Links For The Week: Case Study Edition
December 15, 2008 – 2:25 pm | by Daryl TayThis week there was a bit of a big deal over Chris Brogan’s Kmart experience that I got to read about from Steven Hodson over at the Inquisitr.
On one hand we have people saying he’s a sell out and other negative things (please, why does Chris Brogan need to sell out for $500??), on the other hand Jeremiah Owyang posts a nice round up post on the whole thing.
For the record, I’m fully in support of compensating bloggers, and I think as long as it’s done with full transparency (as in the Kmart case), it should be fine.
I do however want to turn attention to two important questions that I saw in a couple of comments about the whole thing:
1) Would Chris Brogan have blogged about Kmart if he wasn’t paid? (personally, I don’t think so)
2) Did getting paid affect objectivity in any way?
I think these are the big questions that we’ve been debating over back home as well. So far I think our sponsored blog posts in Singapore are working out well, but maybe it’s because by and large we haven’t had the need for separation between out personal and professional lives.
I’ve struggled with this issue for awhile before finally starting up my personal blog (which by the way, averages better traffic than this blog) and I think if ever companies were to approach me to talk about their product that didn’t fall in the technology or social media field, it’d definitely go there.
Important takeaway from this issue? Risks and consequences don’t just extend to companies dabbling in social media and blogger outreach, but bloggers as well. It’s definitely making me think twice over ever accepting any offer outside my respective niches.
Do you see a problem with this? Does Chris Brogan the consumer blogger have less clout than Chris Brogan the social media blogger?
Tags: case studies, chris brogan, consumer, daddy blog, kmart, social media
2 Responses to “Links For The Week: Case Study Edition”
By Ben Kunz on Dec 17, 2008 | Reply
Nice response, and I like the two questions your raise: Would it be a topic if not paid? Does it affect credibility?
I think the third question is: do paid posts diminish a writer’s longterm voice? Imagine a writer who goes down the pay-per-post path with scores of paid promotions. Hmm.
Bloggers write opinions; payment for a post creates an undeniable view that an opinion has been purchased. (If not, what is the motive of the advertisers who pay?) If I dedicate 500 words to a Sears shopping spree for $500 in payment, I am artificially elevating a topic to my readers and creating the perception that I think highly of it, simply by giving it space and time.
And that is the heart of the complaint: paid posts misrepresent the opinion of the writer, even if disclosed, by elevating a topic into an opinion forum where it would never otherwise belong.
Writers are free to take that path. They should think longterm about the results on their voices.
By Daryl Tay on Dec 20, 2008 | Reply
@Ben Kunz: Thanks for the comment! Good point about point three too. It would certainly suggest to me that that blogger would write anything for anyone for a quick buck. (or 500 bucks).
The flip side to that point about elevating a topic would be writing about topics that would belong due to passion, but leads to nothing for the blogger. Perhaps there needs to be a middle ground somewhere?