Marketing Roadmaps

Archives for 2009

the one about badges and integrity

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Eventually, I will share my thoughts on BlogHer ’09 and report on a terrific breakfast meeting I had during BlogHer with Beth Smits and Erin Bix of Best Buy to learn more about Best Buy’s Women’s Leadership Forum (WOLF).

Today, though I want to talk a little bit more about badges and integrity. As I’ve written before, you don’t need a badge to blog with integrity, and if you don’t have integrity, slapping a badge up on your blog isn’t going to magically give it to you.  Integrity is a deeply personal thing, and in the context of blogging, a matter between a writer and her readers.

Blog with Integrity, the initiative I co-created with fellow bloggers Liz Gumbinner, Kristen Chase and Julie Marsh, is simply a public statement about how we intend to behave as bloggers.  It’s not prescriptive nor does it attempt to classify blogs by content or policies. It’s a simple code of conduct based on fairly universal principles – respect for others, responsibility for one’s words and deeds, and disclosure of our interests. If bloggers want to display their support of these principles, they can sign the pledge and/or display a badge.

Just as some folks like to display their support for causes and political candidates by wearing buttons and putting bumper stickers on their cars and others do not, some bloggers like badges and others do not. All we can say for certain is that the person wearing the button or the blog displaying the badge supports the cause. It is incorrect to conclude that the absence of same indicates lack of support. Or in the case of Blog with Integrity, a lack of integrity.

Some people don’t like badges. Don’t read more into it.

Is the badge a nice cue about the blog and the blogger? Sure, but it’s not enough, and we never intended it to be viewed as such.

Make your judgment about a blog based on everything presented to you as a reader, not just on whether it displays a badge, and please don’t assume that a blog without the Blog with Integrity badge is somehow “less” than a blog with it.

Such an assumption is in direct conflict with a core principle of Blog with Integrity: there is no one right way to blog.

That includes our own.

Integrity: What it means, why it’s important

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Integrity: the quality of being honest, fair and good

(Oxford English Dictionary)

Nearly two weeks ago, we launched Blog with Integrity. Reception  was overwhelmingly positive. At last check nearly 750 bloggers had taken the pledge.

Bloggers from all spheres agreeing that it is time to reaffirm our commitment to blog with integrity.

The most common critical comment was that bloggers don’t need a badge to blog with integrity.

Which is absolutely true. You don’t need a badge to blog with integrity, and if you don’t have it, no badge on your blog is going to give it to you. What the pledge and the badge do, however, is give us a way to collectively reaffirm our commitment to blog with integrity.

We need to do this now more than ever in the short but eventful history of blogging and online communities.

Not sure yet? Think it doesn’t apply to you because you don’t get swag or product pitches?

Consider this example.

Early last week, a company called The Speaker’s Group issued its top 10 Social Media Speakers list. To a resounding HUH? in the social media community. No women on the list, as pointed out on Twitter by Allyson Kapin, @womanwhotech, and only a few on the list had a significant profile in the social media community, discussed in a post by Geoff Livingston.

On closer look, it seemed pretty obvious that the post was bald-faced promotion for speakers repped by the company without clear disclosure of the relationship. “Our” top ten. Making the list nothing more than promotion. Not illegal, but a bit dodgy.

Subsequently, in the comments to their post, the company did acknowledge the relationships with the various speakers, changed the title of the post to “Ten to Know” and committed to adding women to its roster. In other words, they ‘fessed up, sort of, and promised to do better next time.

But really, shouldn’t they have been more transparent about their relationships from the get-go? Speaking only for myself, I would have more confidence in the company if they had acted with integrity from the start.

Examples like this happen every day, across the blogosphere.

Blog with Integrity is more than a description OF your blog. It is a pledge TO yourself.

To take responsibility for your words. To respect others. To disclose your material relationships. To be honest, with yourself and your readers.

It’s what most bloggers do already. The pledge and the badge are just the tangible symbols that we are part of a community with shared values.

