a corporate blog for fun. A crucial insight which I've gained in the last week is that it seems most people will read a corporate blog to achieve something...it seems simple I know, but consider what this mean for companies?

It means if you're going to start a corporate blog, start by asking this question...who are our readers going to be and how does having a blog help them, how does it add value to their lives and experiences with us? If you nail that then you're on a path towards success.

Research Proposal Approved

So I've finally been given the green light from Otago University which means that this blog and its twitter account are about to go wild!

Over the last few weeks I've read a hell of a lot of articles, been playing around with Linux and working on a solution for one of the Internets biggest issues, but if this wasn't enough life is about to get a whole lot more intense....interviews interviews interviews.

This coming Tuesday my first dummy interview will get underway, I'll be talking to Phil Osborne who is a prolific blog reader and a lecturer at Otago Uni. He'll be my guinea pig for my interviewing technique and research methodology.

So you can start getting excited coz by next Wednesday you can expect to be fully informed on anything important that transpires....

After that the Snowball will begin and I'll start posting regularly about the insights I gain from the people I talk to :)

A Readers Perspective on Corporate Blogs

If you've some how made your way to this blog then please know that I am just waiting on ethics approval from Otago University...then I will start diving into the world of corporate blogs, keeping you informed all the way!

FYI My research question:
Are the nine recommendations for corporate blogging identified by Cox et al (2008) a complete account of the important features that add value to a blog reader-company relationship?

Their nine (summarised) recommendations from their article "Blogs and the corporation: managing the risk, and reaping the benefits" are:

1. Using an Authentic Voice
2. Allow Comments but Monitor Them
3. Be Honest & Transparent,
4. Add Value/Offer Unique Opinions,
5. Referencing sources,
6. Welcome feedback
7. Don’t Patronise
8. Protect Confidential info
9. Use an Appropriate Disclaimer

Only time will tell whether these nine best practice recommendations hold true in the eyes of the blog reader. Buckle up coz it's guna be one hell of a ride