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While we were in part motivated by recent events in the parent blogging community, it has always been clear to us that integrity is an issue for all blogging communities, not just the one currently being singled out in the media for a bizarre combination of damnation and faint praise.

We are glad so many of you agree and grateful for the support. We have some ideas on where we’d like to take the initiative next, but welcome your ideas. If you have suggestions, please email blogwithintegrity@gmail.com, or contact any one of the co-founders — Liz Gumbinner, Kristen Chase, Julie Marsh and me.

Blogola and boycotts and burnout, oh my: Announcing the Blog with Integrity pledge

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BlogWithIntegrity.comIn last week’s post about Facebook fan pages for PR agencies and the Mom Dot PR blackout, I reiterated my strong opinion that the issue isn’t reviews or compensation. It isn’t even burnout or poor blogger outreach, although goodness knows we could stand more than a little improvement on that score.

The real issue facing the blogging community is integrity.

In her excellent post on the blackout at BlogHer, Liz Gumbinner also wrote about the importance of integrity. This didn’t come as a total surprise.

Over the past few months of sturm und drang over FTC guidelines, pay per post and blogola,  four of us — Liz, fellow bloggers and colleagues Kristen Chase and Julie Marsh, and I  — have had an ongoing conversation about the underlying issues of integrity, responsibility and disclosure.

The direct result of that conversation is the Blog with Integrity pledge we are announcing today.

Blog with Integrity was created to provide bloggers with a tangible and collective way to express our commitment to a simple code of blogging conduct. It recognizes that there’s no single right way to blog and more than enough room in the world for different approaches.

What matters is the relationship with our readers. Meeting our commitment to them and to our community. Clear disclosure of our interests so they can evaluate our words. Treating others with respect. Taking responsibility for our words and actions.

We hope you will join us. There’s no cost or complicated application process. Just take the pledge and display the badge.

Read the full pledge on the website, blogwithintegrity.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @BlogIntegrity and on Facebook.

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Oh, by the way, not a parent or personal blogger? Don’t kid yourself, integrity is not just a parent blogging issue. The ethical lapse displayed by TechCrunch when it published the stolen Twitter documents pretty much trumps any pay per post blogger who neglects to disclose.

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Credits: Blog with Integrity logo, badges and website designed by Christine Koh, Posh Peacock. Database code for the Pledge page by David Herrington, Active Oak. We could not have made this happen without their contributions.

The one about BlogHer

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Except I’m not going to dwell on the social side of the conference. Others have already done a brilliant job with this topic, including:

My personal plan for navigating the social side of BlogHer is simple: have no expectations, enjoy the moment, smile and try to listen more than I speak.

And sunscreen.

No, my post is about the BlogHer Conference. You remember — that thing sandwiched in between the parties and swag bags and bowling and private events and makeovers and such?

BlogHer is a damn brilliant blogging conference.

Here are some of the sessions I am looking forward to.

Friday at 1:15 – Brands and Bloggers. It’s a great panel, and Jory DesJardins is always an excellent moderator. Plus, FTC regulations,  boycotts, lions, tigers and bears. Oh my!

Friday at 2:45 – Blog to Book. What can I say. I will finish this book someday.

Friday at 4:45 – Community Keynote. It was the best session last year. Full stop.

Saturday at 10:45 – Travel Bloggers as Boundary Breaking Evangelists. I’ve just started a family travel blog and will also be attending the Travel Blog Exchange meeting on Sunday.

Saturday at 1:30 – Women Writing In The Age Of Britney: Pop Culture & Gossip & Feministy Stuff, Oh My. The ladies of MamaPop.

And of course in the cleanup slot of Saturday at 3:00 pm, we have the panel I am moderating, Enough About You…Who’s Reading You? so I am definitely planning to show up for that one.

My fellow panelists are Laura Roeder, Twanna Hines and Ree Drummond, and we’ll be talking with you about the relationship of a blogger with her readers. Do our readers impact how we blog or what we say, or not? Does the author have a responsibility to her readers?

We’re on opposite the Room of Your Own, Dying is Easy, ROTFLMAO Comedy is Hard: It’s two, two, two comedy panels in one! with, among others, Deb on the Rocks and the Bloggess, but I’m still hoping a few of you will show up to talk with us.

Take the time to make your own list of sessions that matter to you. Don’t feel that you have to go to every single session, but do yourself a big favor: don’t miss the conference while you are at the conference.

File it under crazy S*&^: Fan Pages for PR Firms! Mom Blogs’ PR Boycott?

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Should public relations firms have Facebook Fan Pages? What’s the point really?  Do PR firms really have fans, and if they do, should they? Isn’t PR about promoting the client’s interests?

That’s the gist of a conversation thread on Twitter over the past few days. Good friend Geoff Livingston (@GeoffLiving) thinks it is silly for PR firms to have Facebook Fan Pages, in part I imagine (and I don’t want to put words in his mouth, this is my impression of his comments) because it smacks too much of “personal branding,” a concept we both loathe.

I agree, and yet I don’t. Or more accurately, I don’t mind that PR firms are setting up Facebook Fan Pages, as long as they don’t go overboard and start spamming my Facebook Wall with self-serving promotional bullshit.

Facebook Fan Pages are becoming a useful element for a company’s marketing plan, and agencies/consultants need to gain experience with the form. Even if they have clients with Pages, they still need a place to experiment. Client sites are generally not good places for messing around with beta stuff.

So, I’m okay with PR agency fan pages. Happy to “fan” you if asked. As long as you don’t take yourself too seriously and think I want your autograph or something. Because, seriously, I don’t even ask real famous people for autographs.

Fame. Fans. One more brief point about the term fan before I move on to the ridiculous idea of mom blogs “boycotting PR.”

I like the term Fan Page. Not simply because the number of fans shows how popular a brand or company is. I like it because it highlights how the brand should be thinking of its customers. Not simply as consumers. Fans are engaged consumers. They don’t just buy a product, they love the product.

And the brand should love them back. Not take them for granted. Add value beyond the simple transaction. That’s what a Fan Page should be about.

Most are not, or at least I hope, not yet.

Facebook has more than 200 million users.

The brands that get it? That understand that the Fan Page isn’t just a billboard for product announcements? That truly make the effort to engage with the customers?

They are going to have lots and lots of fans.

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“But he hasn’t got anything on,” a little child said.

– Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes

Today, mom blog site Mom Dot proposed that mom blogs should boycott PR and marketing offers for a week in August. The rationale has something to do with marketing firms taking advantage of mom bloggers by sending them free products. I think. Or maybe it was that mom bloggers are burnt out from the burden of doing product reviews. Something like that. I think.

Seriously, I am not trying to be mean. I really cannot figure out the reason for the boycott.  If product reviews are too much work, don’t do them. Or do fewer. If you aren’t getting joy from something, stop. If the value isn’t there, don’t do it.

But a PR boycott? As CNET pointed out, this misses the point by more than a country mile.

The FTC is reviewing its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials. Without a doubt, blogs (and other new media) will be included.

This has caused a great deal of buzz around the issue of free products and other blogger compensation, particularly in the parent blogosphere. Latest media outlets, and by no means the last, to cover the story: ABC and the New York Times.

The issue isn’t the reviews. Or the free products. The issue is disclosure.

It’s about ethics. And integrity.

If you are a blogger, it’s about disclosing your relationships with companies that have provided you with free products or compensation so your readers can properly evaluate your recommendations.

If you are a company representative, it’s about reaching out to bloggers with respect. If you are hiring someone to write a document for you, you can read it before publication. Sending a product for review? Absolutely not. Don’t even ask. If you do, you are either scum or a nØØb.

So, I have another suggestion. Instead of polarizing boycotts, teeth gnashing and wailing, let’s all pledge to Blog with Integrity.

All this really requires is that you publish a clear review and ethics policy on your blog. It doesn’t matter what the policy is — your readers will decide that issue. What matters is that you clearly disclose.

This will help you, marketers who want to reach out appropriately and your readers. And, I’m guessing, the FTC will like it too.

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In other news, Michael Jackson is still dead.